Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1858 — Farmer's Department [ARTICLE]

Farmer's Department

- CONDUCTED BT AM AGRICULTURIST. Wll ri_.. —... i . —.. . ~ CHINESE SUGAR CANE. We hope that each farmer in Jaspercounplant, this year, enough of this valuable addition to the productions pf the Northern States, to make his own sirup; and for your encouragement and edification, we will give you what facts, relating to the cultivation of it, the experiments of last year elu4tida|fdt. that almost every one made the same’mistake last year, that of planting it (In drills; for experience has demonstrated that it will yield much more sirup to the acre if planted in hills, as other corn, only !• little thicker, say three feet apart, and

from four to six stalks in a hill. Mr. Aaron H. Vestal, of Cambridge City, Indiana, produced last year one hundred and thirteen pounds of sugar from the eighth of an acre, by planting as above mentioned. It should be cultivated much the same as other corn, though while small it will require more hoeing, as the young plants a|re so small tha€it cannot be cleaned in the hill with a plow. Three or four workings are sufficient to produce a luxuriant crop. Another universal mistake last year was, that th? cane was cut too early, as the following statement, verified upon, oath, will clearly prove: Mr. David G. Rabb, of Ohio County, says that he expressed juice, on the 17th day of September, seven gallons of Which made a gallon of sirup of Viirtybight degrees density, by Baume’s Saccharametrr. , October 13, five gallons of juice t inade one of sirup of forty-four degrees density; November 12, four and a half gallons of juice made one of sirup of fifty-five degrees density; December 2, four and a half

gallons of juice made one of sifup too thick to be tested by Sacchapmetcr. Rabb says: "On the 17th of December I pressed from forty pounds of cane twenty pounds of juice, four and a quarter gallons of which made a gallon of sirup of fifty degrees density. In my opinion the cane at this time was in better order for making sugar, than at any other in the season.” He found that in the experiments of the 17th and 27th of September he could not force the sirup to crystalization; that of October 13 crystalized until one-fourth of the quantity became sugar; that of November 1‘ one-third became sugar. Thus it increased, withont any diminution in the qahtity of juice in the. cane, until on the 17th of December the crystals appeared, before the sirup Was cool. But wc have already said enough to convince you that, by a little labor, you can just as easilj- keep in your own pockets the dollars that you annualy expend for sugar and molasses, as not; and not only keep the money, but also have a superior Article to that you buy. One says, “it looked like new-made honey, - ’ another, “it was eqnal to Shy golden-sirup.” In fact, all speak of it in the highest terms. We will, when the season comes around, givtv tho modus operandi for crystalizir.g the sirup. Now, we hope thievery farmer will plant at least one-eighth of an acre, and thus retain in Jasper county the hundreds of dollars annually sent out for sugar and molasses.