32 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
spread on the acre, by which the crop is increased only 
12£ per cent, thus creating an annual income of $9, how 
now stands the case. If you live on the premises twenty 
years you pocket for one acre a profit of $15—ten acres, 
$150—one hundred acres, $1500. My son, 12| per cent 
profit above a living, will by and by make you rich, and 
whether this be in meal or malt, no difference. And re¬ 
member moreover, the additional value of your lands, 
and the sweat you have saved by the difference in culti¬ 
vating hard and poor ground, and that which is impro¬ 
ved. 
I would say to A. J. P. that coal and all other vegeta¬ 
ble matter, must in time become earth ; but I wish my 
coal to remain coal as long as possible; for I would val¬ 
ue the ammonia which the coal may furnish, much more 
than the carbon which it would furnish by its decompo¬ 
sition. This winter I intend again to make and spread 
several thousand bushels of coal. But after all this, I 
doubt whether it is advisable for my son Levi to do so 
likewise; for if his lands are by nature black and porous 
enough, it contains already enough charcoal, or that 
which is its equivalent. But let me not discourage you, 
if this be the quality of your lands. I tell you what you 
can do; just burn your wood, not so much for the coal, 
as for the burnt earth and ashes; and I will warrant the 
application equally as valuable on such lands, as on that 
which is sandy. To burn a large quantity of earth, and 
produce a large quantity of ashes, with a given quantity 
of wood, you will let the air more copiously in at the 
bottom of the pit, keep a goodly quantity of earth pack¬ 
ed on, and burn the greater length of time. For agri¬ 
cultural purposes, it is best to open a coal pit while rain 
or snow is falling; or if water be convenient, this can be 
cast on the coal, by which it is broken or pulverized. 
Za. Drummond. 
Amherst Co., Va., Dec. 1844. 
AGRICULTURE in MEXICO—CORN STALK SUGAR. 
The following extract from “ Prescott’s Conquest of 
Mexico,” (vol 1, p. 134,) recently published in the city 
of New-York, may be interesting to the readers of the 
Cultivator: 
“ Agriculture in Mexico was in the same advanced state 
as the other arts of social life. In few countries indeed, 
has it been more respected. It was closely interwoven 
with the civil and religious institutions of the nation. 
There were peculiar deities to preside over it; the 
names of the months and of the religious festivals had 
more or less reference to it. The public taxes as we 
have seen, were often paid in agricultural produce. All, 
except the soldiers and great nobles, even the inhabitants 
of the cities, cultivated the soil. The work was chiefly 
done by the men; the women scattering the seed, husk¬ 
ing the corn, and taking part only in the lighter labors 
of the field. In this they presented an honorable contrast 
to the other tribes of the continent, who imposed the bur¬ 
den of agriculture, severe as it is in the north, on their 
women. Indeed, the sex was as tenderly regarded by 
the Aztecs in this matter, as it is in most parts of Europe 
at the present day.” 
ee There was no want of judgment in the management of 
their ground. When somewhat exhausted, it was per¬ 
mitted to recover by lying fallow. Its extreme dryness 
was relieved by canals, with which the land was partial¬ 
ly irrigated; and the same end was promoted by severe 
penalties against the destruction of the woods, with which 
the country, as already noticed, was well covered before 
the conquest. Lastly, they provided for their harvests 
ample granaries, which were admitted by the conquer¬ 
ors to be of admirable construction. In this provision, 
we see the forecast of civilized man. ” 
“ Among the most important articles of husbandry, we 
may notice the banana, whose facility of cultivation and 
exuberant returns are so fatal to habits of systematic and 
hardy industry. Another celebrated plant was the cacao, 
the fruit of which furnished the chocolate—from the 
Mexican chocolatt —now so common a beverage through¬ 
out Europe. The vanilla, confined to a small district of 
the sea-coast, was used for the same purposes, of flavor¬ 
ing their food and drink, as with us.” 
“ The great staple of the country, as indeed of the 
American continent, was maize or Indian corn, which 
grew freely along the valleys, and up the steep sides of 
the Cordilleras to the high level of the table-land. The 
Aztecs were as curious in its preparation, and as well in¬ 
structed in its manifold uses, as the most expert New- 
England housewife. Its gigantic stalks, in these equinoc¬ 
tial regions, afford a saccharine matter, not found to the 
same extent in northern latitudes, and supplied the natives 
with sugar little inferior to that of the cane itself; which 
was not introduced among them till after the conquest, ” (in 
1519.) 
In perusing Prescott’s Mexico, the above facts struck 
me as remarkable. If a semi-civilized nation on the con¬ 
tinent of America, more than three hundred years ago, 
made sugar from the stalks of Indian corn, why may not 
the more civilized races of the present day in North 
America, with the aid of art and science, do the same ? 
There is no doubt that it may be done; it has been done. 
But we have yet to try experiments, to improve the pro¬ 
cess, and not only to render it practicable, but profitable. 
As maize was, in the time of Montezuma, the great staple 
of the American continent, so it continues at the present 
day in its northern portion. Every State and Territory 
in these U. S. raise it in abundance. In Mr. Ellsworth’s re¬ 
port to Congress of the crop of Indian corn,for the year 1842, 
it is estimated at 441,829,246 bushels. This great staple 
will increase with the rapid increase of our population; 
and the question will arise, how shall we dispose of our 
surplus ? We can export but small portions to other 
countries, and must therefore create a market at home, 
or diminish its cultivation. How we can provide a home 
market to' consume the superabundant crop, applicable to 
all parts of the country, it is difficult to determine. If 
maize continues to be as extensively planted as hereto¬ 
fore, it will become as it were a valueless drug, unless 
we cut a part of the crop when fullest of sap, and con¬ 
vert the expressed juice into sugar. This change of cul¬ 
tivation may not be advisable in all parts of the country. 
The experiments that have been made, show that it can 
be done, but in which ®f the States it can be most advan¬ 
tageously adopted, remains to be decided by other expe¬ 
riments. I feel satisfied that before long, we shall see 
and consume corn stalk sugar in abundance. I remember 
when maple sugar could only be obtained of the blackest 
and coarsest kind, such as was strained through the dirty 
blankets of the aborigines, and sold in small cakes or 
birch baskets as a rarity. At the late Fair of the State 
Society at Poughkeepsie, I saw beautiful specimens of 
refined maple sugar, and even rock candy, which had ne¬ 
ver before been "made from the sap of the maple tree. 
The march of improvement is onward, and we shall see 
sugar from maize gradually introduced, as the process of 
granulation and refinement is improved, as has been the 
case with maple sugar. 
It is encouraging to the husbandmen of our country to 
know that there was a time when cotton, and wool, and 
silk, and sugar from the cane, were not raised in the Uni¬ 
ted States, while they are now firmly established. Maple 
sugar was always ’made in small quantity, but of late 
years, a large amount is manufactured, and refined equal 
to the best of imported sugar. So will corn stalk sugar 
be gradually improved and introduced. In some coun¬ 
tries, sugar is a mere luxury, but with most of the people 
of the United States, it is a necessary article of consump¬ 
tion. In addition to the sugar imported, there was made 
in the country in 1842, (as by Mr. Ellsworth’s report,) 
142,445,199 lbs. Every State in the Union except Dela¬ 
ware, makes sugar; the southern States, from the sugar 
cane,, and the northern and western- States from the ma¬ 
ple, (Acer saccharinum.) To supply the place of foreign 
sugar, let us persevere, until the manufacture of sugar 
from maize shall render it unnecessary to import the ar 
tide. Richmond. 
Oakland Farm, Staten Island, Nov. 25, 1844. 
Labeling Seeds _The Southern Cultivator furnishes 
a good hint to seedsmen, at all events a valuable one foi 
purchasers—that it would be better to put upon them the 
date of the year in which they were raised, instead of the 
[usual “ Warranted fresh.” 
