The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-01-26
THE SUGAR INTERESTS.
sORGHUM.RA1sING IN TINE PINE
WOODS OF LOUISIANA.


some Erroneous Ideas Combated.
| To the Editor of the Democrat:
| / ind In your issue of the twelfth instant
an article entitled "The Sugar Interest,
which attracted my particular attention.
| have formerly cultivated sugar cane anc
| carried on plantation and all the processes
OF the sugar personally. Therefore l claim
to know something about sugar making
This last year 1 have made small crop o.
sorghum, producing molasses. l have foul
different varieties of sorghum-the Liberia
or African, as it is called here Il don't know
the botanical name of any Of them; this has
a solid-shouldered panicle OF dark-browr
seeds, ripens early, and is very juicy; the
Honduras, growing tall and large, about
twice the size of the Liberia, bearing panicle
of red seeds, and spreading somewhat like
the broom corn; the goose neck. growing
still larger, stalks over twelve feet high and
one and oDe-half inches in diameter; and
fourthly, small quantity of the amber, just
enough to make seeds, and therefore can
not say anything of it's qualities.
My sorghum was produced on rather poor
land In the piny woods in Louisiana, near
Osyka. The best yielded about seventy gal
Ions OF syrup to the acre. / shall give q short
description of 1t for the purpose OF COM
parison with the extraordinary statements
made OF the early amber in Minnesota by
Mr.. Henry Studniczka, which statements,
think, contain many errors My Liberia cane,
thought, was very fine Some canes were
cut ten feet long for the mill, and one OF the
largest l found to weigh two pounds and
half, but the average was much under that
size. The rows were four feet apart, and the
rows of 30 feet did not average more than
200 canes. 1 thought they were as thick as
possible, and am satisfied that the ground
produced all that it was capable Of maturing.
Where the cane was thicker it was smaller,
and where there we're less canes In the row
they were larger.
Now, Mr.. Studniczka states that in the
eighty acres of Mr.. Bowers of Lytchfield,
Mimi, he found an average of $50 stalks and
205 suckers of the amber cane, ten to eleven
feet tall, weighing from two to three pounds,
yield per acre 100 to $50 gallons of syrup of
80 per cent density, etc. The quantity of
canes ami suckers stated would make an
average of about three to a foot, or distance
apart of about four and half inches. This is
more than l have ever seen OF sugar cane or
sorghum care. The 351 canes of two and
half pounds would make 877 pounds to the
row. Sorghum being cultivated in rows four
feet apart would make fifty-two rows in the
acre, and being nearly twentythree tons to
the acre, instead of eleven, as he states.
Even taking up the eleven tons we have at
the lowest calculation 1000 pounds of Juice
with an ordinary mill giving SO per cent OF the
weight OF cane, equal to 1875 gallons, of which
1t takes six to make gallon of syrup, equal
N n N hnul fhar1
what he says can be safely produced on an
to $50 gallons.
As to the labor, l think he Is far wide from
the mark. For mill grinding three acres in
twenty-four hours he allows three men and
one horse. [ think 1t would require mill Of
about four-horse power, and IL run for TWEEN
ty-four hours continually, IL horses would
not suffice, and the three men to handle 80
tons OF cane would have an awful twenty-four
hours work, besides removing the bagasse
The team for hauling would have to make %
loads of 1000 pounds each from the field to the
mill. This is much more than q team can ac-
even with extra men to load the
wagon. The stripping and cutting Of the
cane Is greatly underestimate. Far from
one man cutting two acr3s, | think 1t would
be quite task for him to cut half an acre.
Mr. 8. says: "The seed of the amber cane
Is good article Of food for stock Granted;
but further he says that by returning the re-
fuse to the soil the crop will be less exhaus-
tive to the soil than wheat or other grain, in
asmuch as the sugar Is the product Of the at
mosphere. He seems ospeak without reflec-
ton, as he had just been extolling the value
OF the grain for stock. The fact, on the con-
trary, Is that the crop OF sorghum is a very
one, and the fertility of the soil
could be maintained for any length of time
only by rotation of crops and fertilizers.
do not by any means, condemn the Min
nesOta cane, or the other sorghums. think
any of them better than cotton, and sell the
molasses In New Orleans or another market
at !, anything like twenty cents the
gallon. There would be a preiu-
dice to overcome in some markets, but am
satisfied that moIasses can be made as good
rs that OF sugar-cane. That which l have
made, think, will compare favorabIy with
ordinary sugar-cane mOlaSSes, and with
proper apparatus have no doubt that sugar
can be made from any of the sorghums, and
from the early amber, as the con-
current testimony in regard to it would lead
us to believe.
| think that the quantity Of sugar and mo-
Iasses, relatively to the labor employed, Is |
ovei e5imated-six men to run three acres
through the mill in twenty-four hours. That
amount OF labor would be far from doing it In
5ugar-cane according to my experience.
Mr.. b. generously offers 10 furnish to the |
planters Of Minnesota further information on |
The subject. III he will extend his benevo- |
ence, and give information for the benefit of
The public in general, we of the piny woods |
)f Louisiana will feel grateful to him. The |
line In which Information would be useful |
would be in what additions or notifications
could be introduced In the ordinary sorghum |
mills In use. and what chemical ingredients
give more credit to Mr.. S. In sugar manufac-
,ure than In farming operations.
JOHN @. DELAvIaNE.
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