1866.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
317 
eral claim the favor of the public, enable a com- 
mou hand with a modicuin of good judgment 
to produce clear well-flavored syrups in most 
cases, which sell as high as, or higher, than 
good W. I. molasses, and answer all the pur- 
poses for which that is used in our kitchen econ- 
om)'. The prospects now are, if the weather 
continues favorable, that the yield of syrup this 
j'ear will be vastly greater than ever before. 
Within a year or two the discovery has been 
announced, and to a good degree confirmed, that 
the earlier the cane is cut, tlie more sugar is ob- 
tained in a cr3-stallizable form. We have al- 
ways held that the quantity and quality of the 
sugar separated from sorghum syrup was such, 
that it was much better not to aim at its pro- 
duction, but rather to produce syrup. What we 
have seen, with the e.\ception of a few samples, 
was gummy, lacking in sweetness, and not as 
thoroughly crj'stallized as good sugar sliould be. 
However, if it be a fact that cane cut and 
worked early will yield a paying percentage of 
good sugar, it may greatly alter both the pro- 
duct and the profits. It must be remembered 
that green cane abounds in feculent matters. 
In liarvesting the sorghum, it is primarily ne- 
cessary to cut it before hard frosts and to have 
it housed or protected from them. It is imma- 
terial probably whether the topping and strip- 
ping be done at once, or later, and practice dif- 
fers. The stripping is conveniently done by 
the hands, which must be protected with leath- 
ern mittens, or what is better, square pieces 
of kip skin, to cover the palms, in which a 
fold may be sewed for the thumb to go in, and 
if necessary a strap may be sewed upon the 
back to go over the two middle fingers. As the 
cane stands, it is stripped from top to bottom at 
one motion, the leaves being laid between 
the rows. After this is done, upon as much 
ground as it will take several hours to cut, the 
stalks are cut at the ground, and laid between 
the rows in gavels, resting upon the leaves to 
keep them out of the dirt. The tops, with 
about three feet of stalk, are cut at the same 
time, so that the gavels of cane may be bound 
at once. The bundles should be of a size conve- 
nient to handle, and bound with two bands, 
which may be made of the leaves if not too 
drj'. The tops are also bound in sheaves to be 
cured and fed out in the bundle or threshed. 
The leaves make very good dry fodder, being 
considered superior to corn fodder, of wliich, 
however, we have some doubt, for we value 
corn fodder very highly. These operations are 
laborious and tedious, so much so that at the 
West, where the relative value of labor is high, 
some farmers do not strip, but pass both stalks 
and leaves through the mill, even at a loss of 
considerable juice in the more bulky bagasse. 
The cane is best when the bundles are at once 
removed to the shelter of a roof of some kind ; 
but when this is not practicable it should be 
piled up like cord-wood, and covered by a course 
of boards laid edge to edge and battened, or 
laid to break joints thus — =^^_=E , or in 
some other way, protected from the weather 
and from freezing. It may be worked any 
time before hard freezing weather. 
The time to cut the cane is said to be when 
the seed begins to turn brown, that is, when it 
is in the milk. At this time certain changes 
are going on in the stalk, wliich are not perfect- 
ly well understood ; this much, however, is cer- 
tain, that some cane sugar exists there together 
with a considerable portion of grape sugar, that 
the former is converted into the latter in the 
process of ripenmg, and that as the ripening pro- 
gresses, a considerable portion of the grape 
sugar is converted into starch and wood}' fibre. 
It is probable also, that at an early stage much 
fruit sugar exists in the sorghum. This differs 
from grape sugar in being much sweeter and 
never assuming the crystalline form. Cane 
sugar crystallizes very readily, as we all know, 
for.this is the common sugar, brown and white, 
which we use, derived from the Southern cane, 
from the maple, from the beet, etc. Grape sugar 
is much less sweet, 5 parts sweetening only as 
well as 3 parts of cane sugar, or of fruit sugar, 
which is as sweet as cane sugar. Honey con- 
tains both grape and fruit sugar. That portion 
which solidifies when honey becomes candied, 
is grape sugar. When grape sugar crystallizes, 
it usually forms fine needle-like crystals, group- 
ed in such close masses that no crystals can be 
seen. It attracts moisture from the air, and be- 
comes a pasty mass. Most of the sorghum sugar 
we have examined is a mixture of cane sugar 
crystals which are very distinctly seen, together 
with the gummy mass of grape sugar, and more 
or less molasses. When cane sugar is subjected 
to the action of a ferment or -any acid, it changes 
rapidly into an uncrystallizablo sugar, which in 
its acid and more or less impure state we know as 
molassess, and which is very similar if not iden- 
tical with fruit sugar. The juice of the sorghum 
contains more or less acid, a green substance 
which promotes fermentation, also an albumin- 
ous substance which is a very active ferment in 
its natural state, and which, on being changed 
b_y boiling if any be left in the s)-rup, gives it a 
disagreeable flavor. 
It is important that the canes be bundled and 
kept so that they will not be bruised, whereby 
air would come in contact with tlie juice and 
corrupt it. They should be thoroughly ground 
as it is called, that is, passed between rollers, so 
as to express all the juice possible at one opera- 
tion. The juice should be exposed in the least 
possible degree to the air, and if delay is un- 
avoidable, a very small quantity (1 or 3 pints to 
100 gallons) of bi-sulphite of lime should be ad- 
ded, the operation of which is to arrest any in- 
cipient fermentation. The juice should be boil- 
ed down in flat pans as rapidlj' as is consistent 
with thorough skimmmg. If it is verj' acid, milk 
of lime is added, using seldom more than a pint 
to 30 gallons. Towards the latter part of the 
operation, the syrup should not boil, for the albu- 
minous gummy substance will rise like cream 
upon the still surface, and may be removed. If 
the boiling continues rapid, it will not rise, but 
remain floating in minute particles through the 
syrup. The syrup is evaporated until it has, 
on cooling, the thickness of molasses. 
There are several excellent evaporators of 
well-established reputation, with which, as we 
have said, any one of common sense can make 
good syrup, and if the juice contains cane sugar, 
this may also be obtained. To this end the 
syrup is evaporated considerably more than the 
consistency named, namely, to 38° or 40° of 
Beaumes Sacharometer, while 3.5'^ to 30° is a 
sufficient density for syrup. On cooling and 
stirring, the sugar forms, and may be separated 
in a crude state by draiuiug off the molasses. 
« I ■■»■ — »-• 
Thin Odt and Hoe the Tdknits. — Suc- 
cess with any root crop depends upon keeping 
down the weeds and keeping the ground open 
and mellow. We charge our readers to re- 
member that a tm'nip plant within two, or 
three, or six inches of another, is just as much 
a weed as a mullein or ragweed. It is no place 
for any plant, where it will interfere with the 
full development of a more valuable one. Tur- 
nips never ought to stand nearer than eight 
inches apart, ten or twelve on an average in 
field culture is about right. Those which being 
crowded are checked in their growth do not 
yield nearly so much per acre, and they are 
stronger in flavor, and more pithy in texture, 
«-■ -m»^ I » 
Northern Men for the South. i 
It is true that the South is now open to 
Northern capital and labor, and that there are 
very good opportunities oflered for Northern 
men with little capital, to do very well for them- 
selves and their families, in many parts of the 
Southern States. A good many men are going 
thither, who are stead}', industrious, good men ; 
some men who have been unlucky and have not 
succeeded exactly at the North, eitlier from bad 
judgment or sloth ; a few others, restless spirits, 
go because they think there is a chance to specu- 
late and get money by not working hard for it. 
No one goes expecting to take a similar position 
to that which he has at home — he aims at some- 
thing better. Our Southern correspondents who 
write us enquiring about the chances of getting 
Northern men to come to take charge of their 
farms and plantations, and to do the labor upon 
them — to manage their dairies — and do all sorts 
of things, seem to realize only that Northern 
folks are not afraid to work, and that they will 
do any kind of honorable labor if they are well 
paid for it. This is true, but it is also true 
that intelligent men, such as they want and 
would be satisfied with, are a good deal more 
intelligent and smarUi; to use a common 
expression, than many, if not most of the men 
and women who want to hire them. They may 
not all be able to write as good a letter, though 
many of them will belter. They would not 
appear as well in an evening party, perhaps, 
but for the real business of life are their equals. 
These men and their families go South expect- 
ing to become land owners, to take positions in 
society equal to anybody — to carry their princi- 
ples with them, whether they are Democrats, 
Republicans or Radicals, to sell their labor, their 
knowledge, their abilities to whoever they make 
agreement with; but to be bound to nobody, 
except, for mutual advantage, they be mutually 
bound. If Southern landowners want such 
men they may advertise for them, or secure 
them in any way, and if they will give them a 
feir chance, no doubt they will gain the services 
of good farmers, dairy folks, etc., and good, 
moral, substantial, freedom-loving citizens. 
Some such chances are afforded. There are, 
besides, fine lands in Virginia, Tennessee, Mis- 
souri and Arkansas, and indeed in every other 
Southern State, offered for sale cheap ; and if 
Northern men would associate themselves and 
purchase farms in the same districts, so that they 
would be a moral and, if necessary, a physical 
support to one another, there appears to be for 
single men, or families desirous of emigrating, 
no more favorable prospects anywhere else. 
Any class of men who are kind to the negroes, 
get them to labor for them freely ; but those 
planters who attempt to control the labor of 
the plantation in the old way, find no end of 
difficulties. Among this class newly arrived 
immigrants will and do find profitable employ- 
ment ; and, as at the West, habits of frugality 
and industry will soon be rewarded by compe- 
tence, and the immigrant will surround himself 
quicker than he could in New England with 
land and home of his own. It must not be for- 
gotten that the difference between these two 
