The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1879-12-11
Commissioner lie Due on Agricultural
MOftnrs-

Matterss
ArepoFter gives the following inter
view with VIM. G. lie Due, Commits
sioner Of Agriculture: The reporter
asked what was doing in the matter Of
beet sugar?
Well, we now have in press an article
covering eighteen months investigation
of that subject. | would prefer to talk
to you about sorghum rs a sugar-pro-
duoing crop, The department at Wash
ington is experimenting in these things
alltfer time It r doubtful If bcet-sttgar
can be profitably made in this country ;
of sugar from sorghum there can be no
doubt. Sorghum sugar is made at Ed
wardsvilIe, Illinois, by a farmer named
Schwartz, and also largely manufactured
in Minnesota. 1t can be made at ten
cents a pound. Now, as 200 gallons Of
heavy sorghum syrup can be produced to
The acre, and $50 gallons where the Cul-
t"ivation Is not specially attended to, and
Rs each gallon will make ten pounds Of
crystalizcd sugar, it can readily be seen
that the making of sorghum sugar, 1000
to 1000 pounds to the acre, is a worry
profitable thing.
Indiana has a much better climate
and better soil for the growth of sorg-
hum than Minnesota has. Another thing
in favor OF sorghum as a sugar crop: it
car be grown over a wide extent of
country, wherever corn isgrown. Now,
the beet, for sugar, is restricted to n very
small area Of territory, and depends
more on meteorological conditions than on
specific properties of soil. Small sugar
retineries, formaking sugarfrom sorghum,
have been erected in several places.
There is one near Chicago, | think an
other at Faribault, Mimi, and another
at st. Louis. The sugar is as good rs
that from the sugar-cane, and can be
made as white and hard as any loaf-sugar
ever manufactured"
"Your tea experiments; what has be-
come of themT"
We will grow all our own tea in this
country, too, before we have done with
this thing. Those of the Southern
States that have enough rainfall are
admirably adapted to t~ea-growing. [
believe at the Government gardens
the"
The botanical gardens" suggested
the reporter.
No, sir; those are kept by a man
named Smith, and used by the Congress
and executive officers to furnish
them with bouquets and c%ut-1owers. No,
sir; [ mean the department. gardens, in
which are kept all sorts of plants, n~ative,|
and foreign. | have at these gardens, as
| was saying, several thousand tea
all raised from seeds which were
from tea-plants growing in the
Southern States, This proves, yon see,
that tea-plants can be grown here. But
they MillneveE be growninthe far West,
[ am afraid. The climate is too dry, but
still they a be grown there, and grown
rapidly, too, but the groundmust be well
irrigated. The Southern States is the
field for this industry in America.
You can grow some tea in Indiana, but |
think that the climate is particu-
adapted to it. In time every
in this State may be able to raise
is W supply of tea, and prepare the
caves for the pot in each house, but [
I'm sure that it will never be a staple
,rop of the State.
I" am meeting with great success in
-lC u"hStilbuulOh Vi uILE WneaI l0F SEED
purposes in the State. The farmers can
aise larger crops than from any other
ort of seed. And, although they make
rom two to three cents less per bushel,
hey raise enough more bushels to the
.cre to make a handsome profit from it.
Cor the new process milIers want a
larder wheat for their use. | have re-
emily purchased some bl~ack-bearded
wheat from New Zealand, which | sent
0 Maryland, and in that sandy, sterile
it produced the enormous yield Of
bushels to the acre. Now,
it will yield SO much as that in Mary
and, it will do equally as well in SINH
soils in similar climates in other
Ishall watch that experiment
nth great anxiety"