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ggy 
Vol XLII. No 1733. 
NEW YOKK, APEIL 14. 1888. 
FRICK FIVE CENTS 
*2.00 PER YEAR. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
ficU) Crops. 
TALCOTT'S VARIEGATED CORN. 
respect Jonathan 
Talcott, of Rome, 
New York, not 
only as an enter¬ 
prising, successful 
farmer; not only 
as one who has 
for yeare carefully 
tested all novel¬ 
ties of promise, 
but as one whose 
reports are always 
conservative and 
trustworthy. The 
temptation to ex¬ 
aggerate the mer¬ 
its of a new potato, wheat, oat, corn, tomato 
or what-not by enthusiastic experimenters is 
very great. We confess to having yielded to 
it more than once, though we have hastened 
to moderate our ft rst reports as soon as we had 
found by further trials that they needed m<xli- 
fication. If Mr. Talcott 1 * reports err at all, it 
is on the side of caution. At our request he 
has sent us the ear of corn, a portrait of which 
is seen at Fig. 107, a variety which he has cul¬ 
tivated for 40 years and which we have little 
doubt possesses as many claims to merit as 
others which have been taken up by seedsmen 
and advertised over the land. Following is 
Mr. Talcott’s letter, also written at our re¬ 
quest, giving all the information regarding it 
which the reader may desire to know: 
“ Rome. N. Y., Nov. 22, 1882. 
“ I have this day, as you requested, sent you 
an ear of my variegated flint com which is a 
very good specimen. It is not a pedigreed 
corn, from the fact that for the past 40 years 
i have cultivated it with the Dutton corn and 
it will produce yellow corn as well as that 
true to color of its own variety. Some ears are 
only eight-rowed, hut the ears are mostly 12- 
rowed, as is the one sent. The usual time of 
ripening on my farm is about 100 days from 
planting; a very favorable season with warm, 
gravelly soil has iu some instances matured it 
iu 00 days; but that is not common iu this 
latitude. The meal is sweet and rich—I fancy 
bettor than meal made from white com. 
That may be a Yankee notion, however; if it 
is, we all have our own notions of such things. 
1 know our Southern neighbors think the 
white corn as grown by them in their climate 
better than our Northern corn for meal for 
family eating and 1 am willing they should 
think so, but wish them to be as liberal with 
us Northern farmers who think as I do, that 
our Northern yellow corn makes the sweetest 
meal for family use. Some 40 years since a 
young man came to work for me and brought 
au ear of corn that took his fancy, found in a 
Held of corn of his employer the year before 
he came to mo; from its tine appearance it 
was planted and has been cultivated on my 
farm yearly since its first. introduction with 
the yellow Dutton, us stated. The graiu is 
very handsome to me to look upon when 
shelled with yellow corn, the kernels being 
variegated with its markings of a reddish 
streak on yellow groundwork; the coni 
grows from six to eight feet in bight of stalks, 
depending on richness of soil, gives a few 
suckers, not as much so as some sorts; these are 
more numerous on rich soil in a favorable sea¬ 
son for corn, than ou poorersoils and unfavor¬ 
able seasons as we sometimes have iu this 
section. Iu yield and quality I have always 
considered it equal to the Dutton.” 
■ ■ 
Treatment of Cut Potatoes Before 
Planting. 
Last Spring I cut my potatoes as recom¬ 
mended by Alfred Rose, [Mr. Rose's method 
was given iu the Rural of March 18, 1882. He 
said that Die crop from seed potatoes that are 
cut in pieces will ripen in to 12 days earlier, if 
the pieces are cut five weeks before planting, 
tins till w itb plaster and lime, and spread on 
boards in the cellar and frequently stirred to 
keep them from heating— Eds.] some four 
weeks before planting ; sprinkled the pieces 
with plaster and spread them iu a layer about 
four inches thick, I shoveled them over once 
a week and when planted the sprouts were 
fully started. They came up in 10 to 12 days, 
and 1 don't think I lost a piece, and 1 think they 
gained at least two weeks in earliness. I shall 
do the same this year. O. H. c. 
farm (^ccmomij. 
EXPERIENCE IN SORGHUM SIRUP 
AND SUGAR MAKING. 
We have had only two years’ experience in 
the business, yet by careful study and close 
attention we have learned much of the nature 
of sorghum, the composition of its juice 
and the manner In which it should be handled 
to produce a good article of sirup and sugar. 
The first season our outfit consisted of a Gem 
No. 3 mill for crushing the cane, a No. 5 
American Evaporator for cooking the juice, 
two steam defecators for clarifying the juice, 
together with the necessary receiving supply 
and storage tanks. Our mill and evaporator 
were built by Messrs. Squire Bros,, of Buffalo, 
and proved satisfactory iu every respect. Our 
defecators and tanks were of our own manu¬ 
facture and answered well the purpose for 
which they were constructed. We used steam 
power to run our crusher and defecators, and 
lire for evaporating. We commenced work 
September 11. and finished about October 1; 
but. did not run continuously during this time. 
We worked up 84’^ tons of stripped cane for 
4G different parties, producing 1,187 gallons of 
sirup of an average density of 85° Baume 
or by weight, ll> s pounds to the gallon. As 
far as practicable we worked each party’s 
enne separately, giving each the simp t'rom his 
own cane. Our charge for manufacturing was 
30 cents per gallon, or one-half the product, if 
we took our pay in sirup. 
Our largest yield of sirup per ton of cane 
was ItlVjj gallons; the smallest, 10 gallons; 
average, 14 gallons. Wo are not prepared to 
give the average number of tons grown per 
acre by our customers, but we will say that 
from 1>* acre, grown by ourselves, we har¬ 
vested 30,555 pounds of stripped cane, an 
average of 12 tons to the acre. We planted 
the tith of May, iu hills 3 > „ feet each way, ! 
putting 10 or 12 seeds iu each hill; cultivated 
and hoed twice and thinned out to six or eight 
stalks to the hill. We harvested the cane be¬ 
tween the loth and loth of September. We 
do not know the amount, of seed we gathered, 
as we fed it to our stock without thrashing. 
W’o consider the leaves as valuable as hay 
for feed. 
Our mode of operation during the season 
was to start the crusher the first thing in the 
morning; us soon as we had pressed out 100 
Corn from J. Talcott—F io. it'd. 
gallons of juice it was pumped into one of the 
defecators aud steam turned on: as soon as the 
juice had attained 170“ to 180° F. milk of lime 
was carefully' added and thoroughly stirred 
in until nearly or quite all of the free acid in 
the juice was neutralized. As soon as a ther¬ 
mometer suspended in the juice indicated 212 w 
F. steam was shut off and the juice allowed 
to repose five or 10 minutes; then the blanket 
of scum was removed and the elear juice 
drawn off by means of a swing pipe into a 
receiving tank and then into the evaporator 
and cooked into sirup as rapidly as possible. 
This mode of operation produced a very good 
article of cooking simp; but it was not en¬ 
tirely free from the peculiar sorghum flavor 
so objectionable to most people. 
Being desirous of making the best article of 
sirup possible, we determined to try some oth¬ 
er mode of defecation, for we had come to the 
conclusion that the secret of malting a superior 
article of simp depended almost wholly on a 
thorough clarification of the juice before cook¬ 
ing. After examining into several different 
methods of defecatiou, wo finally determined 
to try the Stewart process, it having been used 
at the Department of Agriculture and by oth¬ 
ers with good results; besides, it appeared to 
us to be the most simple and practical of any 
for both simp and sugar making. Wo pro¬ 
cured the necessary material from Mr. Stewart 
and proceeded to operate according to his di¬ 
rection. The result of the trial was satisfac¬ 
tory We produced 114 gallons of clear, bright 
and fine-flavored sirup entirely free from the 
objectionable sorghum flavor. Subsequently' 
we learned that while our simp made by' the 
ordinary process was liable to thicken up like 
jelly and ferment in warm weather (owing to 
the fact that the pectin, or fruit substance, in 
the juice was not removed by the process of 
defecation), our sirup made by r the Stewart, 
process kept through the season without 
change and deposited considerable sugar. 
Being satisfied that we could now make a 
good article of sirup aud sugar from sorghum, 
we determined to enlarge our works the fol¬ 
lowing season and attempt the manufacture of. 
sugar. With this end in view we disposed of 
our outfit, including eugine and boiler (10 
horse power) aud put in a L0-horse-power en¬ 
gine, a 50-horse-power boiler, a No. 1 Louisi¬ 
ana mill with rolls 10x24 inches, a Boomer 
steam evaporator (largest size), one large 
steam defecator (copper tubes) and the neces¬ 
sary tanks, coolers, etc. The altering over of 
our factory' consumed more time than we an¬ 
ticipated, consequently the aviso u of work was 
upon us before we had completed the sugar 
department of our establishment, so we were 
obliged to content ourselves with making a 
good article of sirup only. 
During the past Winter we have reworked 
(on a small scale) a portion of our sirups for 
sugar with good results, and are convinced 
that good sugar eau be made from sorghum iu 
1 laying quantities; but the cane must be fully 
ripe when cut, and worked up without .delay 
after being cut. It can, however, stand iu the 
field two weeks or longer after it is perfectly 
ripe without injury to the sugar: provided the 
weather is suitable, ripe cane is not injured to 
any extent bv the frost. 
Judging fi'om results already obtained, we 
think we can, the coming season, with good 
ripe cane produce eight pounds of sugar per 
gallou of sirup weighing 13 pounds. Wo are 
now making alterations in our crushing and 
evaporating departments that will give us a 
capacity of from 30 to 40 gallons of sirup per 
hour according to the density of the juice oper¬ 
ated upon. During the Spring and Summer 
we will complete our arrangements for sugar 
making. 
Our present inode of defecatiou differs from 
that of the old days in this, that we use an ex¬ 
cess of lime to rid the juice of certe'- 
stances that cannot be removed b 
smaller doses. Bv this means the 
