and take the plug from the bottom, and let it drain. The flannel cloth I keep wet from day to day. The sample which you have seen was done in this way, with the addition of being repeated after once draining. Should you wish for further information, or a more extensive sample, please send me word to that effect, and it will be cheerfully given. You will please accept of my thanks for your kindness. Hon. H. L. ELLSWORTH. Yours, &c. No. 15-(3.) MOSES EAMES. EXHIBITION OF MAPLE SUGAR IN NEW YORK. The samples of maple sugar surpassed any thing of the kind we have seen; they were as white as loaf sugar. We have samples before us. The process of clarifying this sugar having been communicated to us, and it being both new and important, we give it to our readers. The liquor is strained, and put into sheet-iron pans under a stone arch, and boiled. Into three gallons of sirup stir half a pint of milk and the white of two eggs; then place it in a sheet-iron pan on a stove until it boils. Strain and boil it until it will grain; and then let it stand about six hours before it is drained. This drain is made with four pieces of board, converging to a point; the molasses drains off at the bottom; a wet flannel cloth is kept on the sugar three days. This is the recipe by which the young lady (Miss White, of Delaware county, New York) perfects the process of clarification. No. 16-(1.) CORN-STALK SUGAR. NEW HARMONY, INDIANA, November 19, 1844. SIR: You having deemed my communication to the Indiana Statesman worthy a place in your last report to Congress, I am induced to send you some account of my experiment this year in the manufacture of corn-stalk sugar. As I have but little to add to my last year's statement on the growth and manufacture, I shall confine myself principally to a comparison of the product and expense with that of raising corn, our great staple production. Having but a small farm, and being desirous only of making sugar sufficient for my own use, my experiments will not compete with others who have gone more extensively into the business; but, as regards the results, they are perhaps, in most respects, as conclusive as any other. Should any statement, however, be sent to you more satisfactory, you can cast this aside. I planted this year three-fourths of an acre, the land being hill-side, and subject to wash. The soil was thin and light, and the crop of stalks was by no means a good one. There were 33 rows in the piece, the average of which yielded 14 lbs. to the row of the crystallizable sirup. This will give for an acre 616 lbs.; and, as I am still inclined to believe that it yielded two-thirds sugar and one-third molasses, (perhaps more sugar, as I have no means of proving this accurately at present,) I think it would be fair to estimate it at 5 cents per lb., which would give for the acre $30 80. Side by side, in the same field, I had corn. This yielded about 50 bushels to the acre; and estimating this at 16 cents per bushel, its value here in the crib, it would give for the corn $8. The cultivation of each, up to the time of pulling off the ears, is the same: the pulling off the ears I will offset by the pulling off of the corn. I will now endeavor to estimate the expense of getting the stalks and manufacturing the sugar, and deduct this from the amount above stated; and, after deducting the expense for husking the corn, compare the results: Grinding: man and horse 54 days, at 75 cents per day Fuel: 2 cords of wood, at $1 per cord Interest and repairs on fixtures Husking corn: one man, two days Balance in favor of sugar experiment It will be seen, by a reference to the statement of Mr. Tillotson in your last report, that the cost for blading, grinding, &c., (without allowing any thing for interest and repairs,) was, for four acres, $31, or $7 75 per acre. His allowance for the man, per day, is the same; for the horse, 50 cents. For the horse I have only allowed 25 cents. Throwing out the item for interest, and it would leave the expense per acre $17 624-more than double the amount of Mr. Tillotson's calculation; showing how much the expense might be reduced on a large scale, and where they have the experience and convenient fixtures. It will also be seen, by a reference to Mr. Tillotson's statement, that his product was 200 gallons of the sirup for the four acres, or 50 gallons per acre. By dividing my 616 pounds by 12 pounds, (the weight of the gallon of sirup,) it will be seen that my yield was over 51 gallons per acre. I now propose taking a brief review of the other statements contained in your last report, with such observations on their practices, or my own, as may occur to me. Mr. Plummer, of Richmond, never could get the thermometer to rise higher than 226°. We never found any difficulty on this head, except in one instance in last year's experiment, when, on examination, it was found to be burnt on the bottom of the kettle; and this was believed to be the In that instance, it would not rise more than 230°; at all other times, we had no difficulty in raising the heat to 236° or 238°. cause. The next statement is Mr. Deaderick's, of Tennessee. Mr. D. found difficulties in crystallization, and thinks that "the age of the stalks most congenial to the granulating process is when the corn is just becoming too hard for the purpose of cooking." I should think that leaving the ears on this long would be fatal to the richness of the juice, and also probably so to the granulation. I have had no difficulty with the crystallization; it commences in from twelve to forty-eight hours after the boiling has ceased, and the result is somewhere between two-thirds and three-fourths sugar. The next is Mr. Adams's. Mr. A., after stating his success and his difficulties, sums up by saying "that there are some four or five things that need to be made clear and well established, before complete success will attend our efforts." 1st. The first is the clarifying the juice. I am of the opinion that the lime is not necessary, and perhaps not useful, in the clarification. We have found no difficulty on this head, after a little experience; the only thing that is necessary is to take care to skim off all the impurities as they rise to the surface, before it commences boiling. Should the boiling commence before this is completed, a little of the cold juice thrown in will restore it to its original state, and the process can easily be continued till it is perfectly clear. The lime, I believe, is only necessary to neutralize the acid. 2d. Some means by which crystallization may be more sure and perfect. As I have observed before, I have had no difficulty on this head, and am inclined to believe that there would be none if the boiling is sufficiently rapid, and the temperature raised to 237° or 238°. 3d. The third is noticed in my remarks on the second. 4th. Draining or removing the molasses from the grained sugar. I, like Mr. Adams, have found difficulty here; and can say, with him, when the crystals are well formed, the whole mass seems to be of an adhesive gummy nature, that renders it strongly retentive of its molasses. 5th. A corn-stalk taste to the sugar. The sample sent you is just as the molasses has drained from it. My opinion is, not that it has a corn-stalk taste, but a slightly acid taste; and I think, if it was freed from its molasses, the sugar would not have this taste; the molasses, though clear, and not so dark colored as the Louisiana molasses, has more of this acid taste. Now, it will be seen that the only difficulties with me are the drainage and this acid. Probably the same means will at once remove both these difficulties. Lime is perhaps the neutralizer of this acid, and its only use in its manufacture. As I have said before, I do not deem it of any use in the clarification; and, moreover, I have been told that many of the boilers of cane juice do not put in the lime till after the juice is clarified; thereby showing that it is only used as a neutralizer, and the error has most likely been hitherto in not using a sufficient quantity. I used double the quantity this year that I did the year before, with but very little difference in the result; but I used the clear lime water, or simply what the water itself would take up; and I find, on inquiry, that this is a very small portion. Unless some one throws some additional light on this subject, I shall use it in future in another form, and larger quantity. There is nothing in Mr. Humphrey's communication but what has been already noticed in the preceding remarks, except that I deem all strainings and stoppings to let it settle, after it has once gone to the fire, as not only useless, but detrimental to the process. Some gentlemen speak of pans for the evaporation, five or six inches deep. I cannot conceive how it can be boiled with sufficient rapidity in such shallow vessels. I should think they ought to be double or treble the depth. I am told the cane sugar-boilers build up brick work around the tops of their kettles to a considerable height, to prevent the liquor from flowing over. It has been suggested, that pulling off the tassels would be a better mode, and secure the object in view more easily than pulling off the ears. I made, this year, an experiment to test this; and am satisfied that it cannot be done to any practicable extent. I planted in my garden, about the 15th June, a small patch of corn. I planted it thus late, to insure its not being impregnated by any corn in the neighborhood. As soon as the tassels began to show, they were carefully cut off; and this was done, from day to day, as long as any appeared. On examination, it was found that there was scarcely an ear but had some grains on it, and most of them were from one-fourth to three-fourths filled. I suppose that in one night one tassel might do considerable damage, and thus render all daily care abortive, and totally impracticable for a large piece. It has also been suggested, that the fodder that is stripped from the stalks would, in some measure, compensate for the operation. Unless the land is sufficiently rich without, I think it would be better to give it to the land. I threw mine into the furrow, and, as soon as I had done, I ploughed a furrow each way on to it, and left it to rot. This will account for my not having made an item of it in the comparison between corn and sugar. There remains but one thing more to notice, and I have done; that is, the proper time to use the stalks. I have not had as much experience on this subject as I could wish. My principal experience, I should say, has been with stalks rather late. The first that ever I tried (in 1841-a small quantity) was with young stalks: the sirup had grained sugar in it. The same year, some was pressed from stalks grown after the 1st of July: this, also, had grained sugar in it. Both these had somewhat of a corn-stalk taste; though this might arise from its not being properly treated in the first steps of boiling. My two last years, as I have already observed, have been late. Of the last I shall now speak. A severe drought in August hurried on my stalks to maturity before I was ready, and I began to be apprehensive that I should lose them. Having no one but myself and wife, who managed the boiling, it took us twelve days, as we could only press and boil every other day; but the juice and the yield was as good on the last day as on the first, and I believe that it might have been begun a week (or perhaps two) earlier, and continued the same time later, without making any material difference; thus showing that no critical period, as some have suggested, is necessary. I perhaps owe some apology to the gentlemen on whose communications I have remarked. I can only say that it has been done with a view to arrive at correct conclusions on this subject; and I trust, if they find any thing in mine that does not agree with their own experience, they will make equally free remarks. And if they or others have arrived at any conclusions that have escaped me, I shall also be glad to hear it. Respectfully, JOHN BEAL. Hon. H. L. ELLSWORTH. of tin, about eight inches by six, with holes in the bottom and rounding at the end, fixed in a wooden handle, will be found far more convenient for skimming than the ladle in common use. It will expedite the business if the fodder be stripped off the stalks the evening previous to the morning when they are intended to be cut; and afterwards the whole of the sheaths (or shucks, as they are called) about the joints must be carefully removed, and stalks perfectly clean. It is all-important that the juice be pressed out and set to boiling as speedily as possible after the stalks are cut. Not more than two hours should elapse before this is done; for if the stalks are permitted to lie, or the juice to stand longer than the time mentioned, fermentation will commence, and infallibly injure the quality of the molasses. As soon as a sufficient quantity of juice is received from the mill, it should be allowed to stand a few minutes for the coarser particles to subside, and then strained through a coarse cloth, and a table spoonful and a half of clear lime water added to each gallon of juice, and then poured into the kettle, and carefully watched and skimmed during the whole process of boiling. When iron pots or kettles are used, it is absolutely necessary that they be entirely free from rust, as the smallest portion of this would impart a dark color and ferruginous taste to the sirup, and also a dusky hue to coffee, when used in that way. With the fixtures above mentioned, and one horse, we made seven or eight gallons per day; but, being in no hurry, gen. erally ceased grinding about four o'clock in the afternoon, in order to finish boiling before night. By using two horses, or extending the operations to some time after dark, ten gallons daily could have been easily made. The molasses thus produced has over and again been pronounced, by numerous persons who have partaken of it, to be superior to the imported article; all, without exception, were fond of it; whilst among them were several who reject the use of cane molasses altogether. It may not be amiss here to repeat a remark made in a former communication, to wit: that, when intended to be used in coffee, the preferable and most convenient mode will be to mix it with the coffee when first made, and boil all together. It is probable that the influence of prejudice will, for some time, prevent a general substitution of corn-stalk sugar and molasses for the corresponding article of Louisiana and the West Indies; for there is something repulsive in the idea that a product of common corn stalk (an article with which we have been so familiar from our infancy) should come in competition with a similar one of the far-famed sugar cane, that comes from so great a distance, and costs so much. In view of the foregoing facts, it appears every way reasonable to believe that, before another year rolls round, a sufficient quantity of sugar and molasses can be made to supply our own wants in that respect. Yes, if every farmer in four or five of our most populous counties would each make only three or four barrels, it would probably amount to a greater quantity than is annually imported into the State. But will this be done? It may well be doubted; for it is a melancholy truth, that, with few exceptions, there does not appear to exist among the farmers of Tennessee (especially those of East Tennessee) a much greater amount of agricultural and manufacturing intelligence, enterprise, and industry, than one might reasonably expect to find in a colony of free negroes. WILLIAM H. DEADERICK. P. S. Persons desirous of further information on this subject can find |