Part 19

But we suppose the truth to be this. The sap is prepared in the leaf and enters the distributing vessels of the plant. It is conveyed to every organ; each part, receiving its portion, _modifies it by a farther chemical action peculiar to itself_. Thus in the case of an apple-tree. The elaborated sap which goes to the leaf, the alburnum, the liber, the blossom, the fruit is the same in all; but the fruit gives it a still further elaboration, by which it imparts the peculiar properties belonging to it, in distinction from the tissues; so of the bark, the blossom, etc. If, then, the seed-vessels are removed, so much less elaborated sap is consumed as they would have required; and this, or at least, portions of it, are given to the other parts of the vegetable economy.

BLADING AND TOPPING CORN.

No one performs these operations for the benefit of the ear, but to obtain fodder, and it is then justified on the ground that the corn is not harmed by it. The sap drawn from the root does not flow straight up into the ear and kernel, but into the _leaves_ or blades. The carbonic acid of the crude sap is decomposed, oxygen is given off and carbon remains in the form of starch, sugar, gum, etc., etc., according to the nature of the plant. When sap has by exposure to light undergone this change it is said to be _elaborated_.

It is only now that the sap, passing from the upper side of the leaf to a set of vessels in the under side, is reconveyed to the stem, begins to descend, and is distributed to various parts of the plant, affording nourishment to all. But when the fruit of every plant is maturing, it draws to itself a large part of the prepared sap, which, when it has entered the kernel, is still farther elaborated, and made to produce the peculiar qualities of the fruit, whether corn or wheat, apple or pear. It is plain from this explanation that a plant stripped of its leaves is like a chemist robbed of his laboratory, or like a man without lungs.

If corn is needed for fodder, let it be cut close to the ground when the corn has glazed. The grain will go on ripening and be as heavy and as good as if left to stand, and the stalk will afford excellent food for cattle. Sheep are fond of corn thus cured, and will winter very well upon it. In husking out the corn, the husk should be left on the stalk for fodder.

MAPLE-SUGAR.

As most persons who have not informed themselves on the subject, imagine that we are indebted to cane-sugar for our main supply, and that maple-sugar is a petty neighborhood matter, not worth the figures employed to represent it, we propose to spend some space in stating the truth on this matter. We will exhibit, 1, the amount produced; 2, the proper way of manufacturing it; 3, the proper treatment of sugar-tree groves.

We shall confine our statistics to the most important Northern and Western States.

1. New York produces annually 10,048,109 lbs. 2. Ohio 6,363,386 “ 3. Vermont 4,647,934 “ 4. Indiana 3,727,795 “ 5. Pennsylvania 2,265,755 “ 6. New Hampshire 1,162,368 “ 7. Virginia 1,541,833 “ 8. Kentucky 1,377,835 “ 9. Michigan 1,329,784 “ --------------- Total Of nine States 22,464,799 “

Residue thus—add for Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin 2,030,853 “ --------------- 24,495,652 “

Something should be subtracted for beet-root and cornstalk-sugar. But on the other hand, the statistics are so much below the truth on maple-sugar, that the deficiency may be set off against beet-root and cornstalk-sugar. That the figures do not more than represent the amount of _maple-sugar_ produced in these States may be presumed from one case. Indiana is set down at 3,727,795; but in the four counties of Washington, Warrick, Posey and Harrison, no account seems to have been taken of this article. In Marion county, four of the first sugar-making townships, Warren, Lawrence, Centre and Franklin, are not reckoned. If we suppose these four townships to average as much as the others in Marion county, they produced 77,648 lbs., and instead of putting Marion county down at 97,064 it should be 174,712 lbs. It is apparent from this case, that in Indiana the estimate is far below the truth; and if it is half as much so in the other eight States enumerated,[7] then 22,464,799 is not more than a fair expression of the _maple-sugar_ alone.

Lousiana is the first sugar-growing State in the Union. Her produce, by the statistics of 1840, was 119,947,720, or nearly one hundred and twenty million pounds. The States of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, together, add only 645,281 pounds more.

Cane-sugar in the United States 120,593,001 lbs. Maple “ “ “ 24,495,652 “

Thus about one-sixth of the sugar made annually in the United States is made from the maple-tree.[8] It is to be remembered too that in Louisiana it is _the_ staple, while at the North maple-sugar has never been manufactured with any considerable skill, or regarded as a regular crop, but only a temporary device of economy. Now it only needs to be understood that maple-sugar may be made so as to have the flavor of the best cane-sugar, and that it may, at a trifling expense, be refined to white sugar, and the manufacture of it will become more general, more skillful, and may, in a little time, entirely supersede the necessity of importing cane-sugar. Indiana stands fourth in the rank of maple-sugar making States. Her annual product is at least _four million pounds_, which, at six cents the pound amounts to $160,000 per annum. A little exertion would quickly run up the annual value of her home-made sugar to half a million dollars.

Maple-sugar now only brings about two-thirds the price of New Orleans. The fault is in the manufacturing of it. The saccharine principle of the _cane and tree are exactly the same_. If the same care were employed in their manufacture they would be indistinguishable; and maple-sugar would be as salable as New Orleans, and if afforded at a less price, might supplant it in the market. The average quantity of sugar consumed in England by each individual is about thirty pounds per annum.

MAPLE-SUGAR MAKING.—Greater care must be taken in collecting the sap. Old, and half-decayed wooden-troughs, with a liberal infusion of leaves, dirt, etc., impart great impurity to the water. Rain-water, decayed vegetable matter, etc., add _chemical_ ingredients to the sap, troublesome to extract, and injuring the quality if not removed. The expense of clean vessels may be a little more, but with care, it could be more than made up in the quality of the sugar. Many are now using earthen-crocks. These are cheap, easily cleaned, and every way desirable, with the single exception of breakage. But if wood-troughs are used, let them be kept scrupulously clean.

The kettles should be scoured thoroughly before use, and kept constantly clean. If rusty, or foul, or coated with burnt sugar, neither the color nor flavor can be perfect. Vinegar and sand have been used by experienced sugar-makers to scour the kettles with. It is best to have, at least, three to a range.

All vegetable juices contain _acids_, and acids resist the process of crystallization.

Dr. J. C. Jackson[9] directs the one-_measured ounce_ (one-fourth of a gill) of pure lime-water to be added to every gallon of sap. This neutralizes the acid, and not only facilitates the granulation, but gives sugar in a free state, now too generally acid and deliquescent, besides being charged with salts of the oxide of iron, insomuch that it ordinarily strikes a black color with tea.

The process of making a pure white sugar is simple and unexpensive. The lime added to the sap, combining with the peculiar acid of the maple, forms a neutral salt; this salt is found to be easily soluble in alcohol. Dr. Jackson recommends the following process. Procure sheet-iron _cones_, with an aperture at the small end or apex—let them be coated with white-lead and boiled linseed-oil, and thoroughly dried, so that no part can come off. [We do not know why earthen cones, unglazed and painted, would not answer equally well, besides being much cheaper.] Let the sugar be put into these cones, stopping the hole in the lower end until it is entirely cool. Then remove the stopper, and pour upon the base a quantity of strong whisky or fourth-proof rum[10]—allow this to filtrate through until the sugar is white. When the loaf is dried it will be pure white sugar, with the exception of the alcohol. To get rid of this, dissolve the sugar in pure boiling hot-water, and let it evaporate until it is dense enough to crystallize. Then put it again into the cone-moulds and let it harden. The dribblets which come away from the cone while the whisky is draining, may be used for making vinegar. It is sometimes the case that whisky would, if freely used in a sugar camp, go off in a wrong direction, benefiting neither the sugar nor the sugar-maker. If, on this account, any prefer another mode, let them make a _saturated_ solution of loaf-sugar, and pour it in place of the whisky upon the base of the cones. Although the sugar will not be quite as white, the drainings will form an excellent molasses, whereas the _drainings_ by the former method are good only for vinegar.

CARE OF SUGAR ORCHARDS.—It is grievous to witness the waste committed upon valuable groves of sugar-trees. If the special object was to destroy them, it could hardly be better reached than by the methods now employed. The holes are carelessly made, and often the abominable practice is seen of cutting channels in the tree with an axe. The man who will murder his trees in this tomahawk and scalping-knife manner, is just the man that Æsop meant when he made the fable of a fellow who killed his goose to get at once all the golden eggs. With good care, and allowing them occasionally a year of rest, a sugar-grove may last for centuries.

As soon as possible get your sugar-tree grove laid down to grass, clear out underbrush, thin out timber and useless trees. Trees in open land make about _six pounds_ of sugar, and forest trees only about _four_ pounds to the season. As the maple is peculiarly rich in potash (four-fifths of potash exported is made from sugar-maple), it is evident that it requires that substance in the soil. Upon this account we should advise a liberal use of wood-ashes upon the soil of sugar-groves.

TAPPING TREES.—Two taps are usually enough—never more than three. For though as many as twenty-four have been inserted at once without killing the tree, regard ought to be had to the use of the tree through a long series of years. At first bore about two inches; after ten or twelve days remove the tap and go one or two inches deeper. By this method more sap will be obtained than by going down to the colored wood at first. We state upon the authority of William Tripure, a Shaker of Canterbury, N. H., that about seven pounds of sugar may be made from a barrel of twenty gallons, or four pounds the tree for forest trees; and two men and one boy will tend a thousand trees, making 4,000 pounds of sugar.

We would recommend the setting of pasture-lands, and road-sides of the farm with sugar-maple trees. Their growth is rapid, and no tree combines more valuable properties. It is a beautiful shade-tree, it is excellent for fuel, it is much used for manufacturing purposes, its ashes are valuable for potash, and its sap is rich in sugar. There are twenty-seven species of the maple known, twelve of them are indigenous to this continent. All of these have a sacharine sap, but only two, to a degree sufficient for practical purposes, viz., _Acer saccharinum_ or the common sugar-maple, and _Acer nigrum_ or the _black_ sugar-maple. The sap of these contains about half as much sugar as the juice of the sugar-cane. One gallon of pasture maple sap contains, on an average, 3,451 grains of sugar; and one gallon of cane juice (in Jamaica), averages 7,000 grains of sugar.

But the cane is subject to the necessity of annual and careful cultivation, and its manufacture is comparatively expensive and difficult. Whereas the maple is a permanent tree, requires no cultivation, may be raised on the borders of farms without taking up ground, and its sap is easily convertible into sugar, and if carefully made, into sugar as good as cane-sugar can be. Add to the above considerations that the sugar-making period is a time of comparative leisure with the farmer, and the motives for attention to this subject of domestic sugar-making seem to be complete.

* * * * *

LETTUCE.—Those who wish fine _head_ lettuce should prepare a rich, mellow bed of light soil; tough and compact soil will not give them any growth. In transplanting, let there be at least one foot between each plant. Stir the ground often. If it is very dry weather, water at evening _copiously_, if you water at all; but the _hoe_ is the only watering-pot for a garden, if thereby the soil is kept loose and fine. We have raised heads nearly as large as a drum-head cabbage by this method, very brittle, sweet and tender withal.

[7] Dr. J. C. Jackson puts Vermont at 6,000,000 lbs. per annum, while the census only gives about 4,000,000.

[8] The data of these calculations, it must be confessed, are _very_ uncertain, and conclusions drawn from them as to the relative amounts of sugar produced in different States, are to be regarded, at the very best, as problematical. We extract the following remarks from an article in the _Western Literary Journal_, from the pen of Charles Cist, an able statistical writer:

“It is not my purpose to go into an extended notice of the errors in the statistics connected with the census of 1840. A few examples will serve to show their character and extent. In the article of hemp, Ohio is stated to produce 9,080 tons, and Indiana 8,605—either equal nearly to the product of Kentucky, which is reported at 9,992 tons, and almost equal, when united, to Missouri, to which 18,010 tons are given as the aggregate. Virginia is stated to raise 25,594 tons, almost equal to both Kentucky and Missouri, which are given as above at 28,002 tons. Now the indisputable fact is, that Kentucky and Missouri produce more hemp than all the rest of the United States, and ten times as much as either Ohio, Indiana, or Virginia, which three States are made to raise 50 per centum more than those two great hemp-producing States.

“The sugar of Louisiana is given at 119,947,720 lbs., equal to 120,000 hhds., 160 per cent. more than has been published in New Orleans, as the highest product of the five consecutive years, including and preceding 1840.

“But what is this to the wholesale figure-dealing which returns 3,160,949 tons of hay, as the product of New York for that article! a quantity sufficient to winter all the horses and mules in the United States.

“Other errors of great magnitude might be pointed out; such as making the tobacco product of Virginia 11,000 hhds., when her inspection records show 55,000 hhds., thrown into market as the crop of that year. Who believes that 12,233 lbs. pitch, rosin and turpentine, or the tenth part of that quantity, were manufactured in Louisiana in 1840, or that New York produced 10,093,991 lbs. maple-sugar in a single year, or twenty such statements equally absurd, which I might take from the returns?”

Mr. Cist will find in the appendix to Dr. Jackson’s Final Report on the Geology of New Hampshire, a statement, that Vermont makes 6,000,000 pounds of sugar annually. If this be so, we may, without extravagance, suppose that New York reaches 10,000,000 lbs. So far as we have collateral means of judging, the amount of maple-sugar is _under_-stated in the census of 1840.

[9] Appendix to final Report on the Geology and Mineralogy of New Hampshire, page 361. This admirable Report is an able exposition of the benefit of public State surveys.

[10] If those who drink whisky would pour it on to the sugar in the refining cones, instead of upon sugar in tumblers, it would refine _them_ as much as it does the sugar; performing two valuable processes at once.

GEOLOGICAL DEFINITIONS.

Many terms, in general use among scientific men, and usually employed in agricultural works, are obscure to young readers. For their sakes we will explain some of them; and shall not be angry if _old_ men profit by the explanation.

SOIL.—The surface-earth, of whatever ingredients it may be composed. It may be a clay-soil, a sand-soil, a calcareous soil, as the surface is composed of clay, or sand, or clay strongly mixed with lime, etc.

SUBSOIL.—The earth lying below the ordinary depth to which the plow or spade penetrate. Sometimes it has hardened by the running of the plow over it for a series of years; then it is called _pan_, as hard-pan, clay-pan, etc. It is sometimes of the same nature as the top-soil, as in clay-lands; in others it is a different earth; as when a coarse gravel underlies vegetable mold, or when clay lies beneath sandy soil.

SUBSOIL PLOWING.—In ordinary plowing, the share runs from five to seven inches deep. A plow has been constructed (called subsoil plow), to follow in the furrow, and break up from six to eight inches deeper—so that the whole plowing penetrates from ten to sixteen inches.

SUBSOIL PLOW.—A plow having a narrow “_double share_, or a small share on each side of the coulter, and no mold-board.” It is designed to break up and soften the subsoil, but not to bring it up to the top.

MOLD.—A soil in which decayed vegetable matter largely predominates over _earths_. Thus, leaf-mold is soil _principally_ composed of rotten leaves; dung-mold, of dung reduced to a fine powdery matter; heath-mold, a black vegetable soil found in heath-lands; peat-mold, forest-mold, garden-mold, etc.

LOAM.—Clay, or any of the primitive earths, reduced to a mellow, friable state by intermixture of _sand_, or vegetable matter, is called loam. Clay lands well manured with sand, dung, or muck, are turned, gradually, to a loam.

ARGILLACEOUS.—From the Latin (_argillaceus_,) soil principally composed of clay.

ALUMINA OR ALUMINE.—Generally employed to signify _pure_ clay. It is, chemically speaking, a metallic oxide; _aluminium_ is the metallic _base_, and is an elementary substance.

It is generally known that the _diamond_ is pure carbon (charcoal is carbon in an impure state), but it is not as generally known that the _ruby_ and the _sapphire_, “two of the most beautiful gems with which we are acquainted, are composed almost solely of alumina,” or pure clay in a crystallized state.

SILICIOUS.—An earth composed largely of silex. _Silex_ or _silica_ is considered to be a primitive earth constituting flint, and containing most kinds of sands, and sandstones, etc. China or porcelain, ware is formed from silica and alumina united, _i. e._ from silicious sand and clay.

CALCAREOUS.—A soil into the composition of which lime enters largely. Limestone lands are calcareous. Pure clay manured freely with marl becomes calcareous, for marl is, mostly, clay and carbonate of lime.

ALLUVIAL.—Strictly speaking, alluvium or our alluvial soil, is a soil formed by causes yet in existence. Thus a bottom-land is formed by the wash of a river. It is usually a mixture of decayed vegetable matter and sand.

DILUVIAL.—A diluvial soil or deposit is one formed by causes no longer in existence. Thus a deposit by a deluge is termed _diluvial_. The word is derived from the Latin (_diluvium_), signifying a deluge.

The terms argillaceous, calcareous, silicious, alluvial and diluvial are constantly employed in all works which treat of husbandry.

FRIABLE.—A friable soil is one which crumbles easily. Clay is _adhesive_, or in common language _clammy_: leaf-mold is friable, or crumbling. Clay becomes friable when, by exposure to air or frost, or by addition of sand, vegetable matter, etc., it is thoroughly mellowed.

DRAINING WET LANDS.

Before many years there will be thousands of acres pierced with drains. But the inducements to it which make it wise in England and New England do not yet, generally, exist in the West. The expense of draining one acre would buy two. Many farmers have already more arable land than they can till to advantage. Land redeemed from slough would not pay for itself in many years.

But although a general introduction of draining would not be wise, there are many cases in which, to a limited extent, it should be practised. Lands lying near to cities are sufficiently valuable, and the market for farming products sure enough, to justify the reclaiming of wet pieces of land. On small farms of forty and eighty acres, surrounded by high-priced lands, not easily procured for enlarging his farm if the owner should wish it, draining might be employed with advantage. A man with a _small_ farm can _afford_ expenses for high cultivation which would break a _large_ farmer.

Some times a large meadow or arable field is marred by a wet slash through the middle of it; a farmer would not begrudge the labor of draining for the sake of having his favorite field without a blemish. Sometimes farms are intersected by wet lands, which make the passage from one part of the farm to another difficult at all times, and almost impassable at some seasons of the year. Draining might be resorted to in such a case, not so much for the sake of the land reclaimed, as for the convenience of the whole farm.

We know pieces of wet, peaty meadow land lying close by the farm-house, the only drawback to the beauty of the place. A good farmer would wish to recover such a spot for the same reason that he would prefer a handsome house to a homely one—a fine horse over a coarse-looking animal—a sightly fence, rather than a clumsy one. There is much strong land—but high, flat, and cold—which is wet through all the spring, resisting seed till long after other portions of the farm are at work, and which would, but for this backwardness, be regarded as the best land. If without great expense, such land could be cured, few farmers would mind the trouble or labor.

There are three kinds of draining which may be employed according to circumstances—subsoil-plowing, furrow-draining and ditch-draining. When a soil is underbound by a compact, impervious _subsoil_, all the rain or melting snow is retained in the soil until it can _exhale_ and evaporate. For the subsoil acts like a water-tight floor, or the bottom of a tub. Subsoil-plowing, by thoroughly working through this under crust, gives a downward passage to the moisture; water sinks as it does in sandy loams. Nor will such treatment be less useful to prevent the injury of summer drought; for the depth of soil affords a harbor for roots from whence they can draw moisture when the top-soil is dry as ashes.