New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-12-26
The Mel,n Sugar Question.

Professor Gallon, of the New York H'o,h
and chemist Of large experience, puts a
quietus on the melon sugar question. Thir.
ty years ago when sugar was scarce in the
West we used to make syrup from watermel-
ons, but did not pay even then. Mr.. Cation
says:
ga long experience in practical manufac-
turing operations has taught us not to accept
any theory as a fact, if there is q possibility
of proving it by actual trial. Hence, having
known the watermelon in section where it
grows in the greatest perfection, we have
been somewhat chary in accepting the glow
ing statements of the amount and quality of
sugar to be derived from it put forth by one
of our contemporaries in the California land
of wonders and plenty. In fact, we went
further, and tried the matter by practical
operations. We went to Washington Market
aad bought some good, sound, Southern
melons, fresh from Norfolk. These we
treated in accordance with the directions of
the Pacific Rural Press, and we know, in adj
dition, probably as much rs they do about
boiling the true sugar-cane juice. The re-
suit Of our experience was 10 pounds of
watermelon yielded sc pounds of pulp; this
by pressure yielded four gallons and gill of
juice, weighing eight pounds nine ounces to
the gallon. In boiling we skinned of gill
or more of refuse. From the process we got
one quart of very pleasant tasting syrup, but
it has not crystaliZed yet, and shows no signs
of doing so.
"Now for figures. Suppose man raises
1900 melons on an acre of ground; averag-
ing six to hundred pounds, there would be
$4,000 pounds, equivalent in the result to 500
quarts of syrup, or l25 gallons. If this mo-
lasses could be sold at wholesale for seventy
cents per gallon, it would yield eighty-seven
dollars per acre ; but as new produce it could
not he sold for that price. Yet estimate at
eighty-seven dollars per acre, and from this
deduct expenses of raising the melons and
making the sugar, and there might be fifty
dollars profit per acre. We do not believe that
in practical operation it would amount to
one-half that sum, and we confess we do not
see in this "melon sugar question" the solu-
ton of Or present difficulty of high-priced
sugar and continued sparse supply. We may
be wrong, but we still believe that bringing
under cultivation the millions of acres of
good sugar lands in Florida, the southern
parts of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Texas, and we may add California, will much
more surely produce us large quantities of
good sugar than Ethiopian experiment with
melons and beets. There is not an acre Of
those lands which cannot be made to produce
1000 pounds of sugar and thirty gallons of
syrup, while many will yield more. What
sort of competition would melon sugar
maker have with such product? These ex-
periments may be well enough in Germany,
where they cannot grow sugar-cane, and
where labor is cheap, but all we need is to
improve the great resources with which we
have been blessed. We do not need to try
expensive experiments with melons as an un-
when we have an unoccupied area
Of 5,000,0 900 acres which will grow true SUI
yar-cane with perfect ease, and there is no
part of our country in which the sorghum or
nIphee will not grow, and from which bet
r. molasses can be made than from the
Melon"