303 
AMERICAN AGRIC U LT URIST. 
[October, 
grass, it very soon relapses into sorrel. It also 
comes in extraordinary quantities upon reclaim- 
ed swamp land imperfectly drained. 
Now the remedy I have to propose for sor- 
rel, is an old fashioned one, and requires money 
and labor. Apply manure either as a top 
dressing or for hoed crops. Every farmer must 
have observed that sorrel is not troublesome 
upon a rich, newly seeded meadow. The clover 
overshadows it, if it undertakes to grow, and 
the herds-grass and other grasses obscure it for 
several years. The sorrel is only a gentle hint 
from nature, that the last grist of manure put 
into her hopper is ground out, and needs to be 
resupplied. You can have fodder only as you 
keep the hopper full. If the soil is wet, there 
is no effectual remedy but in drainage. In up- 
land meadows the manure will last several 
years. When the sorrel reappears, apply ma- 
nure, and if the grass is feeble, sow grass seed 
at the same time. Connecticut. 
Tim Bunker on Starting a Sugar Mill. 
■ 
" Who'd have thought of ever seeing a sugar 
mill in Hookertown !" exclaimed Seth Tvstfggs 
as he looked at that new institution just put up 
on the Shadtown road. 
"And such lots of sorghum too," said Dea- 
con Smith. " Almost every farmer has a patch." 
" The age of meracles ain't past yet," said 
Tucker in a meditative mood. 
" I wonder if there '11 be any rum made of 
the leavings," inquired Jones expectantly, re- 
calling his experience on a sugar plantation. 
" Not a bit of it," said Seth, with a t winkle in 
his eye and an extra puff at his pipe. " Suckers 
will go dry in these parts." 
Ten years ago, I should as soon have thought 
of seeing an elephant in my barn yard, as of 
seeing a sugar mill in Hookertown. In the first 
place there was nothing to make sugar of, ex- 
cept a few maple trees, and they did not require 
a mill. And then there was not enterprise 
enough to start a new project of that magni- 
tude. We, most of us, believe in foreordination 
and had not put down sugar making as among 
the things that were destined for Hookertown. 
We expected always to get our sweetening by 
barter, just as our fathers and mothers did be- 
fore us — a pound of cheese for a pound of sugar, 
and brown sugar at that. We expected too to 
cat a slave-grown article because we could not 
get any other. But they say they are getting 
off the notion of forced labor on the sugar plan- 
tations, in Louisiana, and I suppose when the 
Fates got to making a change, they thought 
they might as well make a change all around, 
and have free sugar North and South. At any 
rate it is a settled fact, that we have a sugar 
mill, where they are going to make molasses 
this Fall, and where they may make sugar by 
and by. I suppose half the farmers in town 
won't pay a dollar, for sweetening next year, and 
some will have a few barrels of syrup to sell. 
The world moves, notwithstanding the war, 
and I am not sure but the war has given a good 
many enterprises a new hoist. You see it has 
made sugar and molasses dear, and that has 
set Yankee wit at work to get these things out 
of our own soil. In raising sugar at the North, 
it makes a great deal of difference whether that 
article is eight cents or sixteen cents a pound. 
We have been getting ready for this business 
some years. The seed sent out from the Agri- 
culturist office, introduced the plant, and taught 
us that we could grow it as well as corn. Jake 
Friuk could see that it looked like broom 
corn, and was no humbug. It would pay to 
raise it for fodder for cattle, and hogs ale it 
greedily, and would thrive upon it wonderfully 
well. There was no chance to lose much. 
Some made syrup from it, the first year, and 
put it up in bottles, and exhibited it at the 
comity fair. It looked like syrup, tasted like it, 
and went well on buckwheat cakes. But we 
had no mill to grind the cane, and no conve- 
niences for boiling down the juice, and that was 
the great objection to going into the business. 
Last Winter we talked the matter up in the 
Farmers' club. Men in whose judgment we had 
confidence, said the thing would pay. Mr. 
Spooner, who is ready for every good word and 
work, said there was no good reason why we 
should not make our own sweetening, at home ; 
that the fanners in the town paid out twenty 
thousand dollars every year for this article, and 
the3 r might just as well keep that amount in 
their own pockets. Deacon Smith read ex- 
tracts from the agricultural papers, showing 
what they were doing out West, raising two 
ami three hundred gallons of syrup to the acre, 
and clearing over a hundred dollars above work- 
ing expenses. He said the crop last year was 
worth several millions of dollars, and that the 
business was increasing rapidly wherever they 
had learned to make the syrup. 
Seth Twiggs said they had started a mill at 
Smithtown, and it worked well. He brought 
along several bottles of the syrup made at the 
mill, and to convince the skeptical, sent it around 
for trial. It was found that it made good ginger- 
bread, it sweetened coffee, and filled the place 
of molasses completely. After a fair trial, and 
several weeks talking, in which every man made 
sure that the syrup would not bite, we got the 
club up to the question — " Shall Hookertown 
have a sugar mill ?" This was the name the 
thing seemed to take of itself, though I suppose 
they will make nothing but syrup at present. 
It was agreed that the syrup was the thing we 
all wanted, and we were all ready to go into it 
if the thing could he made to pay. Two men 
agreed to build the mill, and put into it every 
thing necessary to grind the cane and boil the 
syrup, if they could have cane enough to make 
it an object. They wanted three hundred acres 
pledged. This, with what they raised themselves, 
they thought would make it a safe enterprise. 
To get the cane pledged in a community of 
small farmers, many of them not having more 
than ten acres under the plow, was a good deal 
of an undertaking. It was agreed to appoint 
a committee for each school district, to see how 
much could be raised. There were fifteen dis- 
tricts in the town, and it would take about 
twenty acres to each district. Mr. Spooner 
took the matter in hand in his district, and 
worked as hard as any of us. Some subscribed 
two acres, and some a half acre. We raised 
about three quarters of the pledges here, and 
for the rest we had to go to Shadtown. 
The results of the Winter's work are, that we 
have a wonderful increase of sorghum in all 
this region. A patch may be found on all the 
best farms and on some of the poor ones, and 
even in the gardens of the mechanics. A 
quarter of an acre of sorghum will make a bar- 
rel of syrup, if it does only moderately well. 
AVe shall not have syrup enough to supply the 
town, perhaps, but we shall give the business 
a good start, and wake up the sleepers. I should 
not think it strange if we became exporters of 
syrup in a few years, and Connecticut syrup 
may yet stand as high in the market, as Con- 
necticut River shad. The mill is all up, and the 
machinery in, and they will be ready to grind 
as soon as the cane is fit. I do not see any 
reason why New England should not raise its 
own molasses. We have plenty of unoccupied 
land, and capital to invest in the crop, and in 
mills to manufacture it. All that is needed, is a 
few individuals in each town to talk the matter 
up, and show how it can be done. There must 
be concert of action, and then the whole busi- 
ness will go easy. The sorghum is coming into 
favor much more rapidly than the potato did, 
and it would not be strange if it wrought as 
great changes in our husbandry. 
Hovkcrtovm, t Yours to command. 
Sept. Will, 1803. ( Timothy Bunker Esq. 
Gift Enterprises and Other Humbugs. 
We had supposed that the " Gift Enterprise " 
business was about " played out " in this coun- 
try, since the frequent and thorough exposures 
of the knavish character of the business, which 
have from time to time appeared in the Agricul- 
turist, and various other journals. Occasionally 
however, we receive a circular indicating that 
there are yet parties ready to be duped by gol- 
den promises, and rogues prepared to take ad- 
vantage of their ignorance. One of these pro- 
grammes is now before us. It dates from a 
" National Art Gallery," and proposes to sell 
"Twelve Magnificent Steel Plate Engravings," 
at the low price of One Dollar each, and to fur- 
nish with each engraving a valuable gift, valued 
at from 50 cents to $100. In addition to all this, 
50 United States Bonds of $100 each are offered 
as additional premiums, and " as each print will 
have a limited issue of less than ten thousand 
copies, these Bonds must soon be distributed." 
In what manner the distribution is to be made, 
is not stated. As the " fools are not all dead " 
yet, we suppose some investments will be made 
by those who have not already been " bitten " 
by the same operator. 
" Honor among thieves " has long since passed 
into a proverb, but its fallacy is being continu- 
ally shown. A recently exposed swindle is in 
point. Letters marked " strictly private " were 
received by numerous parties, in which the 
writer proposed to sell them gold coins of the 
denomination of $1, at 50 cents each. They 
were warranted to be such complete imitations 
of the genuine, as to defy detection ; not even 
the banks would refuse them. None but a 
rogue, or a man of very weak honesty, would bite 
at such a bait, but the temptation proved too 
strong for many, who forwarded the dollar, and 
received their coins in return. As was promised, 
they readily passed as genuine, " even at the 
banks." Elated with their success, the dupes 
speedily sent larger amounts, from $5 to $25 for 
more coins, but they could get no replies. It 
turned out that the specimens first sent as a 
bait, were genuine coin, but the rascal appro- 
priated all additional remittances, rightly judg- 
ing that parties attempting to purchase counter- 
feit money, would be in no haste to complain of 
the swindle to the authorities. Ultimately, 
however, the matter was brought to light, and 
the ingenious operator is now in confinement 
awaiting his trial. He deserves punishment for 
holding out the temptation to the unwary, of 
making money dishonestly. The rule hereto- 
fore given needs to be often repeated, viz.: 
avoid dealing with all parties who offer to give more 
than a dollar's worth for a hundred cents. They 
can not continue to fulfill such contracts with- 
out dishonesty to some one, and the loss will 
usually fall upon those who are caught by 
splendid offers in circulars and advertisements. 
