The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-06-22

is stormy or severely cold or hot.
They are less liable to injury
and less subject to disease. For
drawing heavy loads over poor roads or
plowed fields they are vastly superior to
horses. They are better for hauling manure,
as they work well when attached to carts
having but two wheels. Oxen make an ex-
cellent team for breaking prairie, for repair
ing roads. for hauling stone, and for clear
ing land of stumps. Several pairs of oxen
can be worked together 10 better advantage
than horses Oxen, if not kept till they are
quite old. can be converted into marketable
beef and sold at a price that viii pay for
raising and keeping them. Their labor will
be gain. Horses, however, begin to depre-
ciate in value soon after they attain their
growth, and eventually become of no value.
Experime nts with Sorghum.
A few acres of sorghum, of the early am
Der and early orange varieties were grown
upon the farm of the Ohio State University
the past season. for the purpose of testing
their value as syrup producers, n also OF
investigating the clarifying process described
in the recent publications of the Department
of Agriculture at Washington.
The general conclusions drawn from these
experiments were as follows:
]. The early amber cane IS a little too
early, and OF rather too small a habit OF
growth, to yield the best returns IN our lati-
tude. For certain purposes il will be found
profitable to cultivate this variety; as for
farms and districts where n mill must
work a large amount of cane, and therefore
must ruu for as long a time as possible.
Here the early amber would be found very
valuable. as il would enable the mill to be
started by the middle of August, while a
succession of later varieties would keep il
running until late in the fall. The small
ness of the habit of growth of this variety.
may be partially compensated for by thicker
planting. We have no reason to consider it
any richer in cane sugar than any other va
rieties of sorghum, but upon this point we
can not speak with authority.
.. The early orange proved with us a
very late variety, but few of the heads being
ripe when frost came. 1t made a very fine
article of syrup, and yielded so per cent.
more to the acre than the amber. This,
however, was chiefly owing TO its more Wig
orous habit of growth. Had the amber been
planted enough thicker to counterbalance
its smaller siee the difference in yield would
not have been so great. The orange showed
one popularity which | never seen in any
other variety of sorghum. which was that
the deposit, which sometimes so troubles
the manufacturers by adhering to the bot
tom of the pan, in thisc case remained in sus-
pension in the syrup, in the form of a
white. fOury powder, which settled to the
| OOIIDm OI Tie NCSCCl Mlltn az ICSl.
3. We came decidly TO the conclusion
that heat and the skinner are the best
CHARTERS for sorghum juice, when strip is
desired. Lime. no matter how carefully il
was added, nor how well it was neutralized
with acid, invariably darkened the product.
Heat %coagulates the albumen of the juice
this. in rising, carries to the surface all
particles of cellular tissue and other light
impurities which may be heldin suspension
cd ithaca rnar no fhnrnnUhlU rananuaH hu
the skinner To accomplish this the juice
must be keptat a shallow depth in the par
from one to two inches-and there must
be portions of the surface free from ebulli
ton. in which the skum may collect, and
from which it must be faithfully removed
hat a larger per cent of crystallizablt
cane sugar may be obtained by the use o.
some chemical CHARTERS is indicated by the
following analysis, kindly made for us By
Professor n. w. Lord, of the two samples o
syrup, the first (a) having been made with
out any c~lariiier, while i'm the second (b) the
juice was first defeated by the addition o
milk of lime, and the lime atterward neu
tralized with %sulphurous acid:
(a) Unclarifed, cane sugar %. per cent.
grape A 0 per cent.
Q) Clarified, cane 29.7 per cent.
grape e" 400 per cent.
We see no encouragement in our expert
ments for the hope that sugar Will ever b.
/ tCOllOIlltdtlN Uldlt lTOIh tile sorghum DN Tilt
appliances within the reach of the ordinary
farmer. That sugar exists IN this cane il
profitable quantities is fully demonstrated
but to extract it with certainty and economy
will require such an expensive outfit in tn
way of machinery, and such a thorough
knowledge of the business, as to make it
specially, inst as the making of bee
sugar is now. Nevertheless w
see every reason to cOnside
sorghum as among the profitable crops o
Ohio agriculture. 1t is ne more difficult t.
obtain a yield of 100 gallons of sorghum mo
lasses to the acre than to get twenty bushel.
of wheat or fifty bushels OF corn. A crop OF
this size may be raised and manufactured
into strip for thirty cents per gallon, while
crops of twice this amount are frequently
produced, and, of course, the larger the croI
the smaller the relative cost of production
One item of sorghum culture has, hereto
fore, been generally overlooked by farmers
and that is the value of the seed for feedin,
purposes. Experiments made on the farm
during the past winter have fully confirmed
The statement of DIR. Collier in the report o
The Department of Agriculture for 1879, tina
this seed is very near equal to corn in feed
ing value. An acre of sorghm should yielC
from twenty to thirty bushels of seed, cwin;
to variety and yield, while the seed may bt
stripped by the machinery used in ~strippin,
broom corn at a very small expense.
Farm and Workshop Notes.
Hydraulic cements do not shrink in har
dening and make an excellent mortar with
out any mixture of sand.
Combustion of coal under boilers is tn
most complete will frings or charges at in
t~ervals Of from fifteen to twenty minutes.
Lorin Stoddard, a farmer in Harrisville
y. Y, in 1876 procured a single kernel O
Centennial oats and planted it. His prod
uct seed grown from this single grail
amounted to 100 bushels by measure, bu
135 by weight, the grain being so plum
and heavy.
Be sure that the corn you plant has
good pedigree Pedigree in Seed is of a