ome fair samples of rum and alcohol
from sorghum molasses. Under favorable circumstances one gallon of
molasses weighing eleven pounds would give 2.75 pounds absolute alcohol,
3.03 pounds of 90 per cent, and 5.5 whisky or rum. Thus each gallon of
molasses would give nearly half a gallon of commercial alcohol and two
thirds of a gallon of whisky or rum. As it has been abundantly proved,
he says, that sugar can be made from sorghum, the Government should make
no further experiments in this direction. Prof. Wiley has tried the
diffusion process, and finds it yields 20 per cent more sugar, but at a
somewhat higher cost than grinding. The Government, he thinks, should
purchase machinery for large experiments in the diffusion process, and
should raise its cane somewhere else than near Washington, as land there
is expensive and not adapted to the purpose. The Government should also
make arrangements with agricultural colleges or other agencies in
various States for experimenting with sorghum-culture to determine what
parts of the country are most favorable to the culture of
sugar-producing plants. Prof. Wiley suggests in each State the trial of
two acres divided into ten plots--five for sorghum, four for beets, and
one for corn--to test for purposes of comparison the general fertility
of the soil and the character of the season. The Government ought to
carry on for a series of years the process of selection of sorghum seed
in order to secure an improvement in the quality of the cane.

THE COLD SPELL.

The cold weather of last week seems to have extended over nearly the
entire North American Continent. Nothing for severity has been known to
equal it during a long series of years. East, West, North, and South it
was all the same, differing in degree of course, but uniformly colder
than scarce ever known in the same latitude.

The greatest loss to stock so far as heard from was in that in transit
to market. On some of the roads the losses were heavy. A dispatch from
Independence, Mo., says a train of fifteen cars, loaded with mules from
Texas via the Iron Mountain and Southern road, arrived there on the 5th,
when it was discovered that at least 100 of the mules had frozen to
death, and the others were in a freezing condition. The mules were two
years old and direct from grass. They had been three days without food.

Many trains arriving at Chicago had scores of frozen animals.

No great disaster is yet reported from t