THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
19 
will be sufficient for planting forty acres; there- 
fore the clid'erence in the expense for seed will be 
as one to thirteen 
In planting cane, furrovv's are made with the 
pffiugh from two and a half to tlrree feet ajiait; 
in these the la 3 'ers are placed, in a double ro^v, 
and the eaiih drawn over them, with hoes, to 
the depth of three or four inches. 
In the .spring, before the plants are up, this 
covering is panly scraped off, so as to leave them 
buried from one to two inches. From this ac- 
count it is evident that no more manual labor 
will be required to drill fifty acres in com, than 
to plant one acre in cane. The labor of culti- 
vating the latter plant during its growth is also 
greater, but this mat'’ be balanced by the extra 
work required to take off the embrr'o ears from 
the corn. When cultivated in the mode recom- 
mended, the stalk of com is soft, remarkably 
heavy, and full of juice from bottom to top. — 
The amount of power required for grinding them 
mu.st be much less than is necessary for cane, 
or, what is the same thing, an equal power will 
do it with greater rapidit)n The average vield 
of cane, in Louisiana, is one thousand pounds 
of sugar and forty-fivn gallons of molasses per 
acre. From the above comparative statement, 
it would appear that one-half this amount of 
crop from corn would be equally if not more 
profitable. 
I Avill only add, in conclusion, that whether or 
not the sugar from the corn-stalk may soon be- 
come an article of profitable export, its manu- 
facture in the simplest fonn will enable eve ly 
familv to supply themselv'es with this article for 
common use, now become so much a necessary' 
of life, and thus save a considerable bill of ex- 
pense j'early paid for foreign sugars. 
Extract from Annates de la Societe Poly technique, 
Practique No. 22, _for October, 1839.* 
Sugar or Corn. — There is no plant of great- 
er interest or utility than Indian corn, it can 
serve, under a great variety of different forms, 
for the nomishment of man and the domestic 
.animals, and above all, the application of indus- 
trious science. 
In reference to its saccharine qualities, maize 
has not been sufficiently appreciated. Travel- 
lers report that tinder the tropics the stalk of this 
plant is so very saccharine that the Indians suck 
it as in other places the}’ do the sugar cane. M. 
Palla.s, who has made a gi'eat many researches 
on tliis application of maize, has arrived at a re- 
markable result; he has found by many experi- 
ments, both m France and more recently in Af- 
rica, tliat this vegetable, by a simple modifica- 
tion applied to its culture, is able to furnish a 
much more considerable quantity of sugar than 
by the ordinaiy method. This method consists 
in detaching from the plant, immediately after 
the fecundation of the ovaries, (after the plant 
has tasselled,) the young ear, and to leave it to 
develop itself, thusdeprived of its fruit. Arriv- 
ed at maturity, the stalk of Indian corn contains 
crystalizable sugar in quantity ver}’ often double 
that obtained when the plant is left to mature 
with the grain. In fact, by the ordinary mode 
of culture, the grain is nourished at the expense 
of the sugar in the stalk, as it absorbs a great 
quantity of this immediate principle, which, by 
the process of nutrition, is converted into starch. 
On the other hand, if the young ears are imme- 
diately de.stroyed, the sugar intended to nourish 
them remains in them, where it accumulates, 
and the maize plant is thus converted into a true 
sugar cane, while the fibrous part can be manu- 
factured into paper. 
The quantity of sugar is so xery great in the 
stalk of the maize, deprived of the ear, that the 
pith of this vegetable retains a sensible flavor of 
sugar, even after it has been dried, as is easily 
proved by examining the specimens deposited by 
M. Pallas in the bureau of the Academy of Sci- 
ences. These results are so important as to 
merit experiments on a grander scale, rvhich 
*Translated at the Patent Office, and highly 
conformatory of Mr. Webb’s essay. 
may obtain thus for France a source of new in- 
dustry in the manufacture of sugar. 
I H. L. Ellsworth. 
I - No. -1. 
I Dear Sir: — Your favor is duly received. You 
' request to know the best method of ciystalizing 
I corn syiup, and I know of no more ready meth- 
i od to afford the information required, than to de- 
j tail the entire mode which should be pur&ued for 
j its manufacture: 
I 1st. To cut the cane as ripe as possible, but 
■ before any acetic acid is formed: litmus paper. 
I touched to the fresh cut cane, will turn red if 
' acid. 
I ’21. Express the juice without loss of time, as 
j every moment after cutting will deteriorate its 
j quality. 
3d. A small quantity of clear lime water (say 
one quart to a hundred gallons of juice) should 
be added the moment it is expressed, unless the 
I juice shows acidity with litmus paper; in that 
I case, too, lime should be used, but a solution of 
1 sal soda or soda ash. should be added, until it is 
I precisely neutral. 
j 4th. When the juice is neutral (free from ex- 
! cess of acid or alkali) it should be evaporated 
I in such an aparatus as Avould finish its change 
' in thirl}'' minutes, if the boiling power is too 
small good cr}'stalization cannot po.ssibiy be ob- 
tained. 
I The whole time occupied from the cutting of 
■ the cane to finishing its boiling should not ex- 
ceed one hour. 
5th. To know when the boiling is finished, place 
a thermometer in the kettle, and continue to 
i evaporate irntil it stands at 239® F arenheit. — 
If, when placed to rrm ofl' after cooling, it .should 
be found too freely boiled, the next time boil 
to 240®, or, if too light to run off, to 238®, and 
so on. 
6th. The kettle or boiler should be so arranged 
that the moment it is done its charge should be 
thro-u-n into a cooler, capable ot holding a rrum.- 
ber of charges. The first charge shordd be left 
in the cooler, without stirring, rmtil the second 
charge is thrown in; then -with an oar scrape the 
crystals found on the side and bottom of the 
cooler loose, and gently stir the whole mass to- 
gether, (the less stirred the better,) so continue, 
at the letting in of each charge, to stir gently; 
and when all is in the cooler, let the whole stand 
rmtil it cools down to 175®; then fill cut into su- 
gar moulds of a capacity not less than 14 gal- 
lons. 'When cooled in the mould sufficient, (say 
fourteen hours,) pull the plug out of the bottom 
of the moidd, and insert a sharp point, nearly as 
large as the hole, some six inehe.-; withdraw the 
point, and stand the mould on a pot to drip. 
7th. If the sugar is intended to be brown, 
leaving it standing on the pot for a sufficient 
length of time, in a temperature of 80®, will run 
ofl:' its molasses, and leave it in a merchantable 
shape; it rvill probabl}^ require twenty days. It 
can then be thrown out of the mould’s, and will 
be fit for use. 'SYhen moulds cannot be obtain- 
ed, conical ve.ssels of wood or metal with a hole 
at the apex, will amswer equally as well. 
The above description will be sufficient for 
an}' operator, if strictly Ibllowed; but should an}’ 
of your Mends wish to make the experiment on 
a large scale, or to produce white instead of 
brown sugar at a single operation, they had bet- 
ter see me personally before commencing, as the 
kind of kettle, and many other minor particulars, 
wi' 1 be important. The above description, how’- 
ever, is fully sufficient for the use of the farmer. 
If the juice of the cornstalks be manufactured 
with the rapidity named in the former part of 
this letter, no clarification ■will be necessary’, and 
scum which may rise dming the boiling can be 
taken off with a skimmer; but in the large, ^cay, 
both clarification and filtration would be requi- 
site, as in large operations every part of the kefi 
tie carniot be got at to skim. Since I last saw 
you, I have made some experiments on the corn- 
stalk; and if your statements are correct as to 
the quantity of juice which can be obtained 
from the acre, then there can be no doubt of its 
entire superioiit}’ over the sugar cane. I fear, 
however, that the enthusiasm of tho.se who made 
the experunents }’ou spoke of has led them into 
error. It is true that the juice of the cornstalk, 
gro-wn with a view to sugar making, will }'ield a 
juice at 10® Baume. I have made arrangements 
to try the experiments fully in the coming sum- 
mer, and when done will communicate the re- 
sults. I remain, sir, yours respectfully, 
J. J. Mapes. 
Hon. It. L. Ellsworth. 
REMEDY FOR COLIC IX HORSES. 
Take two quarts of cold water in a hand ba- 
sin, add with }'our fire-shovel say a pint of hot 
wood ashes or embers, and stir. Cut off an inch 
and a half from a common hand of tobacco, 
and shred in the mixture — stir all up, and let it 
stand fifteen minutes and settle. Pour off a 
common black bottle full of the fluid and diench 
your horse— in half an hour he will be well. 
Rationale. — The gas which bloats the horse 
is probably carbonic acid gas and light-carbu- 
retted hydrogen, the product of the vegetable de- 
composition wliich is going on in the intestines 
— at any rate it is a gas which is immediately 
absorbed by its combination with an alkali. — 
The tobacco is a powerful anti-spasmodic and 
cathartic — it, therefore, prostrates the nervous 
sen.sibility, checks the inflammation and increa- 
ses the action of the lower intestines. In a crit- 
ical or extreme case, it ■will be well to give an 
enema of a strong decoction of tobacco with a 
comnion s}’i'inge. Out of more than one hun- 
dred instances, in which I have seen this reme- 
dy used, I have yet to witness the first failure, 
if also has an advantage over veiy’ many reme- 
dies, viz: it cannot injure a horse in perfect 
health. Feed light for a day or two. 
Causes of Colic. — The main cause consists 
in the presence of a greater amount of food than 
the intestines can elaborate into nutriment, or 
of a kind of food difficult of digestion, producing 
.spasm, obstruction, vegetable decomposition 
and consequent inflammation. Hard driving 
on o.fvU stomach will produf:e colic, because the 
effort weakens the tone of the digestive povrers. 
and they cannot elaborate the food — which then 
produces irritation and inflammation. Cold wa- 
ter when the horse is hxated, because it is a power- 
ful stimulus, and will produce spasm or obstruc- 
tion, or by the re-action produces -weakness of 
the digestive organs. It also gives too much 
fluidity to the food — fluids are more difficult of 
digestion than solids. It also increases the fer- 
mentation. Hearty feeding after hard driving, 
because the stomach and intestines s)'mpathize 
with the general fatigue of the system, and are 
easily overloaded, and the appetite will induce 
the horse to eat more than he can digest. 
Colic is first flatulent, then inflammatory. In 
the flatulent stage, or in what is called belly- 
ache, aromatic remedies or half a gill of spirits 
of turpentine, or a pint of vvffiiskey and black 
pepper maybe given; all these stimulate the 
system, and may assist it in overcoming the 
difficulty. But in the latter and inflammatory 
stage, which rapid!}’ succeeds the former, these 
same remedies would produce .speedy death by 
increasing the inflammation. In nine cases out 
of ten, this disease is not obseiwed by the ordin- 
ary’ driver until it has assumed the inflammato- 
r}’ form — in which stage the remedy at the head 
ot this article should be given with as little de- 
lay as possible ; although it should not be omit- 
ted even if the horse be supposed to be in the ar- 
ticle of death itself — for I have seen them recov- 
er when every’ by-stander had dismissed all 
hope. Yours rruly, T. N. "SYelles. 
French Creek, Peoria Co., Nov. 25, 1842. 
P. S. — ChoMge offeedxriW sometinres produce 
colic, for the reason that the digestive organs do 
not readily adapt themselves to it — and the food 
lies there in its unchanged state, producing by 
heat and moisture, fermentation, irritation and 
inflammation. 
Colic produced by oats is not as obstinate as 
that produced by corn. T, N. W. 
Southern Planter. 
