SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
279 
of winter, the busy bee may be seen among them; and 
v/i!l -Mr. McGebee tell me that they are gathering bee- 
bread all this time'? The thing is imppssible ! 
I have been thus particular, because I respect the 
opinions of this gentleman, and think that if he will con- 
sider the matter a little closer, he will find that he is in 
error on the point we have been discussing. 
Respectfully, Y. La Taste. 
Cedar Green, near Aiigaista, Ga., Juhj, 1857. 
SUG-4R FKO-4I THE CHINESE CANE. 
Messrs. Hedges, Free & Co., of Philadelphia, who 
have taken much pains in the.getting up of proper Mills, 
Boilers, &c., give us directions for Sugar making 
through the American Agriculturist. It is probable that 
the crystalization of Sorgho Syrup will only be attempted 
the present year by a few of the large growers, but it is 
well that all others interested should know the process, 
which is set forth by these gentlemen as follows : 
The cane must be allo%ved to mature fully, not attempt- 
ing to work it until the seed is fully out of the milk, and 
as some of the tillers will be rather later than others it 
w'ill no doubt be better to throw them out for fodder than 
jeopardize the rest. The leaves should be striped off be- 
fore cutting, and. the top cut off with the seed some two- 
and-a-half or three feet down, as there is not much sac- 
charine juice in the upper end. Then, if your apparatus 
is ready, cut, and grind as fast as you can cut, and boil 
as fast as you grind, since the less time the stalks or cut 
cane is exposed the better. The juice, if concentrated by 
the usual process will pass through two selves — first, No. 
8 and then No. 16 set over a large tin funnel immediately 
under the mill, (which will be set about three feet from 
the ground upon three posts firmly bedded in the ground 
about three feet.) This funnel is contracted to a pipe of 
two inches diameter, and running under the ground past 
the horses’ track, and entering a tank either lined with 
tin or painted thoroughly, and varnished so as to be im- 
pervious to the juice and easily washed clean, when left 
idle for even one hour. The juice is raised by tin buckets 
or a tin or copper pump from this to a clarifier. This may 
be of sheet iron. No. 8, and about twelve inches deep and 
large enough to fill your first kettle, and set higher wuth 
draw-off pipe and sfop-cock entering at the bottom. This 
clarifiei is set so thai the heat is applied under it after 
leaving the range of boilers, and may be shut off by a 
damper, into another side flue, while you discharge this 
pan. The heat being applied slowly, a thick scum rises 
and when near boiling you change dampers and draw off 
until the juice besi'ns to show sediment or scum, then 
clean the pan and fill again, and so on. Now in this first 
kettle you add lime well slacked and sifted, until your 
juice will not change the coler of litmus paper, (which 
can be got at any good drug store quite che aply.) While 
the juice is acid, it will change it to a reddish hue, and if 
thus boiled will neither granulate nor keep sweet as mo- 
lasses With our two horse mill of rollers seventeen 
inches long, we use three boilers holding 60, 40 and 20 ! 
gallons, with the latter immedirtely over the fire and set 
with flaring walls or jambs, rising above each about 6, 8 
and 10 inches, and completely cemented with water lime. 
The last or 20 gallon boiler shou'd be higher than the 40 
and that above the 60. so th.at the scum will run through 
the gap into the next kettle behind successively. The 
scum should aho be thrown back whenever accumulated 
into the hindmost kettle. If you have no experience in 
testing the syrup in the “battery,'’ a thermometer made for 
that purpose, can be obtained in most large cities for a dol- 
lar or so. It requires to be graduated up to 250°, as about 
240'^ Fahrenheit is considered the proper point. Should 
the heat rise above this, you must open your fire doors 
and throw over the fire, an armful of begasse fi'om the mill, 
and then discharge the syrup as quickly as possible and 
refill frono the next kettle, thus continuing successively. 
The coolers into which )''Ou discharge may be of good 
clear white pine without paint inside, and 12 inches deep 
and large enough to hold 4 charges, and then left to cool 
and granulate, or if you make molasses only, you will use 
barrels, staves of oak and heads of pine or cypress thorough- 
ly made. 
In regard to crystalizing the sorgho sugar, we, to-day, 
[July 16] went with Col. Peters, to the sugar refinery of 
Messrs. Eastwick & Bros., 73 Vine-st., of this city, carry- 
ing with us some sugar made from the Sorgho, by Col. 
Peters in Georgia, and by Mr. Wray in France. These 
specimens were subjected to the severest chemical test, 
and examined under a powerful microscope, and both 
proved to be true crystalizable sugar and not glucose. As 
the examiners are perhaps not surpassed for accuracy in 
this countiy — not even in Boston — we deem these experi- 
ments highly satisfactory. They promise a public report 
of the examination soon. Yours, &c., 
Hedges, Free & Co. 
KEEPING CORN GREEN FOR WINTER. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — Seeing in your last 
number a plan by which to keep corn in its green state 
during the winter, it calls to mind a plan I adopted in the 
year 1851 , which is as follows: — My corn was planted 
on the 15th July, and consequently was very late. On 
the day that we had a killing frost at night I had my 
corn, which was planted on a very rich piece of bottom 
land, cut down to the ground with a weeding hoe, and 
with the fodder all left on the stalks, and then hauled up 
and carefully stacked around my stable loft, about 12 or 15 
inches deep. In that situation it remained during a large 
portion of the winter, and occasionally we had a delici- 
ous dish of good, well flavored roasting ears, and the 
fodder served for the stock. 
If you think this worth anything you car. use it as best 
it suits you ; if not, put it with the other rubbish. 
Very respectfully, Daniel Harrist. 
Mount Hickory, Ala., Aug., 1857. 
Improvement of Sandy Land. — Editors. Southern 
Cultivator — What would be the effect of five bushels of 
lime sown broadcast to the acre on sandy land that will 
not produce, with the most careful cultivation, one 500 
pound bale of cotton from four acres ; or sown in the drill 
one- half ashes mixed with the lime? If that amount is 
too small, what number of bushels would produce a third 
or half more cotton ? Please answer in the next number 
of your valuable paper. A Constant Reader. 
It is impossible to give a reliable answer to questions 
like the above. Agriculture is not an exact science ; and 
its most important truths are reached by experiments. 
Try ashes and lime — ten bushels of good ashes and five of 
lime per acre. L. 
A writer in Hunt’s Magazine suggests a new plan of 
extinguishing fires, worthy, certainly, of trial. It is sim- 
ply saturating the water of the fire engbie with common, 
salt and potash, both very cheap articles, and both acting 
together to impregnate the wood so that the flame cannot 
spread any further ; i. e. the muriatic arid flies off, and 
the soda remains as upon a glazed surface. 
The suggester of this idea even goes on to say that 
many a fire, which is within reach, miorht be stopped with- 
out any enitine, by discharging fine'y powdered clay, 
lime or chalk, through a tube on the blaze. 
