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SUGAR FROM THE AFRICAN SORGHUM.

Interesting Facts Concerning the Sorgho or Chi nese Sugar Cane, and the Imphee-Specimens of Sugar Exhibited-Manures, &c.

The Farmers' Club was called to order at the rooms of the American Institute, at noon, yesterday. Judge Livingston in the chair, and a large attendance of members present.

Horace Greeley introduced Mr. Leonard Wray, of Natal, South Africa, who has had more experience in the culture of the various specimens of Imphee, (including the Chinese sugar cane,) than perhaps, any other European, and has succeeded in obtaining as fine crystallized sugars directly from the juice as those resulting from the Louisiana sugar cane. He is referred to as the highest authority by M. Vilmorin, of France, Count de Beauregard, and the illustrious gentlemen of the Imperial Acclimation Society, and has visited this country, on invitation of a Governor of one of our Southern States, for the purpose of cuìtivating the varieties of the new sugar plant, which he considers most valuable, and to introduce the methods, discovered by himself, for obtaining the valuable product of crystallized sugar. His arri val at this moment of our first experience with the sorgho, can not but be considered most opportune, and the very valuable information which he possesses will be of first consequence in its prospective bearing upon our national revenue.

mals from making use of them, and on opening their stomachs after death, the fibrous Sorgho talks were found to have formed into hard balls and accumulated in such indigestible masses as to cause death. If, however, the bagasse had been fed with the scum which is removed from the boilers, this bad effect would not have been experienced. If fed green, as are cured corn stalks, there can be no more profitable or nutritious article employed, and for this alone its cultivation would be profitable. These crushed stalks or bagasse, make an excellent paper, and Mr. Wray has samples in England which are superior to straw paper.

Judge Meigs desired to know if there was much value in the seed. Mr. Wray said that for a feed for fowls there could be no better, and that from his African Imphees very fine bread can be made. The Chinese variety is not so good for this purpose, because of the bitter pellicle which surrounds the seed proper, lying under the outer black hull, but he had a process for obviating this difficulty. The seed would have an immense value for the manufacture of starch. The amount practically obtainable is forty-five per cent, and is more easy of extraction than that from the farinaceous Mexican corn; and from the ease of its manufacture and the high price of corn, it is evident that the "Imphee" will be cultivated to a considerable extent for this pur

pose.

Mr. Wray commenced by stating that he had The remarkable vitality of the plant is shown. discovered, growing wild upon the southwest by a statement made by Mr. Wray. He had a coast of Caffraria, the curious plant imphee, which plantation of it on his estate in Africa, which he was in common use amongst the natives as an wished to remove to give place to a crop of ararticle of food. He had been so favorably im-row-root. The field was thoroughly ploughed at pressed with its qualities as to undertake pro- the end of the season, and the stumps removed; tracted journeys to collect new varieties, and net but the few which escaped the notice of his with such success as to procure no less than six-workmen shot up into great luxuriance of growth, teen distinct kinds of greater or less saccharine richness. Some of the more precocious ones will complete their growth in three months, while others require as long as four and five.

and in two months and five days had attained the height of seven feet. As many as twenty-two stalks grew up from a single stump, and the juice of all these made as good sugar as the parent stem.

In our ow

The names of the sixteen varieties are as follows: Ne-a-za-na, Oom-se-a-na, Boom-ve-vaown country there have been similar na, Shla-yoo-va, Shla-goon-dee, Vim-bis-chu-a instances during the past season. Mr. Browne, pa, E-a-na moo-des, Zim-moo-ma-na, Zim-ba- of the Patent Office, it will be remembered by za-na, E both-la, E-thlo-sa, Boo-ee-a-na, En-ya- those of our readers who saw the articles prem3, Koom-ba-na, See-en-gla-na and E-en-gha.viously published in the Evening Post, states The first four of these are of quick growth, and will produce one crop of sugar at the North; the others are suitable for the South, and some of them will give two full crops.

For feeding to stock, Mr. Wray says there are no crops possessing an advantage over these Imphees. They are fully equal to southern cane, and are greedily eaten by every description of stock. He had fed his horses, cattle and pigs on them. The idea has been advanced by some in this country that the bagasses (stalks which have been crushed for sugar-making,) would be good feed for stock, but Mr. Wray had lost some ani

that five cuttings have been made in Florida from one set of stalks. In South Carolina, Georgia, Illinois and New Hampshire, three and two have been obtained; and we may safely calculate that as a fodder crop both the Chinese and these new African varieties will give us at the North two crops of excellent nutritious forage.

Mr. Olcott, of the Farm School, asked if the coloring matter from the seed hulls could be procured in such quantities as to make it a proitable department of industry? Mr. Wray replied that as yet the matter had not been definitely settled. He had not supposed it would;

but more extended experiment might prove to | does not average higher than 7 to 8, if we re-
the contrary. The tint is abundant in the en-member aright, and it shows what we may in
velope of the seed of the Chinese variety of future expect from the introduction of this valu-
sorgho. Fowls which had been fed on the seed able plant to the domain of our national agricul-
were found to have been tinted even to the cel- ture.
lular structure of their bones. Their dung was
colored of a purplish hue, and could be readily
distinguished in the yard from that of birds
which had not partaken of the seed; but this
peculiarity did not lessen its value as a food.
He had not tried it as a feed for horses because
of its extreme high price; and when he went to
Kaffirland the natives told him not to feed horses
on it as it made them "puffy." Mr. Olcott ex-
hibited specimens of ribbon colored with the dye
from the hulls of the sorgho seed, and stated that
he had scraped off some of the waxy efflorescence
from the stalk, and it burned with a clear flame.
Mr. Wray said this production would not be of
consequence, as the small quantity obtainable
and the tediousness of the operation of scraping
it from the stalks, would much more than coun-
terbalance any profit from its sale. He thought
the computations made by Mr. Hardy, the Direc-
tor of the Imperial Nursery at Hanima, Algiers,
could not be considered as at all practically val-

uable.

The quantity of juice to be obtained from the stalks was dependent upon the power of the mill. Count de Beauregard had sixty per cent; but his mill was an imperfect one. Under favorable circumstances as much as seventy per cent. might be calculated upon, and of this seventeen per cent. was crystallizable sugar. The quantity of sugar per acre he estimated at three thousand pounds, but both quantity and quality would be controlled by the perfection or imperfection of processes of manufacture. Mr. Wray had discovered the only successful method of obtaining the sugar which has been made public. M. de Montigny, Count de Beauregard and others, had sought in vain for it, but he had been fortunate enough to arrive at a complete success, as was proved by the samples of sugar which he exhibited to the club.

The seed heads should be thoroughly dried before the stripping of the seed is attempted, and can then be threshed out with flails in like manner to wheat, barley or other grain.

Professor Mapes inquired if the sap in the stalks will sour on exposure to the atmosphere, as is the case with the Louisiana cane, and if the crystallizable property was injured?

Several specimens were shown. One of them is not purged of the molasses, because Mr. Wray desired to prove that the syrup from the Imphee possesses no unpleasant flavor. We tasted it, and found it very pleasant in flavor, reminding one of maple sugar. Another sample had been purged; it presented the appearance of fine clayed Havana. The crystals are firm and sharp, and the taste is not different from good Havanas, which are now selling in the New York market at 11 and 12 cents, by the quantity.

Mr. Wray stated that on one occasion he had been absent from his estate when the canes were ready to be harvested, and his Kaffirs, thinking he would return within a day or two, had cut up and stacked his entire crop. He was not able to return, however, until after the expiration of a fortnight, and he then found that about one inch of either end of the stalks had soured; so, without further loss of time, he had set his men to work to remove these portions, and when the juice from them was boiled down, it made quite as good sugar as any previous sample.

The Zula Kaffirs put the stalks into pits which they dig in the ground, and preserve them perfectly for several months.

BAND PR

If Mr. Wray is not amiss in his calculations
as to the yield per acre, or if we can obtain but
one thousand pounds, what an immense gift to
American agriculture is he about to make? Our
rapidly waning crop of sugar is at once exchanged
for the greatest abundance, and a vast source of
wealth is opened for our farmers.
He has
already expended some twenty thousand dollars
in his experiments, and attempts to introduce it
into Europe, and it is to be hoped that his visit
to our country may prove remunerative in pro-
portion to the importance of his discovery to

In regard to the density of the sap, Mr. Wray adverted to a trial which had been made in Martinique, upon the estate of the Count de Chazelle, the object of which was to decide the comparative density of the sugar canes from the celebrated Grand Terre districts and of Mr. Wray's Imphees, both of which had been grown by the Count. The result was that the latter showed a density superior to the former by three and one-half degrees. The sugar cane gave 7 deg. Baume, and the Imphee 10 deg. This richness is quite remarkable, for ordinary Louisiana cane

ourselves.

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Inquiry was made by a gentleman present in
regard to some suitable crushing apparatus.
Mr. Hedges, the inventor of the Little Giant
Corn and Cob Mill, said he had invented a mill
for this purpose, which he had exhibited at the
recent Fair at Washington, and received a silver
medal. He had planted some five hundred hills
of seed in a hot-house in Philadelphia, and
would be able to crush the canes and make sugar
as early as June 1st, which would be ample time
for the next fall's crop.
His mill, of which he
showed a cut, consists of three vertical iron
rollers, of great strength, one of which is firmly
anchored in a beam set in the ground; the other
two are attached to the platform, so as to revolve

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IMPORTANCE OF EXERCISE.

Old age is called the winter of life, and with it are associated pain, infirmity and sorrow. The aged have lost the elasticity and freshness of earlier days. They are gradually sinking beneath the inevitable law that dooms man to the dust. Their sun is setting; their night draweth on.

Under these circumstances, they are sometimes disposed to withdraw entirely from active pursuits, and give themselves up to an indolent repose. They feel the need of rest and quiet in the evening of life; and surely they, if any, should enjoy this blessing. But they should never forget that the due exercise of mind and body is indispensable to happiness. Age brings no necessary exemption from this benevolent law. Said John Newton in his seventieth "We must work while it is day, for the year, night cometh." And he was himself an example of the happy influence upon the health and happiness of his own precept.

It af

We would not here recommend severe and protracted toil, but only regular and moderate exercise, in connection with some pleasing and useful employment. This accords with the laws of our being, whether in youth or age. fords a healthful invigoration and refreshment. It tends most happily to draw the mind away from that melancholy brooding over real or fancied ills, which dries up the fountains of life and joy within the soul, and in which the unemployed, especially in advanced years, are prone to indulge.

It is common to hear men talk of retiring from business, to enjoy at their leisure the fruits of previous toil. But such an expectation generally ends in disappointment. The pleasure so fondly anticipated in a freedom from toil and A feeling of care, comes not at the bidding. uncomfortable lassitude and impatience ensues. The elegant home, with its pleasant arrangements, its shady walks, its cool retreats, whatever taste and wealth can furnish for embellishment and comfort, is irksome to its possessor, and he almost sighs for the bustle and bondage he has left. And there is nothing strange in this. It is the natural result of a violent transition, and of the transgression of that law which makes us happy only as our powers are duly exercised.

It would be better far that instead of a sudden withdrawal, as age approaches, from the accustomed routine of labor, whether on the farm, in the shop, in the family or whatever else, there should be still such a continuance of effort as is proportioned to the gradually declining strength. And we may remark, by the way, that such a course would not only greatly conduce to happiness, but to Christian usefulness. It is by no means true, that a moderate attention even to worldly business, of necessity interferes with spiritual enjoyment and devotedness. We

may be diligent in business, and yet fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. And activity tends to avert that lassitude and dulness, that spiritual depression and decay of body and mind which are such powerful hindrances to usefulness.

If advanced years bring increased leisure, how well for the aged as well honoring to God, that it be employed in his direct service. What a delightful field of activity is here opened before a Christian in the evening of life! How pleasing to see him, as he gradually retires from worldly pursuits, turning with increased interest to the contemplation of heavenly things! Here his mind may be exercised according to the measure of its ability, and in a way most favorable to that calm and holy repose so desirable for the aged. In the exercises of devotion, in spiritual conversation, in ministering the sweet charities of the gospel to the poor and sick, and needy, and in other ways seeking the religious welfare of the community, as he has opportunity or ability, the aged saint would renew his strength; though old he would still be young. Many such we can recall to mind with their labors of love. They bear fruit in old age. They are fair and flourishing. Their hoary head, found thus in the ways of righteousness, is a crown of glory. And while they honor God, he honors and blesses them. From not a few of the evils incident to age, are they in a measure or wholly preserved. Even when the saint, through extreme infirmity, is a "prisoner of the Lord" at home, he may exercise his mind and brighten his declining days by nurturing the "hidden life" of piety. Such an earnest devotion to God, so long as the ability is granted, will prove a refreshing cordial to the soul. Aud that cheerfulness which is connected with the spirit of benevolence, is one of the sources of a vigorous old age.

Familiar converse with the writings of the good and gifted will afford a pleasing exercise to the mind, amid growing infirmities. Here, while the strength fails, the mind may be renewed day by day. Beside these fountains of holy thought and feeling, may the aged pilgrim sit and be refreshed. Here, by his fireside, what a noble company he may gather round him! with what glorious thoughts hold communion!

I have now in mind an aged saint, bent beneath the burden of more than fourscore years, a plain uneducated woman moving in a humble sphere, but favored with an excellent understanding, to whom a book, and especially the "book of books," was an unfailing companion. By this habitual communion with the pure and great, her mind, through the divine blessing, retained to the last almost the sprightliness of youth, even when the frail body was bowed and ready to fail. Well do I remember how her eye would kindle when he was presented with a new religious book; and the sublime views she would express of the majesty of God her Saviour

and the glory of heaven, were a pleasing proof of the happy influence of the practice we recommend; for who can doubt, that a premature decay of mental vigor would have resulted from the opposite course. Exercise, with the divine blessing, enabled her to maintain a vigorous life even to the borders of eternity.

When the sight at last grows dim, then highly favored is the aged Christian to whom some loving voice conveys those thoughts, which his eyes can no longer trace upon the printed page. And the aged should, if possible, enjoy this daily privilege. Without it, we have known them to spend their last days in sadness and suffer a premature decay.

If at length the mind of the aged becomes too weak to follow even the reading of a book, the contemplation of divine love will warm the heart, and enkindle the mind, even when exhausted by extreme old age.

But heart and flesh at last must fail,-be dissolved. Then will the saint leave behind forever the weakness of earth.

*

*

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Extract from "The Evening of Life."

THE BOTANY OF A LUMP OF COAL.

Had such an idea been started sixty years ago, as that a piece of coal could have any connection with botany, it would probably have been set down as the invention of some fanciful brain. Strange, however, as it may seem, every piece of coal which contributes to the warmth and comfort of our dwellings in winter, has a history which, read aright, reveals metamorphoses more wonderful, because true, than those of fairy tales. Is not coal, then, a mineral? It is, and it is not. Possessed of all the appearance and external characters of a mineral, it yet reveals to him who knows how to interrogate it aright, proofs of an organic origin, which show that its present place is not its birthplace. It was once a vegetable: it is now a mineral, or at least has most of the characters of one. If we take a piece of coal and grind it down to a film so thin that light will pass through it (and this may be done,) we shall probably find, on submitting it to the microscope, that it possesses some traces of organic structure; and if we take one such section which is better preserved than many, and compare it with a very thin slice of some kind of wood (a very thin deal shaving, for example,) it will immediately be found to present so many features of resemblance, that it would seem hardly possible to escape from the conclusion that this seeming mineral was once itself wood. But how, then, has the strange alteration in its appearance, character, and properties been effected? It is the object of this paper to explain the mystery, so far as the light of science has hitherto enabled us to penetrate it.

One of the earliest of the geological eras of

the world's history is that known as the carboniferous period, during which a series of strata or beds of rock, clay, etc., were accumulated 4000 or 5000 feet in thickness, and which are found to a greater or less extent in almost every part of the globe. In some parts of these strata are found those wonderful beds of coal which are of such vast importance to our country, and which have contributed so greatly to its prosperity. The carboniferous group of strata may be divided into three principal beds, each of which is composed of many lesser layers. The first of these is the mountain limestone, attaining in England a thickness of 2400 feet, and so called because of the many mountains which are in part at least formed of it. In Derbyshire and Ireland it is extensively found, and it contains the remains of corals, shells, and zoophytes, in such vast numbers that they constitute in some places three-fourths of its mass. The beautiful "encrinital marble," so often used for mantelpieces, is mountain limestone. Most of the lead ore found in England is discovered in this rock. Over the mountain limestone lie the coal beds, and over that the "millstone grit." These three form the carboniferous group; but it is to the coal beds only that we shall now pay attention. It must not be supposed that the coal lies in one solid mass or stratum, and that miners have only to penetrate this to get out all that they require. The coal strata consists of a very numerous series of layers of different kinds, which are, as it were, interleaved with beds of coal of varying thickness and at uncertain intervals. Thus, in the colliery at Tividale, near Birmingham, no less than sixty-five layers or beds, all of which belong to the "coal measures,' are found to overlie the mountain limestone, and to contain, interspersed among them, eleven beds of coal, which vary in thickness from 9 inches to 10 feet. As a specimen of the manner in which they occur, we will quote the following from the list of the strata: it is a descending

series.

48th bed-Slate clay, 49th "

50th " 51st 66

52nd " 53rd "

Bituminous shale,

Main coal, 10 feet thick,
Slate clay,

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Coal, 2 feet thick, Slate clay; and so forth. At Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire, the coal formation includes 130 beds of various substances, in all, 600 feet thick, and comprising thirteen beds of coal. In some of the beds of slate clay, which lie next to the strata of coal, the clay or shale is found full of the leaves of plants in the most beautiful preservation, except that they are turned perfectly black. The shale may generally be easily split into thin leaves, upon the surface of which these remains of the coal plants will be found. Indeed, so abundant are they, that a colliery can hardly

be visited, where some of these remains may not be detected on a slight search. The leaden color of the slate clay shows the forms of the leaves in the most perfect manner; and although their substance is carbonized or converted into coal, every vein and marking are as admirably preserved as if it were a beautifully dried specimen for the herbarium of the botanist. This fact strongly corroborates what the microscope has told us respecting the vegetable origin of coal.

But it will be interesting to know something respecting the plants of which these long entombed relies tell us the existence and history. The most numerous remains are those of various kinds of ferns or brakes, many presenting the most elegant forms, while some have evidently been true ferns, a branch of this beautiful family now found only in the warmer climates of our earth as at present constituted. Another common plant in the coal strata is the "astrophyllites," of which various species are found. It much resembles in form the "wcodruffe" of our thickets, or the goosegrass or cleavers of our hedges, though it is manifestly different in botanical structure from either. Leaves of various palms are also among these remains. Stems and trunks of various kinds of trees are found. Of these, two or three are especially remarkable. The lepidodendron was a tree of which there were several kinds, and which had a tall, scaly, branched trunk, often seventy or eighty feet high-for some have been found of that length. There is no modern plant which seems to bear any resemblance to this beautiful denizen of the ancient forests. Their nearest living allies as to structure would appear to be the humble clubmosses of our heaths and moors. In boggy ditches and in damp corn fields, a plant with a scored, jointed stem, and slender, whorled leaves, is very common in England-the horsetail, or equisetum, of which there are several species. A very abundant fossil in the coal shales-the calamitis-was of a similar kind, but of immensely larger size. Our existing equisetums seldom exceed three feet in height, and the stems are not often more than a quarter of an inch thick, and commonly are much smaller than that; but their relatives of the coal period were mostly fourteen or fifteen feet high, with stems from six to twelve inches thick. Another remarkable tribe, for which no living representative has been found, were sigillarias-plants with large fluted stems and a soft interior. Their roots, as thick as a man's arm, are very common in the shale, and are known by the name of stigmaria, being until lately supposed to have been the stems of a distinct plant. Trunks of coniferous trees (i. e. similar to the pine and fir) are also found in the coal beds. Some fruits have also been met with. Three-cornered nuts, generally acknowledged to be the fruits of some species of palm, are found in clusters; while others (Lepidostrobi,) some.

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