The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-11-07
American Sorghum Sugar.


The statements made by Gen. LIE
Due, the Commissioner of Agriculture,
concerning the recent discovery of a
variety of sorghum and the rapid in
crease of its cultivation and in the prod
uct of sugar, are matters of more than
ordinary interest to American farmers
and to the great sugar consuming peO-
pie of this country. This discovery is
equal to that of the gold and silver de-
pOsits of the United States, and will add
an equal sum annually to the wealth of
the country.
Sorghum has been grown in this
country spasmodically at intervals for
some years, but the difficulty has been
that the crop was so subject to failure,
because of the 1ateness Of its ripening,
that it has been abandoned as often as
it was tried. There was difficulty also
in the want of means and practical
knowledge of how the sugar should be
manufactured. These difficulties have
been to great extent overcome. Here
tofore sorghum did not mature I'M
til after corn ripened, and was
therefore liable to be lost by frost !;
but the Commissioner of Agriculture,
some years ago, was able to secure q
quantity of seed of the variety known
as the Early Amber, which has the rare
value of maturing several weeks earlier
than any other sorghum, and is there
fore in no more danger from frost than
is corn. This seed he distributed in va
riOus parts of the country, and, from
the increased quantity, has been able to
make larger distributions annually. He
has tried it far down in Texas and high
up in Minnesota, and it has everywhere
been successfully cultivated, and has
proved prolific. Last year there was
considerable sirup produced in small
quantities, but this year, from the
greater breadth of land cultivated, the
production has been largely increased,
and in no locality has It proved more
successful than at Crystal Lake, Nc
Henry County, in this State. This loca-
ton was selected because at that point
there were the abandoned buildings and
machinery of an old pickle establish
ment, and these have been used in the
manufacture of sorghum sirup and
sugar.
The facts and figures relating to the
consumption and the cost of sugar in
the United States are of puculiar inter-
est. In order to point out the magni-
tude of the expenditure by the Ameri-
can people annually for sugar and sirup,
it is sufficient to say that the entire prod
uct of the gold and silver mines Of this
country since their discovery in Califor-
MIA in 1913 has been 81, $50, 0OO, 600. In
that same interval of time the United
States have paid out for sugar and strip,
imported mainly from Cuba, 81, $780,
OOO,OOO 1t will be seen, then, that dur
ing this long time we have paid, and
are now paying, something more than
the entire products of all our gold and
silver mines for the sugar we buy of
other countries. In that time we have
paid to foreign countries in gold and
silver an amount nearly equal to our en-
tire National debt, and the most of this
money has been paid to the Spanish
Islands, making the slave labor of those
islands profitable, and thereby perpetu-
ating not only slavery, but also the slave
trade. So long as we continue to pay
to Cubans nearly $lOO,OOO,OOO year
for sugar, so long will Spain refuse to
abolish slavery, which is now only prof
table because of our immense purchase
of sugar.
From repeated experiments North
and South, as far north rs Minnesota
and as far south as Texas, Commission
er LIE Due reaches the following cOnclu-
sions as to the profitableness of sorghum
as crop and as a manufacture. The
average product of sorghum from an
acre Of land that will produce 40 bushels
of corn he puts at 165 gallons of sirup,
weighing II pounds to the gallon, or
1900 pounds of sirup to the acre. This
strip, under the process now in use, and
easy of application, will divide into 1000
pounds of sugar and 1000 pounds of
strip. The producer of the cane, if he
have the machinery, can manufacture
this sugar and sirup for himself. If,
however, as must necessarily be the case,
one establishment for boiling the cane
and for the production of the sugar and
strip will answer for a large district, the
product divided equally between the
farmer and the manufacturer will yield
the farmer $50 an acre for his cane. OF
course, when the production of sorghum
shall become measurably as large as that
of corn, the cost of converting the cane
into sugar and sirup will be far less than
now, and the money value of the cane
per acre will be greater. 10
The sorghum cane is prolific in its
seed. 1t is as valuable as oats or corn
for food for domestic animals, and the
yield of seed ranges from Is to 80 BUSH
els an acre, which at 25 cents per bushel
is equal to from "a to $8 per acre. The
manner of cultivation is the same as that
of corn. If every man who plants corn
will plant an additional acre in sorghum,
he will be able to supply his own house,
hold with sugar and sirup; if he plant
an additional five, or 10, or 20 acres in
sorghum, he will have sugar and strip
not only at low cost for his own use.
but to sell. Sugar and sirup, which are
now among the more costly items of
family expenditure, will be then within
the reach of every man who will plant
o few acres in sorghum, and without re-
ducing his acreage in other crops, he
can add sorghum to his list of prOduc-
tons for sale. This sugar and sirup
thus produced ON the farm will be of a
quality superior to that generally sold
nv the ,,efineries: II will be the D,lre