Vol XLIL No 1735. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 28, 1883. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS 
$2.00 PER YEAR.; 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1883, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
<l\)t VhmjnriL 
HISTORY OF THE BLACK SEEDLING. 
[For Illustration see page 2SJ.] 
ITH this new grape, 
(Fig 261) which was sent 
to us, we were much 
pleased. Although not 
yet for sale, it is merely 
a matter of time when 
it will be put on the 
market. It is a seedling 
of Mr. A. J. Cay wood, 
who describes it as fol¬ 
lows:—“This grape is a 
cross of the Concord 
and Delaware, the Con¬ 
cord being the mother 
plant. The vine is 
a strong grower, the wood and foliage 
resembling those of the Concord, but not so 
liable to mildew ; perfectly hardy. Cluster 
compact, medium to large; color shining 
black, covered with a light-blue bloom which 
is the heaviest and most tenacious of any we 
ever saw. Skin thin, but tough; trait foxy, 
but not so much so as the Concord. The flesh 
contains all the excellence of the Delaware 
and is still more sugary. It is one of the very 
tlrst to color, but does not perfectly ripen be¬ 
fore the Concord, and like the Duchess, it 
grows better by hanging late. A splendid 
keeper, at this date (Dec. 11) it lies on the shelf 
not shriveled.’’ 
A New Plan for Training the Grape-vine. 
In the Hiral of Feb. IT Mr. Cay wood gave 
a description of liis plan of 
training on a grape trellis, which 
will be seen bv the illustration 
(Fig. 1811) is novel and presents 
[joints of interest. In order to 
,better understand the illustra¬ 
tion, we would refer our read- 
mi's to the article of Feb. 17, 
il>age 100. 
Sprouting Niagara Grape 
Seeds. 
Having seen in the Rural 
of this dute a little note that 
your N iagara Grape seeds have 
not sprouted yet, I am ahead of you, for nearly 
all of mine are sprouted and some of them are 
coming through the ground. I put the seed in 
nearly boiling water and kept the water warm 
four days; then I planted them in a tin can 
and watered them when needed with warm 
water. They have sprouted after 18 days, 
which I think is gratifying. Albert Oborn. 
Marion, O. April 7. 
-»♦ » 
The Lady Washington Grape. 
Here in Dutchess County, N. Y., this grape 
is a strong grower with good foliage, pro¬ 
ductive and hardy. I have vines, four years 
planted, that have never been protected 
during Winter since the first season after 
planting, and they have never sustained 
uuy injury from this exposure. The clusters 
average larger than Concord, color yellowish- 
white, tinged with a delicate shade of pink 
where fully exposed to the sun. Flesh tender, 
somewhat breaking, sweet and good. Ripeus 
with Concord or soon after. On old and 
well-established vines I find the fruit ripeus 
earlier than on younger ones. This, in some 
cases, may have caused the impression that it 
is lute, as few have other than young vines, 
and in most cases too young to afford anything 
like a fair test. Three years ago I predicted 
for it a brilliant future, and as time goes on I 
feel more and more confident of my prophesy 
being verified. J. G. Burrow. 
[There is no doubt that the Lady Washing¬ 
ton will prove in many places a grand ac¬ 
quisition.—Ena. ] 
ftfU) Crops. 
AMBER CANE. 
MALCOM LITTLE. 
My first experiment in Amber Cane raising 
was three years ago, when I planted a small 
piece of ground, putting in the seed with one 
of Emory’s seed drills, in rows three feet 
apart. The ground was prepared the same as 
for corn, allowing 15 loads of stable manure 
to the acre. It was cultivated three times 
with a horse and hoed twice by hand. Wher¬ 
ever plauts were killed out they were re¬ 
placed, aud they bore transplanting so well 
that in a few weeks no one could tell where it 
had been done. When the plants were a foot 
high they were left to themselves, and so rapid 
was their growth that weeds had no chance. 
The ground produced 56,960 pounds of cane to 
the acre. After stripping there were 42,400 
pounds of cane ready for the mill, leaving 
14,560 pounds of leaves and seed. The former 
are excellent fodder for cattle, and the latter is 
equally good for all kinds of stock, including 
poultry. There was no mill within reach, so 
I only extracted the juice from 285 pounds of 
stripped cane, the product of one square rood 
of land. The juice, when boiled down, pro¬ 
duced two gallons of sirup, weighing 11 
pounds 5}i ounces per gallon. 
I find that it does not pay to spend so much 
time and labor upon cane as I did upon the 
piece I have mentioned. Land for cane 
should be dry enough for w r heat and rich and 
warm enough for coni. It should be put iu 
good order and then rolled down smooth. I 
remove all but six teeth from my drill and 
plant seed with tw r o teeth as corn is planted; 
I apply phosphate with all six. The teeth 
w hich plant the seed should bo raised so that 
the seed will be planted very shallow. In this 
way I can plant 10 acres in 10 hours with 
phosphate. 1 drag the ground u few days 
after planting and soon afterwards drag it 
croafiWise. I then cultivate it with a horse- 
hoo, after which I go over it crosswise with 
my drill with all the teeth in, to thin it out. 
Last year I had nine acres which I wished to 
get perfectly clean. 1 put nine days of hand- 
hoeing on it; but I do not think the cane was 
much, if any, better than that which was all 
worked with horses. I sowed wheat on the 
nine acres mentioned, early in August. 1 
think that cane is better planted quite thick, 
as the smaller grow th seems sweetest. 
I bought a mill in 1881, with which I have 
worked up my own cane aud that of my 
neighbors. My mill was made by Geo. L. 
Squier, of Buffalo, N. Y., and is known as 
“Pearl No. 4.” My evaporator is the Ameri¬ 
can, made by the same firm. The mill is ele¬ 
vated eight feet above the boiling house, aud 
is worked by four horses. The juice is con¬ 
ducted through 1 ^-ittchgas-pipe laid uuder the 
horse track to a receiving tauk inside the boil¬ 
ing house. The top of this tauk is ubout eight 
feet from the ground. It holds over 800 gal¬ 
lons. The juice is allowed to get a few Inches 
deep in this tank, w T hen it is drawn off into 
the defecator from the bottom, thus getting 
rid of foam and all floating substances. A 
piece of gas-pipe connects the receiver with 
the defecator, and the juice passes through a 
fine sieve before entering the latter. The defe¬ 
cator is heated by the same fire which boils 
the sirup. At the end of the evaporator the 
arch is raised 2 '‘-, feet, and thus the bottom of 
the defecator is that distance above the bot¬ 
tom of the pan. The smoke-stack is at the end 
of the defecator farthest from the furnace, so 
that all heat from the furnace is used. The 
juice is gauged ic the defecator and tested 
with a saccharometer, and the amount of 
Irup due the owner is decided as follows: 
divide 60 by the test of the juice and divide 
the contents of the tank by this quotient. 
After the juice is tested it is treated with lime, 
the amount being decided by the use of 
litmus paper. The cover is then let dowm over 
the defecator and the juice is allowed to heat 
for a few' minutes, when it is drained off from 
the bottom into the filter. 
There is more or less scum on the juice in 
the defecator and this is removed as it rises. 
My filters are made of oak. They are SO 
inches high, I 6 A 5 inches in diameter at the 
bottom aud 301^ inches at the top and are very 
strong. There is a chamber at the bottom 
four inches deep, with u false bottom above, 
perforated with A^-inch holes. In the center 
of the bottom is a two-inch hole into which a 
tube 30 inches long is closely fitted. There is 
a gate in the bottom of the filter to draw off 
impurities. I put a thin layer of straw on the 
false bottom and then fill with a mixture of 
sand and fine gravel, previously washed. My 
filters hold about two bushels. 
The juice flows from the defecator into 
the tin tube in the filters,goes to the bottom and 
filters up through the sand and gravel, passing 
through an inch hose into the evaporator in a 
continual stream. When the filter seems clog¬ 
ged I draw off a pailful of juice through the 
gate at the bottom, w hich takes out all settlings. 
The filter has water forced through it every 
night when work stops, and when necessary the 
contents are taken out aud washed. As the juice 
gets low in the defecator I allow the pan to get 
pretty full, so there may be time to treat more 
juice before it is needed. The juice should be 
thoroughly clarified by the time it reaches 
from 216 W to 218° F,, then run it into a settling 
tauk. When settled, draw through a second 
filter into the evaporator and heat to 224*-’ F. 
if for sirup, or to 385® F. , if for sugar. 
My furnace burns bagasse perfectly. 1 use 
a little coarse wood to staid the tires or to hur¬ 
ry them on damp days, but depend upon 
bagasse. I have it spread in the air one day, 
when it burns freely with proper manage¬ 
ment, and the expense for fuel is almost noth¬ 
ing. I make from 110 to 115 gallons of sirup 
iu 10 hours. 
Many ask how loug cane will keep after 
being cut. Last Fall was doubtless an excep¬ 
tional season, as it was dry and warm through 
October and later, but iu the cane which came 
to my mill I could see no material difference 
in the product of that which was worked up a 
few hours after cutting or as many weeks. Out 
before frost or after; though I should prefer 
to work cane up very promptly after a severe, 
blighting frost, 
I left my own crop An the field until the 
leaves were entirely dried by the frost, but 
this is not advisable, as it is harder to strip and 
the leaves are injured for fodder. Frost-bitten 
cane leaves are superior to frewt-bitteu corn 
stalks, however, for stock feed. 
THE BEET-SUGAR ENTERPRISE. 
I read in a late number of the Rural that 
another effort was to be made to make sugar 
from the sugar-beet. If I remember correctly, 
Pennsylvania lies south of the line within 
which the climatic conditions are most favor¬ 
able for their cultivation, the rainfall not 
being sufficient when most needed to promote 
their growth. If this is so. sorgh um would be 
a more reliable sugar plant for that region. 
However this may be, there is a matter I de¬ 
sire to bring to the consideration of any com¬ 
munity that proposes to enter anew upon an 
enterprise which has thus far proved to be a 
failure as a pecuniary investment wherever 
tried in the Atlantic States. Farmers, be sure 
you raise the right kind of beet. This direc¬ 
tion may seem superfluous; it may be said 
“Why, the company for whom we plant will 
look after this: it is their business.”’ True, it 
is their business to get sugar beete raised; but 
there is more than one variety of sugar-pro¬ 
ducing beets, and human nature is such that 
they would naturally endeavor to have you 
raise the varieties richest in sugar, though 
these are most decidedly the poorest croppers. 
1 refer to the underground growing sorts, of 
which the Vilmorin and Benary strains are 
good examples. As far as I have followed the 
course of the beet-sugar enterprises in this 
country, these underground varieties have 
been the kinds of which seed was supplied to 
the farmers who contracted to 
raise the roots. Now, the Si¬ 
lesian varieties, which grow 
more or less out of ground, 
yield somewhat less sugar, but 
much more than offset the dif¬ 
ference by the abundance of 
the crop; in other words, they 
will produce more sugar to the 
acre. The sugar-making com¬ 
panies object to the Silesian 
beet because the portion grow¬ 
ing out of ground has some 
green or red coloring matter 
which it is necessary to remove 
in the process of sugar-making, while the per¬ 
centage of saccharine is less. Still these 
(the Silesian) are raised more or less in Eu¬ 
rope for sugar purposes, and I submit that, 
as a matter of practical wisdom, it would 
be decidedly the better course for those who 
start the enterprise to supply the farmer at 
first with the heaviest cropping varieties, and 
when experience has made them proficient in 
raising these kinds, then to introduce the im¬ 
proved sons which are richer in sugar but 
poorer as croppers. To begin with these is 
discouraging, and I believe has been the great 
misfortune of the sugar-beet enterprises in this 
country. J. J. H. Gregory. 
SWEET CORN. 
My experiments have included several vari¬ 
eties of sweet corn, therefore I give the result, 
hoping it may be of value to Rural readers. 
The Early Dwarf Sugar was, several years 
ago, my earliest variety, but its quality was 
far from excellent. Early Boyutou has proved 
its superior iu quality, its equal in earliness 
and its peer iu every other way, and now Is 
my first early variety. The Early Minnesota 
is but little later, more prolific, sweeter, more 
tender and after several years’ testing, has 
proved to be without an equal for early sweet 
corn. 
The list of “second early” is long and my 
tests include the Early Narragansett, which 
has little to recommend it; Crosby’s Early is 
earlier aud a superior sort; Darling’s Early 
biMirth Year. 
Third Ye.u-. Second Year. 
PAYAVOOD GRAPE TRELLIS— Fig. 1S3. 
Firs I Year. 
