Corn Stalk Sugar—The Bee* 
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Corn Stalk Sugar. 
Raising Cohn for the manufacture of Sugar.— 
By Wm. Webb, of Wilmington , Del.—■(Concluded 
from the last Number .) 
For evaporation, flat bottomed pans are recom¬ 
mended, made either of copper or boiler sheet iron. If 
the situation will admit, they should be so arranged, 
that the juice will run from one to the other, and thus 
save the trouble of lading. The lower pan should be 
furnished with a spout at the bottom, (not less than 
four inches in diameter,) by which its contents can be 
drawn off. The shape of these vessels should be ob¬ 
long, their sides and ends sloping at angles somewhat 
different in each. In the upper pan where the juice 
first enters, the sides form an angle with a line perpen¬ 
dicular from the bottom of about 30 d . In the lowest 
pan, this angle should not be less than 45°. Skimmers 
with rectangular, instead of circular edges, must be 
employed for removing scum. The syrup is brought, 
in the Tatter 1 vessel, to about 25° by the saccharometer, 
when it is withdrawn into a large wooden reservoir, 
whose depth should be at least three feet. To finish 
the evaporation the Bascule pan is recommended; this 
is extensively used in Louisiana, and has over the ket¬ 
tles the advantages of completing the operation with 
greater rapidity and safety—of enabling the operator 
to carry the boiling completely to the point of granula¬ 
tion, and then to decant the whole charge instantane¬ 
ously into the cooler j also of giving to the sryup time 
for depositing a heavy sediment of impurities, not 
otherwise separable from it, bht which, on the old plan, 
goes forward to impair the granulation, and to discolor 
the sugar; and, finally, of allowing the proprietor to 
superintend in person the concluding and most delicate 
part of the manufacture : one Bascule pan being suffi¬ 
cient to evaporate to the granulating point, in twelve or 
fifteen hours, all the juice which two sets of kettles 
can evaporate in twenty-fours, to the point of concen¬ 
tration mentioned above. This pan is of a circular 
form, made of copper, fourteen inches deep, five and a 
half feet in diameter, and sixteen inches deep near the 
lip, or in these proportions. It is mounted over a sepa¬ 
rate furnace—is moveable upon its axis, and is fur¬ 
nished with a large lip, over which the whole contents 
may be poured into a receiver. On one side of the 
vessel opposite the lip is a rope or chain attached to a 
pulley over head, by means of which it is quickly 
emptied. “ In using this pan, the juice is evaporated 
in the kettles as before, but is struck, between 25° and 
28° of the Hydrometer of Baume, into a large cistern 
capable of containing at least four or five hogsheads, 
where it cools, and deposites a thick sediment. From 
this reservoir, it is pumped up, from time to time, into 
a smaller one situated just above the Bascule pan. 
The operation with this apparatus is as follows : The 
gate attached to the reservoir of syrup is raised, and 
the bottom of the pan covered to the depth of four 
inches. A brisk fire being kindled under it, boiling 
soon commences; a slight scum rises, which flows 
down into the lip, whence it is removed by means of a 
hand skimmer. The striking point is ascertained as in 
the kettles, except that a thermometer is often made 
use of to learn its approach. When struck, the ther¬ 
mometer stands from 236° to 238°. 
To assuage excessive ebullition, it is customary to 
throw in a small piece of lard or of butter just previous 
to the completion of the cooking; and at the moment 
of decanting the charge, notice is given to the fireman, 
who closes the ash-pit door to prevent the flames from 
rushing up into the boiling apartment, to the incon¬ 
venience of the operator, who is stationed upon the rim 
of the furnace by the side of the pan. Immediately on 
its being discharged, it is suffered to fall back to its 
place, and the gate of the reservoirs is lifted as soon as 
possible, in order to cover the bottom of the pan before 
it becomes too hot from the action of the flame. 
The time required to perform the operation values' 
from twenty to thirty minutes, and the result is a highly 
improved sugar, with the estimated gain of one hogs¬ 
head in fourteen over the old method, 55 
Dutrone found, by experiment, that the quantity ot 
matter which unites the most favourable circumstances 
for crystalizing the sugar, is from fifteen to sixteen 
cubic feet; and it was from this knowledge,- that he 
regulated the form and dimensions of the cases about 
to be described. He made many trials of cases differ 
ently shaped at bottom, and ultimately fixed upon the 
following, as most convenient and effective. The 
crystalizing case is made of wood, and ought to be five 
feet long and three feet wide. Its bottom is formed of 
two planes (like a trough) the uniting of which forms 
a channel. Along this channel twelve or fifteen holes, 
an inch in diameter, are bored for the molasses to drain 
through; the depths of the case is nine inches at the 
side, increasing towards the channel, where it is fifteen 
inches. When syrup is poured into these cases the 
holes are stopped with plugs ; after it has crystalized, 
these are removed, and the sugar becomes drained. 
The rooms in which the operations of crystalizing and 
draining, or curing, are carried on, should be kept at 
an even temperature of about 80° F. 
Enough has been said to enable any one so disposed 
to manufacture sugar from Maize, either on a large or 
small scale. As to the profits of the business, I shall 
make no positive assertions ; experience on the subject 
is yet too limited to warrant them'; and as all the facts 
in relation to it are now before the public, every one 
interested can draw his own conclusions. It is said by 
those acquainted with the cultivation of the cane, that 
that business cannot be carried on profitably on less 
than one hundred acres in crop, and that attempts on a 
small scale will be certain to fail with a great loss of 
time and labor. How far this may be applicable to 
corn, remains to be seen. 
I will only add in conclusion, that whether or no fr 
sugar from the corn stalk may soon become an article 
of profitable export—its manufacture in the simples* 
form will enable every family to supply themselves 
with this article for common use, now become so much 
a necessary of life, and thus save a considerable bill of 
expense yearly paid for foreign sugars. 
The Bee. —Providence, that delights' in spreading 
benificence as well as beauty over all creation, has 
wisely formed the bee as an humble but active and un¬ 
tiring agent, in gathering up for the most important 
purposes, and cdhverting to the most valuable use, the 
scraps and fragments of nature which would otherwise 
be scattered by the “viewless winds, 55 and spread 
through the “ ambient air. 55 She has adorned the song 
of the poet, pointed the tale of the moralist, and fur 
nished food to the hungry in the desert. Virgil calls 
the bee a ray of the divinity; Plutarch pronounced her 
a magazine of virtues; Quintilian asserts that she is 
the greatest of geometricians ; and Watts, by call¬ 
ing in poetry to the aid of morality, has rendered her 
figure the means of interest, improvement, and delight 
to many a youthful mind. Philosophy has stooped to 
examine her habits and to watch over her haunts; she 
has presented the models of science and called forth the 
attention of scientific men; by her the husbandman has 
been cheered when sitting in his cottage garden, in his 
evening reflections on his day of toil; and in whatever 
light she may be viewed, there is none who can declar 
that he has no interest in her ways. 
