Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-11-15
SUGAR CORN.

New things are not always true things, but
when a new thing has been in a great measure
proved to be both good and useful, it has a fair
claim to have its excellence still further tested by
those who have time and facilities for the purpose.
We are induced to make these remarks, from time
to time in the papers, accounts of the celebrated
Chinese Sugar Cane. When we remember that a
great portion of the best vegetables, fruits and
grains in daily use we're once strangers to us and
to our ancestors, and that they were. obliged to
stand the test of experiment or introduction to a
new climate, it may well be asked if it be not
worth while to make some effort to render com.
mon a plant which will, possibly enable us to
raise all our own sugar.
Early and satisfactory experiments with the Chi.
nese Sugar Millet, Cane or Sugar Broom Corn,
were made in Georgia by Governor Hammond,
with the result that seventy five plants will Weld
six gallons of juice, which will make one gallon
of syrup while on an acre of land that will make
a bale of cotton, thirty to forty thousand such
canes may be grown. AS the experiment in boil
ing down, upon which this estimate is based, was
conducted in the most inartiicial and rudest man
ner, the inference Is strong that with proper ma
chinery a much higher proportion of syrup would
BE obtained.
In the New York Evening Post Of the 25th inst,
We fpd a further account Of this remarkable pro-
duction, from which we learn that Mr.. Richard
Peters, of Georgia who at first regarded the plant
as a ~humbug, found by experiment, that it was an
article of immense value, showing that every
farmer can now make syrup at a cost of from ten
to fifteen cents a gallon rate of syrup per acre
four hundred and sixty-eight gallons. The writer
furnishing these facts appears to have satisfactory.
ly experimental with it himself in the vicinity of
New York. lie declares that the splant is quite
hardy aad that up to the 22nd October the frost
had not affected it. From another source we have
the statement that this Mr.. Peters had made up-
wards of 300 gallons of this syrup.
From the st. Louis Republican we have the
following relative to the cane in the West.
THE experiments made by Major Sibley, of St.
Charles, and Mr.. Greyer of this country, in the
culture of the sugar.cane, appear to have been
simultaneous with efforts made in other portions
of the United States, nnd in higher latitude
These gentlemen used the seed Of the Japan and
Chinese cane, and as we have already noticed, ex.
hibited at the recent st. Louis Fair, specimens OF
the cane and seed, together with samples of the
syrup obtained By IA process Of their own"
Molasses has been made of it at Newton Centre
Massachusetts,. The exoerimenter, confirming
the statement of Sibley, submitted to the Agricul
trral Association that it can be cultivated anywhere
: south of latitude torty-two. But we must no
as yet ''settlsd down" to our climate and soil. Ii
the opinion of II. A. Greer, scotsman and florist
who has at present sugar cane growing near thi,
city, it will grow wherever the Indian corn viii
flourish, but it increases in saccharine quality al
it goes South, and it is as yet a matter Of doub
Wnetner IL VIII, III tneS6 uOTtnern regions Yield Su
gar enough to make it profitable. We must be
ware with all new discoveries, of expecting too
much. Ii the sugar corn can only be made t
flourish in The States south of Virginia, and if i
yield as much sugar as the common cane, We have
an unestimable gift in prospective. Few persons
are aware Of the extent to which maple sugar alon,
is made in this country. In 1850 it amounted t
"a, 253, 436 pounds. and has greatly increased sine,
then. With the sugar corn growing in "a great va
riety of States, thousands Of miles apart, Their
would be little reason to fear, as we now do
failure of sugar crops and changes in West In
dian market. But if the corn in question cal
be pro6tably cultivated in the country at all
aud more easily than the delicate, troublesome
and continually -dying-out sugar cane, we nee
4 not complain because it is not universal.
At present the whole country lays almost twic
as much as it should for sugar, for the sake o
protecting the interests of about fourteen hun
, dred sugar planters who are obliged to contin
ually Import seed from Cuba, and who have abou
one half or a two-tbird crop two years out o
three. If what little protection the country en-
t Joys is to be monopolized by the South, that i
may have the supplying us with this or tina
product, let US at least have as much of tn
product as we require. Experiments--and
:, rery costly experiment, too, has shown that tn,
ordinary sugar cane cannot be raised in a salts
factory, steady, and reliable manner in this
B country and such being the case, we trust tn,
farm rs will lose no time IN turn ng their attcn
J ton to the Chinese cane.