The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-01-17
The Melon Sugar Question.

Professor Calton, of the New York
World, and chemist of large expert
ence, puts quietus on the melon sugar
question. Thirty years ago when sugar
was scarce in the West we used to
make syrup from watermelons, but did
not pay even then. Mr.. Calton says:
"Long experience in the practical
manufacturing operations has taught
us not to accept any theory as fact, if
there is possibility of proving it by
actual trial. Hence having known the
watermelon in a 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 cotemporaries
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 and
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 addition, probably as much as
they do about boiling the true sugar
cane juice. The result of our experience
was: ITO pounds of watermelons 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 off
a gill or more of refuse. From the pro-
cess 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 a man
raises 5000 melons on an acre of
ground; averaging six to a hundred
pounds, there would be $4,000 pounds,
equivalent in the result to 500 quarts of
syrup, or 125 gallons. If this molasses
could be sold at wholesale for seventy
cents a gallon, it would yield eighty
seven dollars per acre +; but as new pro-
duce it could not be 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 |
that we do not see in this "melon sugar |
question" the solution of our present |
of high-priced sugar and con-
tinued sparse supply. We may be |
wrong, but we still believe that bring
ing under cultivation the millions of
acres of sugar lands in Florida, the
southern parts of Georgia, Alabama,
Texas, and we may add
will much more surely pro-
duce us large quantities of good sugar
than Ethiopian experiments with melons
and beets There is not an acre of those
lands which cannot be made to produce
?, 900 pounds of sugar and thirty gall
ons of syrup, while many will yield
more. What sort of competition would
4 melon sugar maker have with such a
product? These experiments may do
we'll enough in Germany, where they
cannot grow sugar-cane, and where labor
S cheap, but all we need is to improve
he great resources with which we have
been blessed We do not need to try
expensive experiments with melons as
IN uncertainty when we have an I'M
area of 25, 600, 900 acres which
Will grow true sugar-cane with perfect
ase, and there is no part of our country
n which the sorghum or imphee will
lot grow, and from which better :
can be made than from the
melon.