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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, DECEMBER 1, 1883.
S£ht %gfoi[h Ml**#-
Silk Culture.
SECOND PAPER.
I am confident, many are giving this sub
ject due consideration, and if our people wilt
only have the faith to adopt, and the resolu
tion to persevere, silk culture will prove the
greatest blessing this country ever knew. It
offers an easy and remunerative employment
to hundreds of feeble hands unfit for man
ual labor, and to toiling daughters, depressed
widows and helpless orphans, having but
little strength or courage, to contend with
the buffets and snares, ever encountered on
the grand boulevards of struggling human
ity,—an honest living, in the peaceful
quietude of their own home.
The rearing of silk worms, and the man
agement of a cocoonry, is light, simple work
and any one, with patience, perseverance and
care will become a successful producer.
There is nothing disagreeable, disgusting or
degrading connected with the business, and
the most high toned may join the onward
march, giving dignity to a national pursuit.
Experience and training schools are not nec
essary to insure the success of any beginner.
I never saw a Bilk worm egg until I bought
them, neither a silk worm or a cocoon, until
I raised them. Yet I have been very success
ful. Silk that I raised last year, was reeled
and woven, in the handsome brocade, pre
sented to Mrs. Garfield by the Ladies Silk
Association, Philadelphia. As this refer
ence is necessary to prove my assertions, I
trust I will not be considered egotistical.
The theories, precepts, and examples found
in a multiplicity of works on silk culture,
do very well to read, but when tested, you
will find they are but little help to the silk
producers of our genial sunny South. De
pend on tel/, rely on your own judgment,
and success will crown your efforts.
COCOONRY.
With a majority of the uninitiated, a co
coonry seems to signify a labyrinth of mys
tical belongings; these fnlse ideas can be
easily corrected. My cocoonry consists of an
unpretentious out building 22x16 feet hav
ing a brick chimney with open fire place,
one door on the east side, one window in
each sideandend, with sash and solid blinds.
This house is not ceiled, and the flooring has
shrunk, leaving good ventilators. In this
house I placed an old-fashioned dining table
of fifty years ago, and covered with old news
papers; on these were placed two more
benches seven feet long, which were also
covered with old news papers, and with this
arrangement I raised my first crop of co
coons. Since increasing my stock, I use
frames or stands of shelves 3x6 feet. The
first shelf is two feet from the floor, the oth
ers are fourteen inches apart and continues
up to within two feet of the joist. These
stands must not touch the wall, and there
must be sufficient space between them for
the feeders to pass with ease. Shelves are
best made of old or seasoned lumber, as silk
worms seem to have an instinctive antip
athy for new wood. Pure air and thorough
ventilation are absolute essentials to insure
the health and vigor of yoursilk worms. In
this latitude we need no fire in cocoonry,
except when the weather is damp and chilly.
All who wish to engage in silk culture,
can, by putting their wits to work, make
suitable arrangements to accommodate sev
eral thousand silk worms, thus incurring no
expense except the amount paid for eggs.
After you have made a beginning, you can
raise your own eggs and increase your stock
according to the capacity of your cocoonry.
Some correspondents attribute my success
in rearing silk worms to "a secret, I do not
wish to tell," thit it not to. What I have
learned, or may learn from observation, ex
periments or experience I will freely give to
off. If silk culture is to be a national indus
try, by which a struggling people hope to
obtain, remuneration for their labor, there
must be unity and cooperation among pro
ducers. .
The many impediments which fettered
this noble enterprise in the years that are
gone, do not exist to-day and there is no
just cause why tilt will not become one of
the most profitable products of our land. I
will answer all inquiries with pleasure,—en
close stamp for reply.
_ .. _ Mrs. J. B. Mitchell,
Jlawkxntvxlle, Go.
any other of the cereals. Animals who live
on grain composed largely of starch are not
well nourished; do not thrive well and long
on starch alone, but do live and flourish
where gluten is contained in considerable
quantities. They do better still when they
can get for food a mixture of all the constit-
ents of the grains. These constituents exist
in all, but not in the same proportions.
Maize contains more oil; wheat more gin
ten. Some grains contain comparatively
little oil or gluten. Oatmeal is obtained by
kiln-drying the oats and removing the out
er skin. Its flour is coarser than wheat
flour. Its taste is peculiar and not always
liked. The Scotch oatmeal is coarser than
the English, and is more highly valued.
Barley is very little used in making bread.
Pearl barley is the grain deprived of its husk,
rounded and polished by attrition. Patent
barley is pearl barley ground to the state of
floui. Bariev contains but very little gluten
in a free state Its plastic matter is albumen
and casein. It cannot be made into vesicu-
lated bread, but a bread is formed of it by
mixing wheat flour with barley meal. It is
less digestible, less palatable and less nutri
tious than wheaten bread. Barley water, so
useful as a nutritive and demulcent drink ip
sickness, is prepared from pearl barley.
Barley, under the influence of warmth and
moisture, germinates and the growth of the
sprouts being checked by exposing the grain
to heat in a kiln, is called malt. It contains
diastase,and converts the starch into dextrine
and sugar. The malt, infused in hot watei,
yields sweet wort, rich in sugar, that is used
for making beer. Rye, in form somewhat
resembles wheat. The centre is starchy,
and the grain contains some gluten, and
so may be made into vesiculated bread. It
is the staple food of some sections of the
earth, in which wheat will not grow. It has
nearly the nutritious value of wheat. Its
brown color and acid taste render it of much
less value. Its relaxing effect upon the food
canal renders it useful in constipation.
Maize exists in many varieties. Pop-corn
has the peculiar quality, on exposing to
strong heat, of turning inside out All
the varieties, deprived of itshull and broken
or coarsely ground are known as hom-
inys-amp, or grits, which is boiled and eaten
like rice. It contains but little gluten and
so is not fitted for bread, unless with wheat
or rye. The brown bread of the Eastern
8tates is a mixture of wheat, maize and rye
meal. Maize meal is made into a porridge or
mush. Maize has a peculiar flavor, much
disliked by children. It contains a large
amount of fat forming matter, so that on
keeping for some time and exposed to the
warm air, it acquires a rancid taste. It
contains a large percentage of starch, and a
small one of plastic, fatty and mineral mat
ter, and so is not a nutritious article of diet.
To obtain a sufficient amount of nutriment
a very large quantity must be eaten. Starch,
eaten with plastic articles, as milk, meat and
cheese, promotes growth and strength. It
is easily digested, and is a proper aliment in
disorders of the intestines, especially in
diarrhoea and dysentery. Rice flour of the
shops is usually so much adulterated that
for the sick, or for the well, rice, if needed
in the form of flour, should be ground at
home. Boiling rice is so apt to remove what
little plastic matter it contains that steam
ing is the best way of cooking it.—American
Elevator and Grain Trade.
Sorghum Sugar.
The National Academy of Sciences in re-
Fuels About Grain.
Wheat is the prince of grains. It contains
not only starch and other constituents com
mon to all grains, bat a large per cent, of |
gluten—the plastic principle of grain. 80 it
yields a larger amount of nourishment than
sponse to a request from Dr. G. B. Loring,
the United 8tates Commissioner of Agricul
ture, investigated the "scientific and eco
nomic relations of the sorghum sugar indus
try” through a committee consisting of Pro
fessors Brewer, Johnson and Silliman, of
Yale College, ProfessorsChandlerand Moore,
of New York, and Professor Smith, late of
the University of Kentucky. Prof. Goess-
man, of Amherst, Mass., resigned his place
on the committee on September 12, 1882.
The committee find as the result of their in
vestigation that all the analyses made in the
Department of Agriculture not only confirm
the well-known fact of the presence of sugar
in the juices of sorghum and maize in nota
ble quantity, but they also establish the fact
that sorghum yields in its juice, when taken
at the proper stage of development, about
as much sugar as the best sugar cane of tro
pical regions. An examination of the ana
lytical tables submitted to them shows that
the juices of sorghum in certain exceptional
but not isolated cases were remarkable for
the amount of cane sugar they contained. It
is ascertained by these analysis that as an
average of them all there was 68.57 per cent
of the weight of stripped stalks in juice. Of
the weight of this juice 16.18 per cent, was
crystalizable cane sugar, and it was learned
that 11.30 per cent of the weight of the
juice may be obtained os sugar by the ordi
nary process of manufacture. •
It also appears that three varieties of sor
ghum gave over 13 per cent, of sugar, seven
varieties 12 per cent., seven 11 per cent.,
seven 10 per cent., and seven 0 per cent, of
sugar; and that of the varieties of maize
grown in 1880, ten varieties gave over 9 per
cent cane sugar, ten varieties 10 per cent.,
nine varieties 11 per cent., nine varieties li
percent, four varieties 13 per cent., one var"
ety 14 per cent., and one 15 per cent. The
committee state that in 1880 over 62,000,000
acres of land, or 30 per cent, of all the culti
vated land of the United States were
maize. Theamountof sugar thus apparently
lost, calculated by the results obtained by
the Department of Agriculture in the last
three years is equal to the present productof
the entire world. A remarkable uniformity
has been discovered in the several varieties
of sorghum as sugar producing plants when
fully developed, but it has also been learned
that the different varieties vary widely in the
time required for their full development,
varying, as has been shown, fully three
months between the earlier and later matur
ing varieties.
No conclusion," says the report, “ estab
lished by the work of the Department of Ag
riculture, practically considered, is of greater
importance than the positive ascertainment
of that period in the development of the
several varieties of sorghum when the juices
contain the maximum of cane sugar. On
this point there has existed during the past
twenty years or more the greatest discrep
ancy in statement, and the general opinion
prevailing nas been very wide of the truth as
established by all these experiments."
The in vestigations of the Department prove
to the entire satisfaction of the committee
that after the cutting of the came it "should
be immediately worked up" for the produc
tion of sugar. The results submitted to the
committee also indicate that the exclusion
from the matured cane of all immature cane
is of the greatest importance if the manufac
ture of sugar is contemplated, and show the
importance of an even crop with no suckers
in its manufacture for sugar. The committee
also find that “prompt working of the cane
so soon as cut is always safe, and any delay
is fraught with unavoidable risk of loss. This
conclusion is established as well by the work
of Dr. Goessman as by that of the Depart
ment of Agriculture. The statements sub
mitted by the Department also show that
sugar has been made from sorghum and corn
stalks. " It will be seen from the reports of
the past three years of the Department of
Agriculture, as well as from a wide range of
experience elsewhere, that sugar in large
quantities has been shown to be present in
the juices of sorghum, and maize also, which
is of the first importance from the economi
cal side. High grade marketable sugar in
considerable quantity has been successfully
made from sorghum juice, comparing favor
ably with sugar from the true sugar cane or
sugar beet."
The committee have also found that the
hydrometer and ripe seed are sufficient to in
dicate the proper time for working up the
crop. It is shown, moreover, by the inves
tigation at the Department, that the idea
that the effect of rain would be manifest in
the diluted juice and that conversely a pro
longed drouth would result in a concentra
tion and diminution of the juice is utterly
unfounded and Incorrect. It has been shown
that when fully matured the sorghum stands
even hard frosts without detriment, but if
immature the effect is most disastrous.
With regard to the manufacture of sugar
from sorghum, the experiments of the De
partment have shown that the statement of
Dr. Goessman that "in sight of these facts
will be quite generally conceded that the
sugar production from syrup like the above
must remain a mere incidental feature in the
amber cane industry in our section of the
country" is entirely unfounded and that the
relative loss of sucrose in the syrup was only
5 per cent, of that present in the juice, in
stead of being, as Dr. Goessman found, 30.85
per cent; and was no more than usual with
sugar cane juice—a fact of the utmost im
portance to the farmer as well as the manu
facturer. With regard to the so-called gum,
a product of the manufacture, the com
mittee say that in the purging of sorghum
and corn-stalk sugar it happens very often
that this operation is of unusual difficulty
owing to the presence of a certain gummy
substance, and this practical difficulty has
been by some so magnified that the economi
cal production of sugar from these two
plants has been confidently declared impos
sible. In the experience of those in Wash
ington as well as that of many other ob
servers, this peculiar substance has been
found often to be present in quantity so
small as to offer little if any resistance to
complete purging in the ordinary centrifu
gal. It appears to be formed by transforms*
tion of other constituents of the juice in the
process of syrup production.
The committee recommend a still further
investigation into the effect of fertilizers
upon the growth of the sorghum and maize,
variety of soil best adapted to the produc
tion of sugar in these plants, the methods
of defecation, and the process of manufac
ture and use of lime or some other alkaline
agent. The committee express the opinion
that the fruits of the encouraging “policy of
the government toward the sorghum indus
try are already beginning to show themselves
in the decided success which has attended
the production of sugar from sorghum on a
commercial scale in the few cases in which
the rules and good practice evolved, espe
cially by the researches made at the labora
tory of the Department of Agriculture, have
been intelligently followed. Sufficiently
full returns from the crop of 1882 have al
ready come to hand to convince us that the
industry will probably be a commercial suc
cess.” The report concludes with the sug
gestion that the "sugar producing industries
of the whole country, both that of the tropi
cal cane of the South and the sorghum over
a far wider area, will be vastly benefitted by
further investigation similar to those that
have already been submitted to them.”
The conclusion arrived at by the Depart
ment in the laboratoryand mill asitsspecial
contribution to the sorghum industry, and
the conclusions obtained elsewhere, are in
the opinion of the committee as follows:
First—Cane should be worked up as soon
as cut.
Second—That suckers should not be allow
ed in the crop.
Third—That the exclusion of all immature
cane is of the greatest importance in the
manufacture of sugar.
Fourth—Sugar has been made from sor
ghum corn stalks.
Fifth—Ripe seed will indicate the proper
time for working up the crop.
Sixth—Rain and drouth do not affect the
quality of the juice.
Seventh—Mature sorghum is not injured^
by frost.
Eighth—Loss of sucrose in sorghum syrup
is no greater than that in syrup from sugar
cane.
Ninth—That the presence of gum in the
syrup of cane and maize is the great obstacle
in the way of sugar manufacture.
These are the discoveries claimed by the
Department.
New Method tor Preserving Grain.
A new method of preserving grain, re
cently discovered in France, it is said, has
proven satisfactory. The cost of preserva
tion is less than storage in a granary, and the
wheat is safe from fire, fermentation, insects
and cryptogamic vegetations. The United
Statet Miller, in describing this method, says
that a sheet-iron cistern, which occupies lit
tle space and holds nearly 300 bushels, and
is worked by an air-pump with a pressure
gauge to indicate the degree of vacuum, com
prise the whole hermetic preservation. Oue
important effect which results from the nu
merous and continuous experiments made
according to the journal in question, that
the vacuum not only kills the parasitic in
sects and prevents vegetation, but dries the
grain at the same time. After a detention
of seven months, wheat and flour inclosed in
the apparatus, during the experiments at
Vincennes, it is reported, were withdrawn
a perfect state of preservation.
A Good Idea*
Every family should be compelled by the
law of the country to consume by fire every
thing that has served its purpose and become
useless. Nothing can be more detrimental
life and health than old useless stuff lay
ing around the dwellings of either city or
country homes, producing all kinds of un
healthy conditions.
For economy’s sake they should be burned
and the ashes strewn upon the earth. There
is more fertilizing power in one spoonful of
ashes than in a basket or even a cart-load of
garbage.
Was this a law and strictly enforced for one
year we should soon see that we not only had
fewer large fires but less fevers and other
malarial diseases.
Cleanliness is next to godliness. Who will
be wise enough to try it for one year l—Nat.
Farmer, Wathington, D. C.
Send for the Soutberh World,