The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-03-20
Cane and Corn Sugar.

tural Building, predicts that within the next
ten years, and probably within five years, the
United States will manufacture sugar enough
to supply all the demand of fifty millions of
people; and that the sugar making belt of the
country will be co.extensive with all that ter
ritory in which sorghum and Indian corn
comes to maturity.
Several attempts to make sugar from beels
IN this country have been failures, as were all
ATTEMPTS to make merchantable sugar from
sorghum until the new process of 1871 By
this new process-wl,h the improved machh-
ery and chemical processes employed, the
profitable production OF sugar from sorghum
and a superior merchantable sugar, too-ls
wlthln the reach of every farmer on whose
land sorghum or Indian corn will grow.
Chemical experiments, too, hhave shown that
while the equalization of the best Louisiana
sugar cane long believed to be the only prac-
,icable cane for sugar making) is 1850 per
cent, that of the early amber sorghum" is II
per cent The value of other sorghum juices
is nearly as great as that of the Louisiana cane
The correspondent continues:
The general conclusion, from the numerous
chemical examinations made IS that there
exists but little difference between the
various kinds of sorghum as sugar pro
duclng plants, and that the juice OF each
of them is, in its full development,
nearly as rich in sugar rs the best tropical
cane produced in this country. Professor
Coilyer says that from an acre OF the Ii0nuu-
vas sorghum he has obtained two tons OF sugar,
and from three other varieties one ton OF sugar
each. The larger yield from the Honduras
plant Is mainly attributable to the stage OF de.
yelopment at which the stalks were gathered
for the grinding Now, bearing in mind the
fact that sugar and syrup have been made from
sorghum by the carload the past season, which
commanded the highest market price and that
the cash value per acre above all the costs OF
its production is such rs to make 1t more
profitable crop than wheat, Indian corn, tObac-
co or cotton 1t cannot be doubted that, with
the diffusion Of this information the cultiva.
ton of IL field or two of sorghum for its sugar
will be generally adopted by the farmers OF
the country; first, as an experiment, and next,
on larger scale, as a regular crop from year
TO year.
ANIME OF NATIONAL WEALTH.
But the most remarkable results from these
experiments in sugar making obtained by Pro,
lessor Collyer were from Indian corn. From
an acre of land planted last year with com
mon white field corn, known as the horse tooth,
from the shape of Its kernel, he gathered the
ears when fully ripe, and their yield of shelled
corn was sixty-nine and one-tenth bushels
more than double the average crop per acre OF
the country at large Next, stripping and
grinding the stalks and working up their juice
by the new processes, he extracted from 1t
800 pounds, or nearly half ton OF sugar OF a
good quality Here, then, from the stalks
thrown out by our farmers into the refuse of
BARNARD as fit only to be reduced to manure
a more profitable crop has been obtained
than the corn. Nor is this all. The pulver-
lied stalks, after the extraction of the sacchar-
inc Juice TO the extent now practicable, sixty
Der cent have proved nutritious food for cat
tle from their elements of starch and nitrogen
retained Applying this extract of sugar to
the Indian corn crop of the United States
that is, to the rejected cornstalks-they would
give US an income which, within the brief pc
rod of ten years, would extinguish our nation
al debt.
Incredible as this fact may appear it is de-
ducble from the product of $50 pounds of SUI
gar obtained from the stalks of an acre of In
dian corn, in addition to their yield OF sixty
nine bushels of good shelled corn. Or take it
in another form. Putting our Indian corn
crop at the average of S40OOOOOOO in value,
and estimating the sugar in the stalks at only
half the value of the corn, with the production
of so vast an amount of sugar we have still in
these cornstalks gold and silver to the amount
of $500 600 000-more than double the sum OF
the gold and silver extracted from all our
mines between the British Dominions and
Mexico, and equal IN value to the cotton crop
of all our southern states.
1t is estimated that the annual consumption
Of sugar in the L. s. Is now 40 pounds per
capita, but with abundant supply would reach
80 pounds. AT this latter figure, the English
average (he French is much higher, our fifty
millions of people would consume three thou
sand million pounds OF sugar, which at seven
cents per pound would be equal to 100000,
900 But the Crystal Lake sorghum sugars of
Weldner & Co., of Chicago, sold last year at
ten cents per pound, and at this figure our
farmers have now in sorghum and Indian corn
the canes from which they may add annually
fully S200,0O0,OO0 to the wealth Of the country.
The UeraLd concludes:
The new machinery and processes employed
in the extraction and capitalization of the su-
gar from the sap of sorghum and cornstalks
are simple and comparatively inexpensive,
Sorghum sugar, worth ten cents. can now be
produced, all costs included, at less than four
cents per pound. The machinery and nipple
ments employed include grinding mills, dry
ing pans and centrifugal drIers. They are now
at Chicago, operated by steam, and many per-
sons are preparing to follow the profitable ex.
ample of the Chicago firm already referred to
on the scale of at least a ton of sugar per day
There is room in this work for hundreds of
small factories in the United States, for the
nearer the null is to the sorghum and corn
fields the cheaper will be the carrying of the
stalks to the grinder Any further light that
may be desired by the reader on this lmpor.
tant subject can be attained at or from the Ag-
rlcultural Department. The object of this
communication is simply 20 herald the advent