Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-03-05
AGRICULTURAL.
A MASSACHUSETTS FARMER $ EXPERIMENT.
WITH SORGHUM.


ITO the sprin ghed Republican,
Will YOU allow me the use of your col
umns for brief statement of my expe-
rience with sorghum? My first acquaint-
ance with sorghum or Chinese sugar-cane,
as it was then called, WAS somewhere near
1857 with seed from government supply.
1t was planted on good corn land, and
well cired for. 1t came up slowly, grew
slowly, was killed by frost before heading
out and was entirely worthless. This
was in Massachusetts,. Eighteen hundred
and sixty-four found me in Illinois, IN the
corn region, and L tried the same variety
again with result of lGO gallons OF
syrup. weighing IL pounds to the gal
Ion. from each of three acres. The sea
son was very favorable, l had good
stand of cane, and there was no frost I'M
til October TO- In the succeeding four
years l got from .5 to 10 gallons per
acre. l then sold my mill and evapora-
| tor and should not have raised sorghum
if had remained there. l believe my ex-
perience was about that of my neighbors,
and the most successful farmers III that
| township do not raise it now. Any Mas
sachusetts farmer who may be thinking
of trying any variety of sorghum should
remember that, if ,he crop IS no. profit
able on tho corn land of Illinois, tho
chances are ten TO one against 1t here y
crop of 1000 pounds of raw snSar to the
acre will be possible when 200 bushels
sheiled corn per acre is; not before.
crop of 1000 pounds would cost more
than . 900 pounds of tobacco, and would
not bring SO much money L never saw
cattle hungry enough to eat the refuse.
\ | shall
The gentlemen who expressed his nten-
ton of setting up sugar mil can per-
haps get apparatus of the Massachusetts
agricultural college at half price.
F. L. SANDEEsoN.
Palmer, Mass, February 20, 1850.
From the Montpelier v atchmanl
VERMONT FARMERS AND THEIR RAILROADS.
The recent address Of Gov. smith be-
fore the dairyman's ASSOCIATION furnished
favorable opportunity for the farmers
present to ask him few questions about
railroad freights, the replies towhlch, the
various reports we have seen concur Ill
saying, were satisfactory. The only points
made public, SO far as we have seen, are,
first, that though Western butter comes
very cheaply from Chicago, 1t pays n
freight before reaching that city as
heavy as Vermont butter pays in going
to Boston and second, that local freights
have not been advanced TO make
up for losses on through frelghts
1t is unquestionably true that the butter
of the West does not reach Chicago with
out being subject to transportation
charges between the farm and that city;
and what we know of local rates on West
ern roads, where there is no competition,
disposes us readily to believe that these
charges are large. As regards the nd
vancement of local freights, we notice
that the governor did not say they had
not been advanced, but that they had not
been advanced 10 make upJor losses
on through treights Mr.. John NJ.
Stearns had letter in this paper few
months ago, in which he said, speaking
of an advance in local freights; This
matter has claimed my attention by bill
of freight of few barrels of apples from
Windsor, Vermont. For such freight, L
paid fifteen or twenty years ago sixty
cents barrel since, the freight has
goHs,sp on such articles to ninety cents;
but now>the charges are dollar and ten
cents a barrel" An extensive fruit grow
er in Addison county told us some time
ago that the freight on apples by the car
load from Middlebury to Boston was
eightv-six cents barrel, which We were
afterwards told was Just one cent barrel
more than the freight on apples from the
orchards in Michigan to st. Johnsbury
Farmers cannot afford to be unjust to
the railroads, and, in the long run, it
will not pay the railroads to be unjust to
the farmers. Where there is complaint,
there ought to be explanation; and where
examination shows that there is injustice,
it ought to be rectified. Vermont is a
small and rather thinly settled State, and
it has great many miles Of railroad IN
it. Its exportable products are not large,
and its business is not such as to give n
great amount of travel. If a State with
small population, doing small bust
ness, requires the advantages of railway
transportation, it must pay more for them
than q more thickly settled and active
section Of country. Though the rates
may be high, comparatively, they still
I NAV not pay. 1t was once thought that
the through business might be made
sufficiently profitable to permit OF lower
| rates for local business than a merely
local road could afford. But notwith-
standing the great amount of this through
business, competition has so reduced
rates that little can be expected from
that source in alienation of local charges.
All that can be fairly asked is that each
tub shall stand on its own bottom.
While the West may insist that We shall
not tax her business for the benefit OF our
own, we may equally insist that Western
produce shall pay its way, if ii comes this
way at all.
In Il conversation which we had last
fall with Mr. Cheney, Of the United States
and Canada Express, We asked
him why he could not give trensporta-
tion Of late strawberries from Northern
Vermont to Boston at prices that the
growers could live by. Too many diff
ferent railroads to so over" sand he.
We believe that we shall never be well
and cheaply served by our New Eng land
railroads until the main lines TO Boston
are consolidated