116 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
CHINESE SUGAR CANE SYRUP. 
In reply to “L W. P we would state tha’, at one of 
the meetings of the United States Agricultural Society, 
Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Massachusetts, is reported to 
have made some very interesting remarks, based on re- 
cent investigations which he had made by order of the 
Patent Office to investigate the amounts of saccharine 
matter in different varieties of Sorgho and of Imphee, both 
of which he had found would produce crystalized and 
crystalizable sugar. Seed and sugar cannot both be 
raised in great amounts in the same plant, If one be 
great the other must be small; one will preponderate 
at the expense of the other. We cannot have a great crop 
of seed and of sugar at the same time The unripe cane 
yields grape sugar or glucose, whilst the ripe cane gives 
crystalizable or cane sugar. It is always possible in 
Massachusetts to make syrup, but not cane sugar. But 
this syrup or glucose is better than cane sugar for alcohol, 
(in now so greatly increased request for manufacturing, 
chemical and medicinal purpose,) because cane sugar has 
to be restored to grape sugar syrup before it can yield al- 
cohol. The average crop of syrup from the Sorgho in 
Massachusetts is 300 gallons to the ucre. Mr. Hyde, of 
Newton Centre, had so produced it, and sold it at a dol- 
lar a gallon, whilst ordinary molasses only brought fifty 
cents. This is a fair test of its value in the market. Its 
value to the rich is great, but to the poor still greater. 
From it can be made their burning fluids. In reply to a 
question from a member. Dr. Jackson said that on aver- 
age good soils he considered three hogsheads of syrup 
per acre could be safely reckoned on These plants would 
certainly hybridize, as they all belong to the genus andrc- 
vogon. 
Dr. Jackson next mentioned some minute results of his 
investigation as to the best method of forming crystalized 
sugar from the syrup of the Sorgho. It is be ter, he said, 
to have an excess of lime. He also insisted on the neces- 
sity of a cold filtration before boiling, to rid the syrup of 
all impurities Afier n first boiling, he advised a second 
boiling to be followed by a second skimming, and filtra- 
tion. The boiling must be done slowly, and care taken 
not to burn the syrup, or it will not crystalize into sugar. 
He also enlarged on the advantages of making sugar in 
vacuo, which enables the whole mass of syrup to crystal- 
ize. 
S^“Hon. A. H. Stevens, of Georgia ; Hon. J. H. Ham 
MONO, of South Carolina; Commissioner Hoi/r and D J. 
Browne, E q , of the Patent Office, will accept our thanks 
for valuable public documents, seeds, grape cuttings, &c. 
All subscriptions to the Southern Cultivator com- 
mences with the January number. 
Caution ! — The fine stallion. Black Morgan, owned by 
Mr. A. C. Stowell, of Petersham, Mass., died on the 2nd 
ult. The horse was unwell and his Ovvner intended to 
dose him with linseed oil, but thiough some mistake of 
the clerk in the store where the purchase was made, the 
horse got a bottle full of either resin oil or spirits of tur- 
pentine. The animal died in great agony in about seven 
iBiticuUata! Itpattmtnt. 
GEORGIA WINES IN CINCINNATI. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I have just sold the 
first Georgia Wine sent to Cincinnati. It was of the vint- 
age of 1857 — seven hundred gallons. The price obtained 
(Sl.15) will nett the owner about $1 05 at his vineyard; 
a price with which our wine growers here are generally 
satisfied. Sometimes a very fine wine is sold at Si. 50, 
but the average price is SU 
I had some of our best judges to examine it, and they 
pronounced the quality excellent — “more body and less 
accidity than our Ohio wines.” 
One of our most extensive wine planters observed, “those 
gentlemen can scarcely be aware of their advantages in 
soil and climate, but, sooner or later, they will find it 
out.” 
It is pleasant to observe the cultivation of the vine ex- 
tending all over the country, wherever the climate is 
favorable to its growth. It adds another branch to our 
agricultural resources, and will, in the end, make us a 
more temperate people. It is, also, highly gratifying to 
notice the public spirit and liberality with which some of 
your cit-zens of Georgia enter into this cultivation. As an 
an example, I give the following extract of a letter, recent- 
ly received from a gentleman of wealth and judicial emi- 
nence in your State. I am not at liberty to use his name, 
but his motives are alike honorable to his head and his 
heart: 
“Our wine made in Georgia is better than some made 
in Ohio. It is all of 5 per cent, stronger, and will yield 
as I doubt not, an average of 1 ,000 gallons to the acre, 
and often over 2,000 gallons. This I scarcely expect you 
to believe. 
“And yet I do not go into it for money. I have, I be- 
lieve, a higher motive: first, sobriety, but mainly to show 
poor families how to suppoit themselves comfortably off a 
small piece of land ; and to do this, I must make money, 
for if I fail to do so, I shall then fail of my true object. If 
I succeed, I have not the time left me to profit much for 
myself; but can, I hope, leave a benefit to others.” 
The sale of Grape Roots and Cuttings to the South- 
West has, this season, been very large, and is the best 
evidence of the increase of wine planting. 
R. Blchanan. 
Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 24, 1859. 
GRAPES — PEACHES— HYBRIDIZING, <fec. 
A medical friend, of South Carolina, writes us on this 
subject : 
“ Could you not impregnate some of the thin skinned 
foreign Grapes, such as Black Hamburg or Golden Chas- 
selas, with the Warren, or vice versa? From pretty ex- 
tensive experiments in hybridizing Sea Island Cotton, 
Corn, Peaches and Nectarines, 1 think the foregoing about 
equally as liable to follow or partake of the qualities cf 
one parent as the other; with this exception : that a per- 
manent or pure variety rules. In crossing the Peach and 
Nectarine, I have always produced a peach, with one ex- 
ception, and in this case I produced a nectarine by im- 
pregnating the Hardwick Seedling Nectarine with a 
cross breed, produced by impregnating the Elruge Nec- 
tarine with the Heath Cl ng This only had a few speci- 
mens last season, which were destroyed by the curculio. 
I expect sometime this spring or summer to give a full 
account of my experiments. 
J‘I have experimented a little with hybridizing the 
Grape, and know, from the flower being so very minute, 
; it is dirfic dt. A few yf'.-r- since, I prepared some blooms 
