AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
74 
tlie box, and fasten it in place. The filtering 
materials can then be readily put in by using 
slips of sheet iron or tin to keep them from 
mixing while being introduced. The slips can 
be gradually drawn out as the filling pro¬ 
ceeds. When filled, the box may be covered 
With flat, stones, or with a sheet of galvanized 
iron. All joints should be cemented tightly. 
The object of placing the layers vertical^, 
is to prevent the accumulation of sediment 
upon the top layer of the filter. With the ar¬ 
rangement described above, much of the deposit 
will fall to the bottom of the cistern, at the foot 
of the filter. Another advantage is that the well 
will be supplied with water as long as any re¬ 
mains in the cistern, for it will keep at the same 
level in both divisions. 
About Buying a Farm, 
“Reading the Agriculturist has made a farmer 
of me in theory, and now I intend to become 
one in practice ; iflease give me some counsel in 
relation to purchasing. Where ? how much ? 
what kind of soil ? etc., in short, whatever you 
think should be suggested to one in my circum¬ 
stances.” So writes a city subscriber, and many 
letters of similar import are awaiting a reply. 
First, then, it may not be advisable to buy at 
all. Farming on paper is easy, pleasant, and 
gives a good show of profit; actual cultivation 
of the soil may be as enjoyable and remunera¬ 
tive, provided a man knows how to accomplish 
work easily, is enthusiastic in the business, and 
has brains and experience to plan wisely. It is 
not always best for men of middle age, brought 
up to other callings, and possessing limited cap¬ 
ital, to buy a farm. It requires experience and 
skill as well as hard work, to lift a mortgage, and 
most novices will be disheartened before it can 
be accomplished. Young men of nerve, whose 
habits of life are not yet fully fixed, have better 
prospects of success; yet in their case it would 
be wiser to work a few years under instructions, 
to gain at least the rudiments of cultivation, be¬ 
fore involving themselves by purchasing land. 
But supposing the cost to have been counted, 
and a decision made, when shall he buy ? The 
proper answer depends upon the branch of ag¬ 
riculture which is to be made prominent, wlietli- 
er dairying, raising of stock, grain, garden veg¬ 
etables, or fruit. For the last two, nearness to 
market is almost indispensable ; it is desirable 
in all cases. For other purposes, it is safe to 
locate where others are successfully engaged in 
the kind of business desired. Unlike manufac¬ 
turing, there is little danger from competition In 
any particular locality; one must leave a farm 
before another can enter upon it; though on the 
open prairie there is room for all. 
"Buy land of no man w'illiout thorough personal 
inspection. If inexperienced, secure the services 
of a friend competent to make the examina¬ 
tion. Ascertain the character of the neighboring 
society and the distance from schools and church¬ 
es. Give a thorough examination to the soil. 
The growing crops may not be a fair test of the 
capacity of the land. An unpropitious season, 
or an unusually favorable one, may lead to a 
wrong estimate. Dig down through tiie surface 
soil, in various fields, and note its depth. Farms 
covering equal areas may differ by more 
than one-lialf in arnouut of serviceable soil—one 
being scarcely four inches, the other twelve or 
more inches deep. Observe the character of 
the subsoil, whether hard pan, requiring drain¬ 
ing, or gravel unable to bear drouth. A mo¬ 
derately firm, deep loam is desirable for tillage, 
and one containing limestone, is - generally 
the best, especially for wheat, corn, and orchard 
purposes. If we had capital to drain and sub¬ 
soil well, we should not object to a stiff loam, 
approaching clay, for such soils are permanent, 
can hardly be “worn out,” and if well drained 
and thoroughly worked, they make the best use 
of manure, are less affected by drouths, and give 
a good yield of hay, as well as of other crops. 
Examine the slope of the fields, whether to 
the north where Winter will linger, or to the 
warm south, -where Spring loves to show her first 
favors. Are the fields well laid out and fenced ? 
Well watered? Are there sufficient buildings, 
and what is their condition ? If the capacities 
of a farm be sufficient, it may sometimes be 
bought to advantage, although “a little run 
down.” Proper management will bring up a 
naturally good soil, and money may often be 
made by putting such a place into good heart. 
But no one should attempt such an operation 
without the most careful estimate of the amount 
needed, and the reasonable assurance that it will 
not be likely to exceed his available capital. 
When a favorable decision is made, engage 
the services of a reliable lawyer to search the 
title. Fifty or a hundred dollars expended in 
this way would have saved many a man from 
more than ten times that amount of loss. The 
writer has now in mind the case of a hard-work¬ 
ing farmer whose earnings for years were lost 
by neglect of this precaution. Finally, be pre¬ 
pared to work hard, to meet and overcome un¬ 
looked-for difficulties which can only be known 
by experience, and to be content with small but 
steady gains, and a life of peaceful independence. 
Two Kinds of Sugar—Sweetening from 
Sorghum—Evaporators. 
There are two leading kinds of sugar, known 
as cane sziga/r, and grape sugar. Cane sugar is 
obtained from the southern cane, from the sap 
of the maple, from the juice of beets, etc. 
Grape sugar is found in raisins, in those fruits 
and plants generally which possess sour or acid 
juices, and in honey. It can also be produced 
artificially from starch, from woody fibre, from 
cotton, etc. Cane sugar contains 12 atoms of 
carbon, united with the elements of 11 atoms of 
water, while grape sugar contains 12 atoms of 
carbon and 14 atoms of water. We can change 
cane sugar into grape sugar by a chemical pro¬ 
cess, which will cause the former to take up the 
extra atoms of water in chemical combination. 
But cane sugar cannot be produced artificially. 
It is only made by some secret process of Na¬ 
ture within the plants themselves. Cane sugar 
readily takes a solid form of regular six-sided 
hard crystals. Grape sugar crystallizes slowly 
and imperfectly, as is the case with solidified 
honey, and the crystals are irregular, ill-de¬ 
fined, and usually in needle-shaped tufts. A 
third kind of sugar, sometimes called fruit sugar, 
is entirely uncrystallizable, like that found in 
molasses, etc. 
The above distinctions are important, in refer¬ 
ence to the new plant, Sorghum. If the main 
portion of the sweet element be grape sugar, we 
cannot hope for great success in manufacturing 
solid cane sugar from it, while it may be a 
source of sweetening in the form of molasses 
and grape sugar; for, as stated above, grape 
sugar cannot be transformed into thecrystallizja- 
ble cane sugar. A scientific correspondent of 
the American Agriculturist offers the following 
suggestions. We cannot say how near right he 
may be, but his suggestions are worthy of inves¬ 
tigation. He says: “It is amusing to note the 
claims put forth by the different makers of 
evaporators, witii regard to the superior power 
their particular inventions have over all others, 
to extract sugar from sorghum. The fact is, 
that sorghum and impliee contain very little su 
gar that will crystallize, hut a great deal that 
is uncrystallizable; and no evaporator can pro¬ 
duce any more of the former, than the juice nat¬ 
urally contains. While eiystallizable sugar 
can readily be converted into the other kind, 
there is no process yet known by which the 
operation can be reversed. Exposure to heat 
in contact with the air will convert cane sugar 
into the uncrystallizable sort, or molasses. One 
of the greatest improvements in sugar refining 
is the vacuum-pan, a closed evaporator from 
which the air is pumped. In this the syrup is 
evaporated without coming in contact with the 
air, and at a much lower temperature than if 
exposed. It is very apparent that the value of 
sorghum and its allies, as. a source of sugar, will 
never be increased by the inventive genius of 
evaporator makers. We must look to some 
new variety, or remarkable improvement in the 
old, before we can get a large amount of crys- 
tallizable sugar from this source.” 
How Cotton was Grown in Illinois. 
The Rev. J. A. Bent, of Hazleton, Washing¬ 
ton Co., Ill, whose sample of 10 lbs. of cotton is 
on exhibition at the office of the American Agri¬ 
culturist, sends the following statement of his 
experience in growing cotton. His locality 
is in about the latitude of St. Louis. We should 
be pleased to have the experience of those who 
have successfully grown cotton farther north: 
“ I was unable to plant until about May 20th. 
I prepared two pieces of land, one of an acre, 
and the other of half an acre. The former had 
been in cultivation several years, the latter was 
newly rotted prairie sod. The old ground was 
prepared as if for corn—except that the rows, 
31 feet apart, were raised a little by turning two 
light furrows toward each other. The seed, 
one bushel to the acre, was rolled in moistened 
ashes immediately before being planted, so as 
to increase the ease of scattering it uniformly in 
the furrow; it was covered with a hoe one inch 
deep. In the South, a larger quantity is usually 
planted, and the plants are thinned out or cut off 
when hoed, and in the decomposition of their 
roots, they serve as a manure to those that re¬ 
main; by this means a good start is rendered 
comparatively certain. My seed came up well, 
but in spots I lost not a few plants by the rav¬ 
ages of grubs or worms. When the plants were 
about four inches high, they were hoed, or rath¬ 
er the weeds (principally purslane) were scraped 
away from the cotton to the middle of the space 
between the rows. When the plants had grown 
to be about a foot high, they were plowed out, 
first turning the earth away from, and then 
throwing it back to them. The plants were 
then thinned to about 16 inches apart in the 
row, where they were too thick. The first blos¬ 
soms appeared about the 20th of July. The 
plants when full grown were from 2 to 5 feet in 
bight, and contained from 15 to 40 bolls each. 
They opened for picking early in October, and 
up to December the cotton was good. Since 
then the cotton has been yellowish, and much 
of it not perfectly developed. The cotton on 
the smaller piece received less attention, as there 
were no weeds; it yielded the best. Owing 
to my failure in getting a perfect stand, I really 
