The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1878-11-13

small and feeble beginnings of any
great provldential supply, will be in
torosting to the great majority of
readers, 1 venture TO state briefly the
first steps taken in introducing the
culture of sorghum and the manu-
facturc of sorghum and imphce syr-
up and sugar in the great West
and, | might add, in these United
States. | am, and was, well ac-
quaintcd with the two persons who
were at the beginning Of tho long
line in Iowa. believed to be the
State where the first culture ran into
the first successful manufacture.
Gen. VIM. Daune Wilson, now de-
ceased, was editing and printing and
agricultural paper, The Iosca Homo
stead, believe, when the Agricul-
tural Division of the Patent Office,
before that Division was created or
raised into department" receiv-
ed some sorghum seed from China.
II was duly noticed and Landed as
Chinese sugar cane" and when
General Wilson, ] think, sent for, and
certainly received few small pack
ages of the seed. A short time pre-
vious to this, modest unassuming
little woman, accustomed TO use her
pen, began writing for the "Home-
stead pro bono patblico, or 'frec
gratis, for nothing" I; and her articles
were properly appreciated, and fur
ther contributions encouraged by
such means and tokens as were in the
ability of the poorly paid editor and
printer-principally by sending her
some exchanges and praises. But
when the sorghum seed came, he
somehow thought il might be ac-
ceptable TO his fair correspondent /;
and so in due season package came
TO her that had been and now Is Mrs.
Caroline A. Soule, at Boone, from
General Wilson, of Des Moines. lie
sent out the few, other packages he
had received, but | believe never
heard of the fate of any but this one
probably the receivers voting the
whole affair mOros malticoUHS
humbug.
Mrs. Soule examined the broom
corn looking seeds, and concluded to
try them fairly. With her own
hands she laboriously prepared a
generous sized bed in her garden,
where, by aid of her children, she
planted the seeds and carefully cul-
iivated the growing stalks. When
she supposed them ripe enough, she
and her little boys cut them down
and in due season cut them up into
short pieces with table knives,
pounded and rolled them till well
bruised with rolling pin, and press
ed out the juice by some similar
household contrivance. Boiling into
syrup was q more familiar process,
and as she had shit the exact time
for harvesting the sorghum, IL was a
success. The news spread, and "tas-
tcrs" were so gratilied that all the
seed saved was in demand, and sor-
gbum culture and. manufacture was
established in Iowa and the great
west through the enterprise of Gen.
Wilson and Mrs. Soule. Ill
If you would know the immensely
of benefit thus begun, come down a
few years later, when the civil war
cut of all trade with our sugar pro-
ducing regions in the South, and, by
"risks of war;" enhanced the cost OF
sugar and molasses, even on the Az.
lantic coast, four and five hundred
pcr cent. Add TO these enormous
prices the cost of transportation to
the West, by animal power instead
of steam, in many cases for twenty,
fifty, and even one hundred miles OF
wagoning, and you may well imagine
how little ''sweetening" would have
been used in all those various and
vast sections, had it not been for sor-
ghum. Had this seed not been pro-
cured by General Wilson, and utii'
lied by Mrs. Soule, (now editor OF
the Guiding star, a children's paper,
in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1t might have
been several years before sorghum
syrup had been manufactured IN the
West, and the rebellion would prob
ably have found all that vast region
utterly unprovided with any snbsti'
tute for the cane sugar and molassas
of the South.
| can not close this article without
reminding those who would utt ,rly
abolish our sometimes badly manag'
ed Department of Agriculture, that
the country can not afford to dc
without it. This single article, in
troduced by the Government, has
already more than paid for all the
Department has cost. Without IT.
during the civil strife of few years
the West alone would have paid II
money and in suffering far more thar
the department has expended anc
wasted during its whole existence
Tear down and destroy the hornets
nest, if you will; drive out al
droncs, wasps and hornets, If you