360 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
December, 
Sorghum (Chinese Sugar Cane) Success¬ 
ful—A Manufactory Described. 
Three years since, when there was no little 
excitement in regard to this plant, and specula¬ 
tors were monopolizing the little seed in the coun¬ 
try, and selling it at various prices up to 50 cents 
an ounce, we promptly procured a large amount 
jof seed from France, then the only available 
source of supply, and sent it in small parcels. 
without charge, to all our subscribers 
applying for it. During a few months, 
three-fourths of a tun were thus dis¬ 
tributed by us, ail over the country, 
and during the year, more persons 
received seed from this office, than 
from all other sources taken to¬ 
gether. The cry of humbug was 
raised, and certain jealous cotempo¬ 
raries have continued the cry down 
to the present lime. We subsequent¬ 
ly published a variety of statistics 
gathered from our subscribers who 
tried the seed, and we expressed 
confidence that the crop would u 
imately prove successful in some 
measure at least, and also urged 
our readers to experiment further. 
This much done, we waited awhile 
for experiments, and passed on to other topics, 
but watched the result with the Sorghum. 
The third season of experiment has now passed, 
and from all we can gather this year, we feel 
warranted in congratulating the readers of the 
Agriculturist upon the success of the sorghum as 
a profitable source of molasses, or syrup, in the 
Middle and a portion at least of the Northern 
States. Large plots have been cultivated the 
past season, especially in Ohio, Indiana, and Illi¬ 
nois, and manufactories of considerable extent 
are already erected. We have samples of sugar 
made at a profit as compared with the Southern 
and West India sugar ; but we will not as yet 
speak positively as to the profitable manufacture 
of sugar. In reference to liquid sweets—molas¬ 
ses and syrup—there is no longer room for doubt. 
Tens of thousands of gallons have been made this 
year, notwithstanding the unusual frosts, ex¬ 
tending almost to mid-summer, and beginning 
again before the close of September. As a rule, 
Sorghum will succeed in all those localities, 
where corn is a sure crop. The certainty of its 
production being established, as well as the fact 
that it contains a sufficient quantity of saccharine 
matter in its juice to be available, perfection in 
the mode of manufacture and a corresponding 
improvement in the quality of the products will 
soon result. We shall now be justified in placing 
this among other farm products, and giving it a due 
share of attention in these columns. Any informa¬ 
tion in regard to the culture of the plant, and the 
processes of manufacture will be gladly received. 
One of our associates, while in Central Ohio 
recently, passed a day or two at the house of a 
wealthy farmer, and he thus writes : Seeing 
upon the table some fine molasses, we asked its 
kind. “ It was produced on our own farm,” was 
the reply. “ We raised quite a little crop of 
Sorghum this year, and had it worked up by one 
of our neighbors who has put up a manufactory ; 
and here is the result.” 
Anxious to see the “ mill ” in operation, our 
friend drove us over. We found a roughly en¬ 
closed one story building, at the foot of a gentle 
declivity. This contained a ground floor, about 
40 by 20 feet, which constituted a receiving and 
storage room. Sundry barrels of syrup were 
different samples of the syrup put up in barrels, 
and found them all of excellent quality. They 
were held by the manufacturer at 50c. to 62c. 
a gallon. We considered it so much better than 
INew-Orleans or W est-India molasses, that we 
ordeied a barrel for our own use, and for dis¬ 
tribution among some of our friends. 
At this mill it is manufactured, for those who 
delivei their cane cut and stripped of leaves, at 
25 cents per gallon, or for half the product,’ as 
may be desired. Most of the cane 
was quite imperfect, not being full 
grown, while more or less of it was 
frost-bitten in the upper joints. Much 
of the cane that we saw and ex¬ 
amined was mouldy, and some sour- 
when brought to the mill, yet it 
out a good syrup. It had suf¬ 
fered at both ends—having been 
t when very young by the June 
frost, and then again by the .Sep¬ 
tember frost, heforo it was matured. 
Had it been fully ripened, the yield 
would have been much greater, and 
the quality better. Indeed it is sur¬ 
prising that such cane should make 
syrup at all.Two important 
items of profit should be named. 
The liquid part of the “ skim- 
mings ” makes an excellent vinegar ; while the 
thick syrupy residuum is said to be an excel¬ 
lent food for swine. The “bagasse ,”—that is 
the ground stalks—is not valuable for cattle food, 
as has been asserted by some persons. But 
when dried, it makes fuel for the boilers, and for 
the furnace when steam-power is used. For the 
latter purpose it may he used in its freshly crush¬ 
ed state, as wet tan hark just out of the vats is 
burned by the aid of blowers. 
While returning from the Sorghum factory, we 
passed another concern of the kind, so primitive 
in its construction, that we stopped to take a look 
at it. It went with a sweep drawn by a pair of 
horses, like the other ; but instead of the three 
iron rollers lying horizontally, there were two rude 
wooden ones, about 18 inches in diameter, set per¬ 
pendicularly, and standing about 18 inches in 
bight. The cane was run through twice to get 
out all the juice. A common half-barrel tub 
stood underneath to receive it from the rollers. 
This was dipped out with common water pails 
by hand, and poured into a sheet-iron kettle, 
built over a rough arch of cobble-stones and clay. 
The scum was dipped off by hand, and when suf¬ 
ficiently boiled into syrup, the fire let down, the 
syrup ladled out, and put into barrels. It was a 
very tolerable article, as we proved by tast¬ 
ing. The whole affair was as rude as possible, 
with no covering over it; and when we asked (he 
man who worked it, if he could make it profit¬ 
able, he replied, “ if the cane had been of only the 
usual good quality, he would have cleared a hun¬ 
dred dollars for a few weeks’ work.” His whole 
establishment could not cost fifty dollars. He 
did the work, while another very cheap hand 
drove the horses, and fed the mill. There are a 
large number of such rude mills, as well as of 
better ones, scattered all over the western Slates. 
Such is our present view of the Sorghum en- 
terprize. It is but little more labor to work an 
acre of cane, than one of corn ; it is planted and 
tended in the same way, and will yield according 
to soil, season, and cultivation, 200 to 400 gal¬ 
lons of syrup to the acre. 
If you wish a thing done, go ; 
Imitate a good man, but never 
compartments,or communicating middle divisions. 
The mill stands still further up the slope, and 
the cane juice as fast as expressed, runs down in 
a small spout to a large tank, whence it is con¬ 
veyed to the boiler in a continuous stream 
through a faucet, by means of which the flowing 
is regulated to keep the boilers just full enough. 
It will be remembered that the raw juice flows 
into the pan, and is evaporated as it passes on 
slowly through the several channels, until it fi¬ 
nally passes out at the other end as thick syrup or 
Fig. 2. 
molasses. (Of the self-skimming operation of 
this pan, it may be explained that the greater 
heat along the middle, causes the liquid to boil 
rapidly, which throws off the scum to either side; 
this arrangement operates admirably.) The 
mill, fig. 2, has three horizontal rollers, moved 
by a wooden sweep over-head, 12 feet long, to 
which a pair of horses are attached. Such are the 
simple arrangements of this manufactory, the 
whole costing perhaps $1000, and serving for a 
considerable number of persons growing the 
Sorghum on a moderate scale. We examined 
stored here, and here also was a receiving tank to 
which the finivhed syrup flows from the boiler. 
Next to this, on the more elevated ground, is 
the boiler and furnace, in an open shed—a sim¬ 
ple affair, yet fully competent for its work. The 
boiler is a rocker like that recently illustrated in 
the Agriculturist, [we again give an engraving 
of reduced size ; see fig. 1]. This boiler is a self¬ 
skimmer, so to speak, the abundant green-colored 
scum flowing off to the sides of the successive 
