wholesale at forty cents per gallon. At Sterling, Kansas, there is a factory, the company owning it having put one hundred thousand dollars into it. This is the first season there, and they crushed five thousand seven hundred and fifteen tons of cane, from which they made two hundred and three thousand pounds of sugar, and thirty-five thousand gallons of syrup. The same process of reduction is followed as at Champaign, Illinois. The product grades as fine Southern C. Both companies have made contracts for double the quantity of cane next year, and, with an average season, expect a large return above cost." The cost of manufacturing in the above instances is not given, neither is it stated what the farmers who raised the cane received for it; but it is fair to conclude that they considered the business a remunerative one, or they would not have been willing to make contracts for another season. In connection with this, some interesting facts are set forth in the bulletin of Prof. George H. Cook, director of the New Jersey agricultural experiment station, giving a full account of the experiments made the past season, with the object of determining the effect of fertilizers upon the formation of sugar in sorghum, and to prove that, by the present system of working the cane, more than one half of the sugar formed in the plant may be wasted, and that even when a mill yields fifty to sixty per cent. of juice, it may still have more sugar in the bagasse than it extracts from the cane. It is not our purpose to follow in detail the results given of the effects of the various fertilizing elements upon the sugar development in the sorghum plant, interesting as they are, but simply to call attention to the fact that, as hitherto only a part of the available material of this plant has been utililized, the profits of its cultivation and manufacture seem likely to be much increased when some method of securing the whole of the saccharine material contained in it shall have been discovered. That this will soon be accomplished, there can be no reasonable doubt, for modern science laughs at difficulties of this kind. The production of sugar in the United States has hitherto been confined almost exclusively to the extreme Southern sections; but should the now hopeful prospect of the sorghum interest be realized, the whole corn-producing area of the country will share in the benefits accruing from its development. It will, however, in the future, to be successful, be carried on as a coöperative work, and when mills shall have been erected in Pennsylvania, and a demand created for the raw material, the farmers of our State will be found ready to meet the demand by devoting a portion of their fertile acres to the growth of sorghum-cane, or, peradventure, they may be found contributing of the produce of their corn fields, to keep the wheels of the mills in motion, should that material be proved available. But there are our sugar-maples-acres of them upon the most of the farms in many sections, whole forests of them in some still largely wooded counties indigenous in our State throughout nearly all its borders. Ready at hand to yield an annual return, without care or cultivation, it gives up its sap as freely as the springs their water. Are we making the most of this ready means of supplying our wants as consumers of sweet things, or are we not rather neglecting that which is capable of supplying us with the best, and accepting something in its stead which is inferior in quality, many points off in flavor, too frequently adulterated and unwholesome? The process of converting the sap into either sugar or syrup is simplicity itself. The novice at the opening of the sugar season becomes the skilled operator before its close. No costly and complicated apparatus is needed for the work. The purifying process, so difficult in treating the juices of sorghum, is successfully performed by unskilled sap-boilers, who probably could not tell whether the operation was a chemical or mechanical one. 11 BD. Ac.

The one essential point in making a tolerably good sample of sugar or syrup, even with the rudest outfit and the most primitive methods of evaporation, is that strict cleanliness shall be observed. But the methods of the pioneers, who hewed down the forests of our State the maple trees along with the others--are not to be recommended to the farmers of to-day. Improvement both in camp and field, rural as well as military, is the order of the present, and no grove is so dense as to shut out innovations and inventions. The well regulated sugar camp of to day is no exception to the rule, and in it may be found many appliances for lightening the labor, increasing the yield, and improving the quality of the product. We would not, if we could, go back to the conditions of the pioneer "sap bush," yet we would like to see preserved, for the benefit of the future generations, a picture of what, to many members of this Board, is doubtless a vivid memory of early life. The primitive forest, almost as yet untouched by the settler's axe, with giant trees, of many species, the maple in the majority. The wide and shallow sap-troughs, hewed out from sections of tree trunks, split in half, which served to catch and hold, not only the sap as it flowed from the trees, through the sumac "spiles," inserted in a hole bored with an inch augur, but all the rains and snows and dirt which came down during the sugar season. The great store-troughs, fashioned from the bole of perhaps a huge hemlock, in form like the water craft known as a "dugout," yet lacking the pointed and unturned prow and stern, in which the sap as it was brought to the boiling place in two wooden buckets suspended, at either end of a sap-yoke, was stored until it could be boiled down. The great iron kettles, suspended from a pole, which, in turn, was supported by crotched sticks set in the ground at a safe distance from the fire, perhaps a cabin near by, or a rude shelter of boughs, and this completed the outfit. And then, when a good run of sap came, what a busy and exciting time! For one day, for two days, all would go well, but sometimes the run did not stay at that, but kept on running, week days, Sundays, all days alike, until kettles and store-troughs, sap troughs and buckets were full to overflowing. Day and night the fires must be fed, the kettles kept filled, the overflowing troughs relieved, and often the boy who kept up the camp fire through the night would be kept wide awake by the howl of the wolves, his alertness spurred by the thought that wolves usually keep away from a bright fire. This is no picture of imagination, but the writer, and no doubt many others, can testify to its reality. But the sugar camps of the original forest growth have, in many sections of our State, gone the way of the hemlocks and the pines. They have been felled by the axe, upturned by the winds, or killed by forest fires. In some sections, fine groves of maples of second growth, fostered by the care of the land-owner, and proportioned to withstand the winds to which their situation may expose them, may now be found. From these, and from such older groves as still survive, considerable quantities of sugar and syrup are annually made; yet, in the absence of statistics, we think it safe to assume tha, owing to the destruction of the trees and to other causes, the production is much less than formerly. Among the reasons which may be urged in favor of the profitableness of maple sugar making we may name the following: The work comes at a time when other work is not pressing, hence the sugar made is so much added to the annual income. The revival of this branch of industry would tend to encourage the planting and care of groves of timber, and thus a two-fold benefit would be secured. Upon many farms, in some rocky or neglected portion, a growth of young maples springs up, which, if cared for and protected from cattle, and perhaps a few trees

planted in vacant places, would in a few years become thrifty groves, and in time fine sugar orchards, and the most valuable portions of the farm. In very many sections of the State, seedling maples, literally by the thousands, can be found in the woods, and with little labor, a plantation of a few acres could be made, which would soon become the pride of the owner, and in the end a well-paying investment. In addition to this, it may be said that maple sugar, and especially maple syrup, have a distinctive flavor, unequaled and unapproached by any other in the list. It has, in consequence, a value not affected by the price at which its rivals may be offered, and will always be in demand, at good prices, as a table luxury, in spite of sorghum syrup, the sulphur-bleached molasses of the Southern refineries, or the "silver drips" of the glucose factories. The cost of fitting up a modern sugar camp, with all the best appliances for catching, storing, and evaporating the sap, need not be large. Everthing necessary for working an orchard of two hundred trees, including metal spouts, tin buckets provided with covers, suitable shallow pans for evaporating, with brick or stone arches in which to set them, sufficient shelter for protection from storms, together with such storage vessels as may be needed when rapid evaporation is practiced, may all be provided at an expense of not far from one hundred dollars. All these, if properly housed and protected when not in use, would last for many years. In this, too, as in the case of sorghum, the principle of cooperation might be practiced to advantage, and owners of contiguous groves might club together, and, by the purchase of one of the best-improved evaporators, reduce the sap from several orchards at one place, at a saving of cost and a gain in quality. We have in mind one instance where a resident of a village, owning a small grove of maples, has set up an evaporator and a number of his neighbors haul their sap to it, to be evaporated upon shares. Thus several families are supplied, at little cost, with maple syrup of fine quality, and the owner of the evaporator finds no difficulty in disposing of all his surplus at satisfactory prices. The plan is a feasible one for many localities, and worthy of a more general adoption. The subject of the planting and care of trees has received much and deserved attention in the work of this Board, and we have no desire to trespass upon the prerogatives of the Committee on Forestry, yet would like to say a word in favor of the maple as one of the species most worthy of cultivation. It grows naturally in most of our soils, is easily transplanted, its rate of growth is good, its wood is valuable for many purposes, its form is most symmetrical, and, with its cleanly and graceful foliage in summer and its beautiful autumn tints. it presents a fine appearance, whether standing alone, in rows along the roadside, or massed in groves and parks. When we add to this its sugar-yielding value, it would seem that its claim to favorable consideration on the part of land-owners was well established, and that the farmers of Pennsylvania, in devoting some portion of their land to its growth would, besides tempering the heats of summer and the rigors of winter, add value to their farms, luxury to their tables, beauty to their landscape, and a general good and permanent benefit to the State.

The subject having been declared open for discussion:

J. A. HERR of Clinton. With regard to the profits of the manufacture of sorghum, I have but little to say. I think the essayist stated that it may be sold with profit at forty cents a gallon. In the immediate neighborhood in which I live we have been working a little in that direction, but I do not believe we could make it profitable at that price. I have had no trouble in selling all I had to spare at seventy-five cents a gallon; and at that price I think it is profitable. Our average crop is, perhaps, not more than eighty

to one hundred gallons to the acre, but we have occasionally produced as high as one hundred and fifty to two hundred gallons per acre. We pay twenty cents a gallon for having it manufactured, besides hauling it to the mill and crushing it. Twenty cents we paid for evaporating it, and then, at the price I quoted, I think it is profitable. We have been practicing for three years, and it has improved in quality every year. I believe it is destined to become an important industry at no distant day in our part of the State.

Mr. MCDOWELL of Washington. I have one suggestion with regard to sorghum. We know that the syrup has à peculiar taste. While out West this season. (I was there during the time they were manufacturing it,) I noticed that one farmer has a practice of using yellow clay, and it is pretty hard to get in. He mixed this up with the syrup, just as it comes from the mill. It is not run into the evaporator until the next day. It is all stirred through, and it has a purifying effect upon the syrup which frees it from this peculiar taste. I do not know whether any of our people in Pennsylvania are practicing this, and I merely make this suggestion that if there is anything beneficial in it, we may have the benefit. It is thereby freed from that objection, and the molasses sells much higher on that ac

count.

Dr. J. P. EDGE of Chester. I think that the source of supply for sugar for this latitude will ultimately be derived from the beet, although, recently, failures have been experienced in the attempt to manufacture profitably. But, I think, the time is approaching when that will be overcome and large quantities of sugar will be produced where the beet is cultivated in this State. I have seen a recent statement that the production of sugar in France and Germany has universally increased, and there will be a large importation of beet sugar into this country this year. It is superior to any other sugar I have used-very much superior to the cane sugar and very much more so to the sorghum sugar. Maple sugar, of course, has a characteristic of its own which no other sugar has; but the beet sugar, as made in Europe, is unquestionably the best that is manufactured.

D. WILSON of Juniata. In Europe, and especially in France, it has been. found that while the sugar beet grows well and attains great size and is full of juice, yet it has not the proper amount of saccharine matter in it. I think that is the experience of our friends in Delaware: that, while there wasquice enough in the beet, it was not sweet. I would be a little afraid that that would be the case with sorghum. It may have the juice and yet the weather may not be warm enough or the season not sufficiently long enough to make it sweet; and, if it is not sweet, it will not make sugar. If sorghum will ripen wherever the ordinary corn crop will ripen, it will do. H. L. SCOTT of Bradford. Wherever corn will ripen, the sorghum will ripen. In the southern part of the State, the early amber cane ripens fully as early as the corn crop.

Prof. W. H. JORDAN. Mention has been made of the variation of beets in the amount of sugar. Beets are much more susceptible in that direction to the influence of phosphates than sorghum. A highly nitrogenous fertilizer has a tendency to increase the size; but that increased size (where nitrogenous fertilizers are used) is at the expense of the sugar in the juice, because they mature late. On the other hand, phosphate has the effect to cause early maturity and an increased percentage of sugar, but the beet does not grow so large. Our German friends have adopted two kinds of fertilizers. Sorghum is not so susceptible to the influence of fertilizers as are beets- that is, in the change of the percentage of sugar.

Prof. R. S. HUIDEKOPER. I have had no practical experience in the manufacture of sugar myself, but saw a few bags of sugar from Mr. Scott's farm in New Jersey, which was as beautiful and sweet as any Southern cane sugar could be. The success of their work has been so great that next year (1884) they will have over twenty-five hundred acres of ground in sorghum, and I will not venture to state the number of pounds of sugar they expect to make. The production last year (1883) was two hundred thousand pounds of most beautiful sugar.

NOTE BY THE SECRETARY.

It is to be regretted that want of space compels the exclusion of the greater portion of the discussion which followed the reading of Mr. Underwood's essay. From a careful review of all of the discussion, (as preserved by our stenographer,) it is evident that the production in Pennsylvania must be discussed and judged from a single standpoint--that of PROFIT. If, by an expenditure of the same amount of capital and labor, the Pennsylvania farmer can produce enough corn, wheat, or potatoes to more than pay for the sugar which he could have produced from the same ground, it will be useless for us to plead the advantages of home production for home consumption, for this will not pay rent nor interest upon mortgages. When the practical farmer is convinced that cane for sugar will not yield him a greater profit than our present crops, he will desert the crop in spite of all arguments based upon tariff and political economy. The discussion brought out very prominently the point that this crop brought with it a greatly increased amount of labor at a time when the working force of our farmer is strained to its full extent, and, of course, at a time when additional labor can scarcely be procured. So far as an opinion was expressed by the members, it was evident that by far the larger number were of the opinion that, up to the present time, the result of the experiments with this crop were not of a nature which would warrant the Board in the statement that it would prove a profitable crop to the average farmer; but, at the same time, it was admitted that the capabilities of the crop were such as would sooner or later place it on our list of special crops, suited to special soils, and successful under the management of certain individuals who can with profit make it a specialty.

THE TRAMP IN HIS LEGAL ASPECT.

By F. K. PATTERSON, Member from Armstrong.

The utility of our organization can only be assured by the earnest effort of each of its members. We meet for the purpose of comparing ideas, submitting our theories, gathering together, as it were, the aggregate of our knowledge on such subjects as are brought before us. While my contribution to this knowledge fund may be very small, allow me to assure you it is offered with but one regret, and that is that it is no greater. I realize the grave importance of the subject assigned me, and feel my incompetence to do it justice. It is a question that perplexes the law-makers of our country and one that our best thinkers have failed to dispose of satisfactorily. The subject assigned me, "The Tramp in His Legal Aspect," is a qualified expression, and, that we may not wander from the subject, it