The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

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As soon as the first kettle is nearly empty, pour in a new lot of
the sap, and so continue working it forward exactly after the manner
of the West India sugar-boilers. The crude sugar may be refined
subsequently, or at the time of casting it into the cones made of
sheet iron, well painted with white lead and boiled linseed oil, and
thoroughly dried, so that no paint can come off. These cones are to
be stopped at first, until the sugar is cold; then remove the
stopper and pour on the base of the cone a quantity of strong
whiskey, or fourth proof rum. Allow this to nitrate through, until
the sugar is white; dry the loaf, and redissolve it in boiling hot
water, and evaporate it until it becomes dense enough to
crystallise. Now pour it into the cones again, and let it harden. If
any color remains, pour a saturated solution of refined white sugar
on the base of the cone, and this syrup will remove all traces of
color from the loaf.

One gallon of pasture maple sap yielded 3,451 grains of pure sugar.
One gallon of the juice of the sugar cane yields, on an average, in
Jamaica, 7,000 grains of sugar. Hence, it will appear that maple sap
is very nearly half as sweet as cane juice; and since the maple
requires no outlay for its cultivation, and the process may be
carried on when there is little else to be done, the manufacture of
maple sugar is destined to become an important department of rural
economy. It is well known, by the Report of the Statistics of the
United States, that Vermont ranks next to Louisiana as a sugar
state, producing (if I recollect correctly) 6,000,000 of pounds in
some seasons, though the business is now carried on in a very rude
way, without any apparatus, and with no great chemical skill; so
that only a very impure kind of sugar is made, which, on account of
its peculiar flavor, has not found its way into common use, for
sweetening tea and coffee. It would appear worth while, then, to
improve this manufacture, and to make the maple sugar equal to any
now in use. This can be readily accomplished, if the farmers in the
back country will study the process of sugar-making, for cane and
maple sugar are, when pure, absolutely identical. It should be
remarked, that forest maples do not produce so much sugar as those
grown in open fields or in groves, where they have more light, the
under-brush being cleared away.

In Farmington, on the Sandy River, in Maine, I have seen a very fine
grove of maples, but thirty years old, which produced a large yield
of very good sugar. A man and two boys made 1,500 lbs. of sugar from
the sap of these trees in a single season. The sap was boiled down
in potash kettles, which were scoured bright with vinegar and sand.
The sugar was of a fine yellow color, and well crystallised. It was
drained of its molasses in casks, with a false bottom perforated
with small holes--the cask having a hole bored at the bottom, with a
tow plug placed loosely in it, to conduct off the molasses. This
method is a good one, but the sap ought to be limed in boiling, as I
have described; then it will not attach to the iron or copper
boilers. The latter metal must not be used with acid syrup, for
copper salts are poisonous.

There are several towns in the northern sections of Maine, New
Hampshire, and Vermont, that produce more than sufficient sugar for
the consumption of their inhabitants. A lot of good sugar trees will
average four pounds to the tree, in a favorable season. Many farmers
have orchards that will yield five hundred to a thousand pounds of
sugar in a year. As this is made at a season interfering very little
with the general business of the farm, the sugar that the farmer makes
is so much clear gain.

There is, on almost every hill-farm, some place favorable for the
growth of a maple orchard--some rocky spots yielding little grass, and
impervious for the plough. Such spots may be favorably chosen for the
growth of a maple orchard; and whether the increase be used for
manufacturing sugar or molasses, or for timber or fuel, the proprietor
of the land will find a profit better than money at interest in the
growth of this beautiful tree, which will spontaneously propagate
itself in many positions.

Its great excellence consists in yielding sap for the manufacture of
vast quantities of maple sugar in the country during the months of
spring. An open winter, constantly freezing and thawing, is a
forerunner of a bountiful crop of sugar. The orchard of maple trees is
almost equal to a field of sugar cane of the same area, in the
production of sugar. This tree reaches an age of 200 years.

Vermont is the second sugar-producing State in the Union. The amount
of maple sugar produced there in 1840 was over 2,550 tons, being more
than 173/4 pounds to each inhabitant, allowing a population of 291,948.
At five cents a pound, this is worth. 255,963 dols. 20 cents.

The Statistics of the United States census for 1850, show that about
thirty-five millions of pounds (15,250 tons) of maple sugar were
manufactured in that year:--

Maine 97,541
New Hampshire 1,392,489
Massachusetts 768,596
Vermont 5,159,641
Connecticut 37,781
New York 10,310,764
New Jersey 5,886
Pennsylvania 2,218,641
Maryland 47,740
Virginia 1,223,908
North Carolina 27,448
South Carolina 200
Georgia 50
Alabama 473
Mississippi 110
Louisiana 260
Arkansas 8,825
Tennessee 159,647
Kentucky 388,525
Ohio 4,528,548
Michigan 2,423,897
Indiana 2,921,638
Illinois 246,078
Missouri 171,942
Iowa 70,684
Missouri 661,969
Minnesota 2,950
-----------
Total 32,776,671

There is a balance of about two million pounds produced by Rhode
Island, Texas, Oregon, California, Utah, New Mexico, Delaware, and
Florida. The above statement does not include the sugar made by the
Indians, east of the Mississippi river, which may be set down at
10,000,000 lbs., and west of that river 2,000,000 lbs.

Besides the above sugar crop, there was a yield by the sugar maple in
the United States in 1850, of 40,000,000 gallons of maple molasses.

_Maize Sugar_.--The stem and branches of Indian corn, during the time
that its grain is filling, abounds with sugar, even when grown in this
country; so much so, that it might be turned to account by those of
the peasantry who have small plots of ground attached to their
cottages; and I applied a simple method by which a rich syrup may be
obtained from it, equal in sweetness to treacle, and superior to it in
flavor. The proper time for cutting down the plant (which should be
done within an inch of the ground), is when the corn in the ear is
small and full of a milky juice. All the large and old leaves should
be stripped off, leaving only the young and tender ones; they should
then be cut into short lengths, thoroughly bruised, and the juice
entirely pressed out from them. Where the means cannot be obtained for
expressing the juice by this method, the following may be
employed:--After the plants have been cut into small pieces, put them
into a large pot or copper, with only just sufficient water to extract
the juice; boil for one hour, and then strain off the liquor; to each
gallon of this liquor add a wine-glass full of lime-water whilst warm;
but if it be the expressed juice, obtained as above mentioned, add
double the quantity of lime-water. When the liquor is cold, for every
three gallons beat up an egg with some of the liquor; put altogether
into a boiler, and boil gently till the syrup acquires the consistence
of treacle. Whilst this is going on, the liquor should every now and
then be well stirred, and the scum which rises to the surface taken
off. This syrup, which will be found a better substitute for sugar
than treacle, and more wholesome, should be kept in lightly-covered
vessels, in a dry place.

My own observations, twelve years ago, acquainted me with the fact,
that when the grain in the ear has acquired one half of the full size,
the quantity of sugar in the sap has passed its maximum, or begun to
decrease, and continues to do so until it disappears entirely. Lopping
off the young ears makes shorter work of it. It is like taking the
young from an animal giving suck, in which case the milk soon ceases
to flow into the breast, and that which produced it is elaborated into
other fluids necessary to the nourishment of the different parts of
the body of the parent. In the corn-stalk, when deprived of its ears,
the elements of sugar are dissipated by increasing the size of the
plant.

Sugar may also be obtained from the carrot and the parsnip, as well as
from all sweet fruits. It is abundant throughout the vegetable
kingdom; it forms the first food of plants when they germinate in the
seed; when the first little sprout is projected from a grain of corn,
a portion of the farina, or starch, is changed into sugar, which may
be called the blood of the plant, and from it is drawn the nourishment
necessary to its expansion and appearance above the surface of the
earth. In the latter growth of many plants an inverse process is
carried on, as in the Indian corn, which I have just spoken of. In
this instance, as also numberless others, sugar is formed in large
quantities in the body of the plant, and elaborated into farina, or
starch, in the ear. The elements of which sugar and starch are
composed are the same; the only difference is in their proportions.
Chemists, being aware of this, have converted starch into sugar; and
could do it with certainty to any extent, were any advantage to be
gained by it; but hitherto starch has been higher in price than sugar.

SECTION II.

THE GRAIN CROPS, EDIBLE ROOTS, AND FARINACEOUS PLANTS FORMING THE
BREAD STUFFS OF COMMERCE.

The vegetable substances, from which man derives his principal
sustenance, such as the nutritious cereal grains, the tuberous rooted
plants and the trees yielding farina, are very widely diffused, and
necessarily occupy the main attention of the cultivator; their
products forming the most important staples of domestic and foreign
commerce. The cereal grasses and roots, cultivated in temperate
regions, such as wheat, barley, oats, rye, and the potato, are so well
known, and have been so fully described by agricultural writers that I
shall not go much into details as to their varieties, culture, &c.,
but confine myself chiefly to their distribution, produce, statistics,
and commercial importance. The food plants may be most conveniently
arranged under three heads. Firstly--the Grain crops and legumes,
which comprises the European cultivated grasses, wheat, barley, oats,
&c.; and the tropical ones of rice, maize, millet, Guinea corn, &c.
Secondly--Palms and other trees yielding farina, including the sago
palms, plantain and banana, and the bread fruit tree. And Thirdly--the
edible Root crops and Starch producing plants, which are a somewhat
extensive class, the chief of which, however, are the common potato,
yams, cocos or eddoes, sweet potatoes, the bitter and sweet cassava or
manioc, the arrowroot and other plants yielding starch in more or less
purity.

There is a great diversity of food, from the humble oak bark bread of
the Norwegian peasant, or the Brahmin, whose appetite is satisfied
with vegetables, to the luxurious diet of a Hungarian Magnate at
Vienna.

The bread stuffs, as they are popularly termed, particularly wheat and
wheat flour, maize, and rice, form very important articles of
commerce, and enter largely into cultivation in various countries for
home consumption and export. Russia, India, and the United States,
carry on a very considerable trade in grain with other countries. Our
local production being insufficient for food and manufactures, we
import yearly immense quantities of grain and flour. In the four years
ending 1852, the annual quantity of corn, of various, kinds, imported
into the United Kingdom, exclusive of flour and meal, rice, sago, &c.,
averaged 8,085,903 quarters.

The flour and meal imported, omitting sago, arrowroot and other
starches, averaged in the same period 4,143,603 cwts. annually.

The annual imports of breadstuffs for food, taking the average of the
four years ending with 1852, may be thus summed up--

Tons.
Corn and grain, 8,085,903 quarters, at 60 lb. the bushel 173,270
Flour and meal 207,180
Rice 40,817
Potatoes 42,440
Sago, arrowroot, &c. 5,000
-------
Total 468,707

Some portion of this quantity is doubtless consumed in the arts--as
starch for stiffening linens, &c., and for other purposes not coming
under the term of food, but I have purposely left out in the
calculation about 30,000 to 40,000 quarters of rice in the husk
annually imported.

Ireland took, in 1849, of foreign grain 2,115,129 quarters; 1,683,687
quarters in 1850; and 2,504,229 in 1851; as well as 256,837 cwts. of
various kinds of meal and flour in 1849; 220,107 cwts. in 1850; and
341,680 cwts. in 1851. England also supplied her with about 500,000
quarters of grain and 350,000 cwts. of meal in each of those years.

The comparative returns of the importations of grain into the United
Kingdom for the last four years, are as follows, in quarters:--

1852. 1851. 1850. 1849.
Wheat 3,068,892 3,812,009 3,738,995 3,845,378
Barley 656,737 829,564 1,035,903 1,381,008
Oats 995,480 1,198,529 1,154,473 1,267,106
Rye 10,023 24,609 98,836 240,566
Beans 371,250 318,502 443,306 457,933
Peas 107,017 99,399 181,419 234,366
Maize 1,479,891 1,807,636 1,277,071 2,224,459
Other sorts 8,085 3,432 868 1,150
--------- --------- --------- ---------
Quarters 6,667,375 8,124,280 7,930,871 9,651,966

The meal and flour imported in the same years, in cwts., were as
follows:--

1852. 1851. 1850. 1849.
Wheat 3,889,583 5,314,414 3,819,440 3,349,839
Barley 212 34 108 224
Oats 521 2,525 5,999 40,230
Rye 92 6,493 964 18,468
Indian corn 742 9,561 11,334 101,683
Other sorts 54 343 163 1,396
--------- --------- --------- ---------
Cwts. 3,891,195 5,323,370 3,838,008 3,511,840

Before the famine in Ireland the imports seldom reached 20 millions of
bushels of grain and meal of all kinds. In 1848 our imports were
about 60 millions; in 1849, 85 millions; in 1850, 68 millions; in
1851, 751/2 millions; in 1852, 69 millions, with good wheat harvests;
showing the great shock received and the slowness of recovery.

With a rapidly increasing population in all parts of the civilized
world, the production of bread is obviously the first object to be
sought after, alike by the statesman and the peasant. I scarcely dare
give the calculation of the immense amount which would be realised in
any great country, by the single saving of a bushel to an acre, in the
quantity of seed ordinarily sown. The same result would follow if an
additional bushel could be produced in the annual average yield of the
wheat crop.

According to Mr. H. Colman, the annual amount of seed for wheat sown
in France is estimated at 32,491,978 bushels. If we could suppose a
third of this saved, the saving would amount to 10,863,959 bushels per
year. Suppose an annual increase of the crops of five bushels per
acre, this would give an increase of production of 54,319,795 bushels.
Add this, under improved cultivation, to the amount of seed saved, and
the result would be 65,183,754 bushels--I believe under an improved
agriculture this is quite practicable.

An eminent agricultural writer placed the average yield in England at
eighteen bushels per acre; some years since a man of sanguine
temperament rated it at over thirty bushels. In France it is stated,
in the best districts, to average twenty-two bushels. These evidently
are wholly conjectural estimates. In England Mr. Colman states that
fifty bushels per acre were reported to him on the best authority, as
the yield upon a large farm in a very favorable season. More than
eighty bushels have been returned, upon what is deemed ample
testimony, to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, as the
product of a single acre. In France Mr. Colman had, upon credible
authority, reports of forty, forty-four and seventy-two bushels. It
would be of immense importance to any government to know the exact
produce grown in any county, or district, or in the whole country; and
this might be obtained by compelling, on the part of the owner or
cultivator, an actual return of his crop; but it is of little use to
found such returns on estimates purely conjectural.

From the best statistical accounts that can be obtained, the wheat
annually produced in the United Kingdom.

England, Scotland, Ireland is 111,681,320 bushels.
In France it is 198,660,000 "
United States 100,503,899 "

The amount of seed ordinarily sown to the acre in France is from two
to three bushels. The return of crop for the seed sown is represented
as in the best districts averaging 6.25 for one; in the least
productive 5.40 for one. My readers may be curious to know the
calculations which have been made in some other countries in regard to
this matter.

CENTRAL EUROPE
Increase
Countries. Year. for seed sown.
Spain 1828 6 for one
Portugal 1786 10 "
Tuscany 10 "
Plains of Lucca 15 "
Piedmont--Plains of Marengo 4 to five
Bologna 15 "
Roman States--Pontine marshes 20 "
Ordinary lands 8 "
Kingdom of Naples--best districts 20 "
Ordinary lands 8 "
Malta--the best lands 38 to 64 "
Ordinary lands 22, 25, 30 "

NORTHERN EUROPE.

Sweden and Norway 1838 4.50 for one
Denmark 1827 6 "
Russia, a good harvest 1819 5 "
---- province of Tambof 1821 4.50 "
---- provinces north of 50 deg. latitude 1821 3 "
Poland 1826 8 "
England 1830 9 "
Scotland 1830 8 "
Ireland 1825 10 "
Holland 1828 7.50 "
Belgium 1828 11 "
Bavaria 1827 7 to 8 "
Prussia 1817 6 "
Austria 1812 7.05 "
Hungary 1812 4 "
Switzerland, lands of an inferior quality 1825 3 "
Of a good quality, 8; of the best quality 12 "
France, inferior lands, 3; best lands 6 "

(Statistique des Cereales de la France par Moreau de Jonnes.)

STATISTICS OF WHEAT CULTURE.

As wheat forms the principal nutritious food of the world, claiming
the industrious application of labor over the greater part of Europe,
throughout the temperate regions of Asia, along the northern kingdoms
of Africa, and extending far into the northern and southern regions of
the American continents; as it has been cultivated from time
immemorial, and has produced in various climates and soils many
varieties; it is surprising that so little is generally known of the
distinct varieties best adapted to particular climates--and that in
Great Britain and the United States we have yet to learn the variety
which will yield the largest and best amount of human food!

At the Industrial Exhibition in 1851, twenty-six premiums only were
distributed for specimens of wheat; of these, five were awarded to
British farmers, three to France, three to Russia, three to Australia,
three to the United States, and one each or severally to other
nations. Some beautiful specimens of wheat were exhibited from South
Australia, weighing seventy pounds a bushel; which were eagerly sought
after for seed wheat by our farmers and the colonists of Canada and
the United States. But as is well observed by Professor Lindley, it
has no peculiar constitutional characteristics by which it may be
distinguished from other wheats. Its superior quality is entirely
owing to local conditions; to the peculiar temperature, the brilliant
light, the soil, and those other circumstances which characterise the
climate of South Australia.

All kinds of wheat contain water in greater or lesser quantities. Its
amount is greater in cold countries than in warm. In Alsace from 16 to
20 per cent.; England from 14 to 17 per cent.; United States from 12
to 14 per cent.; Africa and Sicily from 9 to 11 per cent. This
accounts for the fact, that the same weight of southern flour yields
more bread than northern, English wheat yields 13 lbs. more to the
quarter than Scotch. Alabama flour, it is said, yields 20 per cent.
more than that of Cincinnati. And in general American flour, according
to one of the most extensive London bakers, absorbs 8 or 10 per cent.
more of its own weight of water in being made into bread than the
English. The English grain is fuller and rounder than the American,
being puffed up with moisture.

Every year the total loss in the United States from moisture in wheat
and flour is estimated at four to five million dollars. To remedy this
great evil, the grain should be well ripened before harvesting, and
well dried before being stored in a good dry granary. Afterwards, in
grinding and in transporting, it should be carefully protected from
wet, and the flour be kept from exposure to the atmosphere. The best
precaution is kiln-drying. By this process the wheat and flour are
passed over iron plates heated by steam to the boiling point. From
each barrel of flour 16 or 17 pounds of water are thus expelled,
leaving still four or five per cent. in the flour, an amount too small
to do injury. If all the water be expelled, the quality of the flour
is deteriorated.

The mode of ascertaining the amount of water in flour is this; take a
small sample, say five ounces, and weigh it carefully; put it into a
dry vessel, which should be heated by boiling water; after six or
seven hours, weigh it; its loss of weight shows the original amount of
water.

The next object is to ascertain the amount of gluten. Gluten is an
adhesive, pasty mass, and consists of several different principles,
though its constitution has not yet been satisfactorily determined. It
is chiefly the nutritious portion of the flour. The remaining
principles are mostly starch, sugar and gum. On an average their
relative amount in 100 parts are about as follows:--

Average. Kobanga wheat, the best.
Water 13 12
Gluten 12 16
Starch 67 60
Sugar and Gum 8 8
--- ---
100 97