1908. 
893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
FARM-MADE SORGHUM SYRUP. 
The picture shows the “lasses” plant 
of the Plymouth Rock Farm, which 
was bought second-hand just to have a 
little oldtime cane syrup for cooking, 
but the little folks in the picture think 
it the best ever. This makes our third 
season, and our output has increased 
beyond the capacity of the mill, which 
is about 25 gallons per day. The 
sorghum is planted with a corn planter, 
using sorghum plates, hand-hoed once, 
and remainder of cultivation same as 
corn. The blades are stripped and tied 
in bundles, as corn fodder once was in 
the North and still is here. The cane 
is topped by grasping between the 
thumb and fingers, with the point of 
the thumb just above the top of joint. 
A quick bend toward the thumb snaps 
the stalk off. This we find much 
quicker than with knife. Both of these 
operations are performed while the cane 
is standing. The cane is then cut with 
cornknife and hauled to the mill and 
ground. The juice is run from the 
mill through strainer into a barrel 
which is tapped 12 inches from the bot¬ 
tom, so as to avoid getting settlings to 
the pan; it is then drawn in agate pails 
and poured through another strainer, 
cr filter rather, into the barrel at the 
pan, an evaporator divided into four 
compartments, the green scum all being 
removed before it reaches the third 
compartment, where it is about half 
think can be increased lo nearly, if not 
quite, 200 gallons. The seed is fed to 
chickens and hogs, who do their own 
thrashing. The surplus syrup is sold at 
45 and 50 cents per gallon, package 
extra. Since we have only sold the 
syrup from the farm, we would like 
to know what we are removing from 
the farm in fertility, and how best to 
replace it. At the present prices of the 
different money crops here the sorghum 
pays more money per acre than either 
cotton or peanuts. i„ k. 
Belfield, Va. 
Peppery Radishes. 
IF. O. N.j St. Peters, Pa .—Nearly my en¬ 
tire output of radishes last Summer was 
too hot to eat or sell. IIow can this be 
avoided? Would a special application of 
nitrate be useful to induce that “quick 
growth,’’ said to be so essential to a good 
radish? How about potash, as this is a 
root crop? Or will enough of these ele¬ 
ments be contained in $35 complete fertil¬ 
izer? 
Ans. —I am not a commercial radish 
grower. I do, however, grow the crop 
in a small way, some in garden and 
some in greenhouse. As I see and un¬ 
derstand it, my guess would be that 
these were three troubles with inquirer’s 
radish crop the past season. First, he 
probably planted poor seed; second, 
there was probably a lack of moisture 
at the time the bulbs were forming— 
this naturally checks the growth, and 
any checks to this crop at this critical 
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A VIRGINIA FARMER'S MOLASSES PLANT. Fig. 416. 
finished, then run into the fourth com¬ 
partment to be finished. When the 
man with the skimmer, by lifting the 
syrup in his skimmer, satisfies himself 
that it is done, he lets it run out into 
one of the 12-quart cans shown. When 
it is full, which takes about three run¬ 
nings, he skims off the foam, another 
children’s favorite, and drops his hydro¬ 
meter in the syrup. If it registers 35 
degrees, it is carried away to cool be¬ 
fore putting in permanent package; if 
not, it is turned back to cook more; 
but such is rarely the case, as one gets 
very proficient, our boiler having often 
run all day with less than one degree’s 
variation. 
The success of the operation depends 
upon the skill of this man more than 
all else, yet all of the work must be 
done with care if the syrup is to be 
clear and well flavored, as seed heads, 
sour stalks, etc., must be kept out of 
the mill. It is a very busy time on the 
farm, everyone having something to 
do, even the dog shown must be handy 
to help with the cows. The crushed 
stalks are stacked as New Yorkers do 
their straw, and the cattle run to 
them and eat of them just as they do 
straw, and appear to like them very 
much. Our long seasons are favorable 
to the crop. The cane shown in the 
picture was grown after the early crop 
of Irish potatoes. The yield of syrup 
this year is about 75 gallons per acre. 
The other two seasons were better, be¬ 
ing about 125 gallons. This Summer 
was somewhat dry. This yield we 
time always causes the radish to be 
more pungent; third, lack of available 
fertility at any time during growth is 
also detrimental, particularly available 
nitrogen. To emphasize more fully let 
us return to the first trouble mentioned, 
the importance of good seed. The 
radish crop is one that should not be 
planted with anything but seeds of the 
highest grade and quality. It has been 
clearly shown by experiments that small, 
inferior and scrub seeds produce ill¬ 
shaped bulbs, long necks, and many 
with no bulbs at all. Even t.iose few 
plants that do succeed in forming bulbs 
are so hot and strong that they are 
unpalatable. On. the other hand, when 
seed is planted that has been grown 
from good stock, all light and inferior 
seeds taken out, they germinate quicker, 
grow faster, mature earlier, and yield 
a far larger percentage of crop, and 
that of far better appearance and flavor. 
All root crops require a certain amount 
of potash in available form, but I would 
think that with a $35 complete ferti¬ 
lizer, if applied at all liberally, the de¬ 
mands for potash would be fully met. 
I have found however, that many of 
the quick-growing root crops, like the 
radish, early turnips, etc., are greatly 
benefited by liberal applications of 
available phosphoric acid. Where these 
elements are supplied in abundance, I 
am quite sure that moderate applica¬ 
tions of nitrate of soda would be 
beneficial. But bear in mind that an 
excessive amount of nitrate is likely at 
once to cause leaf growth at the ex¬ 
pense of the bulbs. c. c. hulsart. 
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