720 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



rapid improver. It improves by promot- 

 ing a larger and more luxuriant growth of 

 clover. 



The introduction of guano, however, 

 has given rise to a system of farming, 

 which deserves the reprobation of every 

 intelligent and dutiful son of Mother 

 Earth. This is the practice of cultivating 

 the same land in wheat, or oats, every 

 year, guano being relied on as a fertilizer. 

 The soil is thus soon exhausted of its 

 proper proportion of vegetable mould, or 

 humus, on which its productive capacity 

 mainly depends ; and sterility must even- 

 tually ensue. And, verily, the last state 

 of such land is worse than the first. I 

 can point to fields that have been cultivat- 

 ed in this way. From once being rich, 

 they do now show unmistakable signs of 

 deterioration. They produced well for 

 the first two years — then there was a grad- 

 ual declension, and the crop of the pres- 

 ent year was almost a total failure ! No 

 soil can retain its fertility long, if it is 

 subjected to a system of cultivation that 

 exhausts it of its proper supply of either 

 mineral or vegetable matter. The one will 

 not take the place of the other. Viewed, 

 then, in this aspect, I unhesitatingly give 

 a most decided negative to the question 

 under consideration. 



In conclusion, we would ask attention 

 to the following question : Was not the 

 failure in the wheat crop this year most 

 signal on land deficient in vegetable mould, 

 or that have been in wheat and guano 

 several years in succession ? To this 

 question my own observations would give 

 a negative answer. The question is con- 

 sidered important in its bearing on the 

 use of guano, and it is hoped that it will 

 elicit answers of such a kind as to justify 

 the establishment of a general principle. 

 Very respectfully, 



JOHN H. WINSTON. 



For the Planter. 



Sorghum Molasses. 



Sylvan Villa, Oct. 19th, 1858. 



To Ed. Southern Planter : 



Dear Sir. — Having experimented to some 

 extent this fall with the Chinese Sugar 

 Cane, I feel disposed to give some account 

 thereof to my brother farmers, through 

 your excellent journal, hoping thereby, if 



not to impart, at best to gain information, 

 by drawing out others upon the subject. 



Last spring I planted some five or six 

 acres of rich alluvial land in Sorghum, ex- 

 pecting to feed it to stock: but this fall, 

 believing I could contrive an apparatus 

 for crushing it, more effectual than the 

 common apple-mill fixtures used, I had a 

 machine built on the old cotton-gin prin- 

 ciple, at a cost of some ten or twelve dol- 

 lars, which acted so admirably, that I have 

 gone on to make several hundred gallons of 

 the richest, finest syrup lever tasted. If 

 you or any of your readers doubt it, come 

 up and taste for yourselves, — and if Dame 

 Nature has developed in you the gusto 

 sense, and connected it with a good judg- 

 ment, I fear not your verdict. 



I am convinced that, properly manag- 

 ed, Sorghum may be made one of our 

 most profitable erops. 



Corn, you know, in the hands of the 

 aborigines, and our forefathers, was com- 

 paratively valueless for bread, when the 

 meal had to be grated on a tin, or pounded 

 in a mortar. Wheat was reluctantly adopt- 

 ed as a staple when it had to be trod out 

 with horses, and wagoned several hundred 

 miles to market. So I fear Sorghum has 

 been decried when it has had to be crush- 

 ed and le-crushed through an old apple- 

 mill, and then taken to a tobacco prize or 

 cidar press to get its stores of sweet 

 chings ready for the kettle, and indeed I 

 am inclined to believe that it has been too 

 often taken before its time, while yet in 

 an immature state, — the result of which 

 has been the production of an imperfect, 

 ill-flavoured syrup. Nearly all in this re- 

 gion had finished making up their cane be- 

 fore I commenced ; and though I have 

 been making about three weeks, I find the 

 ripest cane produces the richest, clearest 

 and best flavoured syrup. It, however, 

 does no yield quite as much. 



I find on an average about six gallons 

 of the juice will make one of syrup, of 

 proper keeping consistence. 



After the cane is cut and stripped of 

 its fodder, two hands can crush and boil 

 dow 7 n about twenty-five or thirty gallons 

 of molasses per day. A sixty gallon ket- 

 tle, fixed in a brick furnace, will boil 

 down in about twelve or fourteen hours, 

 and yield about ten gallons ; and it is near- 

 ly as easy to attend to three or four ket- 

 tles as to one. I prefer greatly cast ket- 



