1864. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



177 



is pressed dry or half the juice left behind. In one 

 case the water is to be evaporated from the surfac 

 of the pan, and in the other case, in the furnace, 

 the amount of heat required to vaporize the water 

 is the same in both. When the bagasse is sun 

 dried, it of course reduces the whole quantity of 

 water to be evaporated, leaving so much less to 

 be done by the fuel, but if fermented, the sugar of 

 the contained juice which is a fuel, is lost. But 

 we do not want the trouble of sun drying. We 

 want the bagasse to go directly from the mill to 

 the furnace and there perform its legitimate and 

 appropriate function of concentrating the juice 

 which it has given us, to sirup. But this is some- 

 thing like requiring the cow that gives us cream to 

 convert it into butter. To be sure it is, and why 

 not ? It is not the cow's fault that she has not 

 done this very long ago. It is our fault that we 

 have not asked her and made it possible for her to 

 do it. It is possible for the cane when pressed or 

 half pressed, to convert all the juice taken from it 

 to sirup, and this is shown by the revelation it 

 makes of the relative proportion of combustible 

 and aqueous substance w-hich it contains. It is 

 because we refuse to avail ourselves of its capacities 

 to serve us, that we are deprived of its services in 

 this respect. 



Some talk of its great f alue as a manure than 

 as fuel. All wrong. By burning it, its useful 

 properties as a manure are not lessened, for they 

 all remain in the ashes, and in a much more con- 

 venient and portable fol'm than when in tangled 

 and cumbersome bagasse heap. Something is lost 

 by the floating away of a portion of the light ashes 

 from the top of the chimney but not much, we pre- 

 sume. 



But we began this paragraph with the design of 

 saying that Mr. Jonas M. Frink, of Coral, McHenry 

 county, Illinois, has invented and patented a ba- 

 gasse furnace, and also a pair of chopping rolls, 

 attached to the mill for cutting up the bagasse. 

 The bagasse furnace is placed along side and opens 

 into the regular furnace under the pnn, the latter 

 being furnished with the ordinary door and grate 

 bars for a supply of ordinary fuel, if needed. We 

 do not know how the arrangement succeeds. Par- 

 ties desiring information can address Mr. Frink, 

 as above. ^SoRGO Jopbnal. 



F. K» Phoanix And White Willows. 



It will be remembered by our readers that on 

 page 119, current Vol. of Rural, we published a 

 letter from Mr. Ph(enix, propounding certain quer- 

 ies to Mr. Bragdon, to which replies were made 

 categorically. At the close of our reply, we ask- 

 edthe following questions: — "Will Mr. Phcemx in- 

 form the readers of the Rural in the West, whether 

 he employed men in the winter or spring of 1863, 

 to cut willows at, or near, or in the region of Peoria 

 Lake ? If so, how many men did he so employ, and 

 how long were they so employed ? And will he 

 tell us whether those were White Willows — ScUix 

 alba — or not ? If not, what did he do with those 

 willows ? — whither did he ship them ?" At last 

 we have Mr. Phcenix's reply which we give here- 

 with, omitting only that portion of his letter which 

 relates to matters already fully discussed in these 

 colums, and having no bearing whatever on the 

 subject in hand: 



REPLY OF MR. PHffiNIX. 



As to the queries propounded to us — Mr. B. is 

 welcome to the implication — we believe the first 

 of the kind ever made against us, during nearly a 

 quarter of a century in the tree-business at the 

 West, no doubt with fully our share of both friends 

 and foes. He is the only person we ever knew 

 with any such information, and he cannot deny 

 that such was our reply to him last fall, at the 

 Rockford State Hort. Society Meeting. He there 

 first named it, and though urgently requested to 

 do so lefused to give his authority. We then 

 utterly and contemptuously scouted the story, as 

 we do now, as false in every particular. We had 

 no men cutting swamp willow, and have never sold 

 a cutting but of the genuine White Willow. After 

 the emphatic contradiction then given, and his 

 seeming entire acquiescence we might be surprised 

 at this publication. As it is, we only asked him 

 to give his authority^'we have a right to ka©w the 

 name or names of parties who so informed him, or 

 does he publish the charges as of his own knowl- 

 edge ? F. K Phoenix. 



Now, in the outset, it is proper that the reader 

 should under stand that our — Mr. Bragdon's rela- 

 tions to Mr. Phoenix have always been pleasant and 

 fraternal — that asking the above questions was not 

 the result of any desire to injure him or his bus- 

 iness. And we shall be glad if his reputation for 

 business integrity conies out of this trial unsullied. 

 We confess to having writen one reply to Mr. 

 Ph(enix's former article, in rather an angvlar man- 

 ner, because it seemed evident, either that he did 

 not know what he was talking about, or that he 

 was making an effort to place us in a false position, 

 for the purpose of advertising himself and his wil- 

 lows ; and our complacency was not increased by 

 the suspicion, to say the least, that he had cut and 

 sold swamp willows, extensively, as the White 

 Willow. What the grounds for that " suspicion " 

 are we shall now gratify Mr. Phoinix by disclosing. 



Some time last August or September we were 

 informed by two prominent members of the Illinois 

 Horticultural Society, that Mr. Phoenix had em- 

 ployed, the previous spring, twenty men, more or 

 less, a number of days or weeks, (we think weeks,) 

 in the vicinity of Fure Lake, cutting and shipping 

 willows. These members professed to have received 

 their information from a railroad man over whose 

 road these willows have been shipped, — and who 

 objected to having his name used because Mr. Ph(E- 

 Nix paid the said road a heavy freight tariff. We 

 stated to the parties that if this report was true, 

 and it was true that Mr. Ph(ENIx was distributing 

 these cuttings for White Willows, it would be 

 our duty to let the public know it ; and we urged 

 that further inquiry be made so that the facts, what- 

 ever they might be, could be established. 



Meantime we met Mr. P. at Rockford, and told 

 him what we had heard, and asked him if it was 

 true. He asked, without replying, " Where is 'Pure* 

 Lake ?" We did not know, and told him so. He 

 replied, " It is a foolish and a malicious falsehood." 

 We think he asked us for the names of our inform- 

 ants, but we declined giving them, preferring to 

 investigate further. Subsequently, we learned that 

 we had misunderstood the name of the locality 

 where this work was said to have been done — that 

 instead of 'Pure,' it was Peoria Lake ; so that Mr. 



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