AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Are Maple Orchards worth Preserving. 
This may he considered a silly question by 
many who own valuable orchards of the beautiful 
Rock, or Hard Maple trees, and annually make 
their own family supply of sugar from them, or 
much more, and where the land they occupy can 
not be profitably devoted to cropping. We pre¬ 
sume it may on the first thought, be so consider¬ 
ed by others who have sugar orchards growing 
on lands which may he worth fifty to a hundred 
dollars an acre for cultivation. 
But, as we ask the question in all sobriety, 
for information, of those more conversant with 
the subject than ourselves, and from whom we 
would gladly obtain light, we will offer a few 
suggestions as they occur. To start with : We 
concede the utility and excellence of well made 
maple sugar. Three pounds of it are worth as 
much for sweetening as two pounds of New-Or- 
leans, or West India sugar—not more. Maple 
molasses also holds about the same proportion in 
value to New-Orleans, or West India molasses 
made from the sugar cane. Such facts, we 
presume, no advocate of the maple sugar, or 
molasses will deny. We also know that there 
are thousandsof beautiful sugar orchards scatter¬ 
ed over the northern States, on hills and rocky 
lands—the best of all for sugarproduction—which 
are of little value for purposes of either cultiva¬ 
tion or pasturage merely, where a “sugar-bush” 
is the best investment that can possibly be made 
of them. Then, again, there are other lands 
where sugar orchards now grow, and sugar is 
made from them, which are of the first quality 
for any kind of cultivation, and which may yield 
two or three times as much in annual farm crops 
as they yield in sugar : and to these our question 
will more readily apply. 
We take it that a farmer only gets one good 
yield of sugar in an average of three years, at 
the best. Some sugar may be made every year, 
we admit; but, taking one year with another, 
one crflji in three is quite an average. The year 
1857 was extraordinary, and for one such, six, 
eight, ten, or a dozen years will not give its equal; 
but hearing such wonderful facts of the sugar 
orchards in such a year we are apt to draw our 
conclusions that all are so, and make up our opin¬ 
ions accordingly. Then, again, sugar orchards 
must be devoted to that object alone. They can 
not be plowed nor cultivated in annual farm crops. 
Grass for pasturage is all that they can yield, and 
but little of that, in a very inferior quality for cat¬ 
tle. As a rule, they may be said to be of little 
value for any other purpose whatever. Again, 
level or clayey lands will not yield half the sugar 
that hilly lands of porous, open soil will do. 
We have seen within a few years past, as ag¬ 
ricultural lands have advanced in price, a great 
many sugar orchards abandoned and cut away, 
from the fact that farm crops have increased in 
value by the construction of railways, or the 
opening of other facilities for getting crops to 
market, showing the conviction that they could 
not longer be profitably devoted to sugar-making. 
The late developments with sorghum, also, have 
thrown up a new element for consideration •; 
and if that is to prove successful in the 
manufacture of sugar, as well as molasses, 
we can have little doubt, the devotion of arable, 
or grazing lands even, to the maple, will be 
less frequently practiced. We have not yet 
seen any fair calculation of the cost of growing 
and making maple sugar, taking into account the 
value of the land, the interest annually thereon, 
the expense of gathering and boiling the sap, with 
the price of the article in market, etc., as in other 
205 
farm productions, which, if we had them, would 
lead us to form a reliable opinion. These we 
should be glad to receive from some practical and 
experienced men who have been long conversant 
with maple-sugar-making. This is an economical 
question, and as such should be examined. 
We ought, perhaps, in candor to say that maple 
sugar, from being usually considered a luxury, 
bears about twenty per cent higher price in mark¬ 
et than other sugars, irrespective of real worth. 
greatest heat is applied where the fresh juice is 
received from the tank, E, and the heat is ot 
course gradually diminished towards the right, 
where the juice is more concentrated. 
The pan is placed upon a frame resting upon 
the rockers, A, A. By this arrangement the pan 
can be inclined so as to give the liquid a greater, 
or less rapid flow, according to the degree of heat 
and rapidity of evaporation. 
Operation. —As soon as possible after expres- 
Cook’s Portable Sugar Evaporator. 
Though, since the experiments of the first two 
years, we have not had great faith in the idea that 
the Chinese Sugar Cane would be a profitable 
sugar crop for general cultivation in the northern 
States, yet we have constantly advised that it is 
adapted to the production of sweetening (syrup 
at least), in remote sections of the country, where 
southern or foreign cane sugar is not accessible 
without great cost for transportation. To this 
opinion we still adhere, and every now and then 
there are indications that even in sections not so 
remote from markets, sugar may yet be produced 
profitably. We have before us some very fair 
samples of sugar said to have been made in con¬ 
siderable quantities in Ohio, last year, by the use 
of Cook's Evaporator, of which we present an 
engraving and description herewith. 
Our own experiments in 1857, and those we 
have seen made by others, all go to show that to 
obtain good syrup a very brisk evaporation of the 
juice is required. In slow boiling the juice sours, 
which renders the syrup poor, and of course un¬ 
fits it for crystalizing into sugar. The design of 
Cook’s Evaporator is to secure this end, and so 
far as we can judge from the drawings of the im¬ 
plement it seems well adapted to the purpose. 
We regret not to be able to speak from personal 
observation and examination. 
Description. —The evaporating pan, C, C, is 
from 6 to 10 feet long, and from 3 to 4 feet wide. 
It is made of tinned copper, or galvanized iron, or 
other protected metal, the bottom being crimped 
into flanges or folds, so as to expose a greater 
surface to the fire. The folds are also so arranged 
that a continuous channel is formed in the bottom, 
through which the fluid poured into one end of a 
groove at the left, flows along to the other end, 
then across into the next groove and back through 
it, then across into the next groove, and so on 
until it runs off into the tub, F. The fire is placed 
in a sheet iron furnace, B, B, at the left, where the 
door is shown ; the heated air passes along under 
the pan and out through the smoke-pipe, D. The 
singthe juice from the cane it is slowly fed through 
a regulating faucet, from the vat, E. It flows 
along over the fire from groove to groove, as 
above described,being skimmed as it passes along, 
and, if the stream be properly regulated, by the 
time it reaches the discharge pipe it will be suffi 
ciently reduced for syrup or for granulation. 
We suppose the upturned flanges must be pro¬ 
tected from contact with the fire underneath, 
otherwise they would burn the syrup at the upper 
line where it came in contact with the portion ot 
metal uncovered by the fluid. We have found that 
in boiling the sugar cane juice, as well as in con¬ 
densing other syrupy fluids, the burning is usual¬ 
ly done by portions of the fluid coming in contact 
with the kettle or boiler where it is not kept cool 
by being covered with the fluid. 
The price of these Evaporators varies from $35 
to $70, according to the size. It is claimed by the 
manufaclurers that the $40 size will boil two 
barrels of cane juice per hour. 
Cut Grain and Grass before Ripening’. 
An intelligent practical man who had just read 
our article on this subject in Yol. XV, page 253, 
remarked in our hearing that “ if the reasoning of 
that article be correct it would be worth millions 
of dollars to the country every year, should the 
mass of farmers study it and act upon its sug¬ 
gestions.” Now we know the reasoning was cor¬ 
rect, not only because founded on true scientific 
principles, but also because we have abundant 
confirmation in the united experience of all who 
have put the matter to practical test. We will 
here repeat that all grass and grain crops designed 
to be used as food for man or beast should be 
gathered before full maturity. 
Grass, while still green, contains a large amount 
of starch, gum, and sugar. The sugar is per¬ 
ceived in the sweetish taste of the juice; the 
starch and gum, being nearly tasteless, are not 
so readily perceived. The principal nourishing 
ingredients in all kinds of food are starch, gum, 
sugar, and some nitrogenous compound. But 
