SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
341 
and his communications being strictly 'practical^ are al- 
ways of great value to our readers. Alcohol will probably 
be one of the most profitable product of the Sorgho ; but we 
sincerely hope that it will be manufactured entirely for me- 
chanical uses, as there is sufficient “blue ruin” in the 
world already ! — Eds. 
SORGHO EXPERIMENTS IN SOUTH CARO- 
lliia. 
A correspondent at Ridgeway, S. C., writes us under 
date of Sept. 8, as follows : 
Editors Southern Cultivator — Tiie three copies of 
your pamphlet were duly received, and I have found them 
of service to me when experimenting with the cane. I 
have procured a Saccharonieter from Dr. Battey, but thank 
you for your kindness in informing me where they could 
be obtained. 
I have not been able to make more than 1 Gth of syrup 
tested by the saccharometer ; it is true, I can get 1 gallon 
of syrup from 5 or even 4 gallons of the juice, but it is not 
of a proper consistency. The syrup made by the sacchar- 
ometer is of the consistency of honey, five or six months 
old and resembles it as to color. As you may take an in- 
terest in this new candidate for public favor, I now give 
you the results of several experiments I have made. I 
use an iron cast mill, and two sugar kettles, each capable 
of holding 150 gallons; they are properly fixed or set in 
furnaces. The several kettles so arranged that I can shut 
off the heat at pleasure. 
I first expressed 54 gallons of juice, ffiom cane the 
heads of which were perfectly green, and had to boil for 
eight hours, and got 4^ gallons saccharometer tested 
syrup. I then expressed the juice from cane that grew on 
not quite l-4tli of an acre. The cane was matured; that 
is, the lower seed of the head had passed from the milk to 
the dough state; and boiled 7 hours and made 29^ gal- 
lons of syrup, tested with the instrument. I then express- 
ed the juice from matured cane that grew on not quite 
half an acre and got 49 gallons and 3 quarts of syrup, 
tested as the other. The. ground was not very rich; 
would have made 10 or 12 bushels cf corn to the acre. 
This last was boiled 7 hours and the proportion of syrup 
to juice varied from l-6th to l-7th. 
I have three acres of the cane growing on a very poor 
piece of land, which resembles a cane brake more than any 
thing else that I can think of, to compare it to, which will 
be ready for the mill next week ; it will yield at least 30 or 
35 bushels of seed to the acre. 
My hogs are fattening on the bagass, and my negroes 
are delighted with “home made molasses,” as they call it. 
I am, very respectfully, your ob’t. servand, 
H. C. D. 
P. S. — T do not use lime or anything else to correct 
acidity or clarify the syrup, but skim very freely. 
TREATMENT OF HORSES — CISTERNS, &c. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I have often felt the 
desire to contribute to your varied and agreeable columns, 
deeming it a simple act of duty to soio a little where I have 
gathered a good deal. All agricultural topics are so sug- 
gestive, however, that I have doubted my ability to con- 
dense a communication to the proper “specific gravity” of 
a newspaper article, a pneumatic process in which some 
of your correspondents are certainly proficient, and if you 
should think the following worthy of the space which it 
may occupy, I will feel encouraged to try again : 
“How do you keep your horses so sleek T’ 
A question frequently propounded to the undersigned, 
which he hopes herein satisfactorily to answer. 
No people are more keenly alive to the value of a good 
and abundant xoater than we of the South, yet a simple 
sketch of our practice in this particular would be a trench- 
ant satire on our whole economy. 
One farmer, for months in the year is satisfied to hmd his 
water in barrels, for miles. 
Another for the whole of his natural life hauls hh 
eighty feet perpendicularly. 
A third expends a small fortune on an Artesian well, 
which, completed, leaves the water one hundred feet be- 
low him — furnishing a deal of hard work to the penny- 
worth of hard v;ater. 
Another, suggests an anecdote. A friend of ours, 
on a visit to one of the most worthy of the old school gentry, 
overheard, at his departure, the following between his 
host and the stable boy: 
“Ned, did you give Mr. C.’s horse plenty to eat?” 
“No fir, not so mighty much to eai^ but I gin ’em plenty, 
to drink P 
The fact that the lane from stable to water was a very 
pretty quarter stretch, and that the “little Baileys” of the 
stables are rather fond of equitation, readily accounted for 
the liberal treatment of C.’s horse, as well perhaps as for 
the shaggy (not to spell it with a “b”) appearance of his 
entertainers. 
Another, perhaps, sleeps in peace with a “B-r-a-n-c-h 
in his lot,” said bianch consisting of a sand bed with (or 
without) a film of water on top. 
Representatives from each of the above have had occa- 
sion to ask the doctor how he keeps his horses so sleek. 
Simply, my good neighbors, by giving them, in the 
cheo.pest manner, the most abundant supply of the very 
best water. 
“Ah! to be sure, that is a fine bold spring of yours.” 
Yes ; but I don’t give my horses ice water. 
“Prefer a tceZ/, perhaps?” 
No sir — well water is too expensive. 
“How then?” 
I use a cistern for my stock. And just here it binds. 
There seems to be a general antipathy to cisterns. Per- 
haps it arises from a lack of intellectual suppleness, a kind 
of epidemic mental rheumatism prevalent in the rural dis- 
tricts, a want of that digestive capacity, which can suck 
success even from a failure, and find “experience” among 
the fragments of a humbug. 
Or it may be owing to the vague idea of enormous ex- 
pense which attaches to such structures. We have heard 
of the gigantic reservoirs of the East, where an acrid cli- 
mate and dense population compel the storage of a supply 
for years — a climate where the “dew drop” is still the 
crown jewel of poetry, and the “broken cistern” the last 
symbol of wretchedness ; where the Satrap still boasts of 
Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, and where 
“ The lude and savage man of Inde, 
At the first opening of the gorgeous East, 
Bows down his vassal head” 
in adoration of the Ganges. 
Such structures would be folly here. I venture the as- 
sertion that a cistern which will contain two month’s sup- 
ply, and having adequate water sheds, will overfiow ten 
times where it will fail once. And now let us compute 
the cost : 
If you have a clay soil, you have only to finish your 
cistern ; the walls were laid at the foundation of the earth. 
If you have sand, the lessened labor of excavation will 
overpay for brick. 
To cement it, engage the best plasterer and lend him 
two smart boys. He will have it like a parlor in a few 
hours. Object to his bill, and your foreman will pay it. 
So fiir, cheap enough. You will want a “cover.” Inch 
plank, battened, are sufficient; and if you have located 
your work under a shed, or will throw a shed over, and 
enclose the sides, you have what you always have coveted 
