Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-19
HOW the North Oan make sugar,

Sorghum Culture and How to Succeed
 A Chance for Connections Farm eFSs
 A fair-sized audience, composed principally
 of members of the Legislature. listened to the
 lecture on sorghum culture, Tuesday evening,
 in Representatives Hall in the State Capitol,
 by Professor Peter Collier, chemist of the Agricultural department at Washington. Pro- lessor Gold, Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, called the meeting to order, and MT. Stewart, of Haddam, presided The professor began by saying that in his
 lecture he should give no opinions not based upon actual experiments. He then proceeded
 to speak of the magnitude of the sugar im-
 portation of this country, which is now over
 $10O, ,oO0, 900 in value annually.
 Since 1848 it has cost this country nearly or l quite as much for the sugar it has consumed
 as it's total yield of gold and silver amounts to-.
 The total yield of gold and silver mined in the United States since 1948 is in round numbers ! about $1, SOC, ,00O, ,O0O the total value of sugar | imported in the same time is about $1, 75O, 1 900, 900. Every man, woman and child in | the United States uses annually from 36 to 40 pounds of sugar. Incidentally this country is, by it's dependence, chiefly, upon Cuba for it's
 sugar supply, sustaining the slave system in | that island.
 Coming to the subject in hand, he said that for one hundred years or more we have thrown away half the value of the corn crop @ matter that comes home to every one-far- mers, capitalists and citizens. Prof. Collier stated as 8 fact, well ascertained, that great | as is the corn crop it is diminishing greatly, heno depletes the soil, but the way to do is to press the sugar out of them and then return the stalks to the ground as fertilizer The speaker would stake his reputation that if he could have ten acres of good land he would produce ten tons of good sugar from sorg- hum. There is not farmer in Connecticut but can get ton of sugar from an acre of sorghum, and there is not man or woman in the State who can make good butter who | can't make sugar from sorghum.
 The cause of the failure experienced in years past by those who attempted to make | sorghum was without doubt in the fact that farmers cut the stalks at the wrong time. It | has heretofore been the impression that the proper time for cutting was when the stalk was green. Here is where the failure came in. The really proper time to cut the stalks is when the stalk is fully ripe-not | dead, but ripe, with corn matured and seeds developed.
 brief description of Professor Golfers process of making sugar will be interesting. He first topped the stalks (In his opinion l the stalks should also be stripped.) Then the juice obtained by pressing the stalks was placed
 in tank as soon as possible to this was add
 ed slackened lime of the consistency of cream, ! to neutraliEe the acid. He then brought it to
 the boiling point, but it was not boiled. The
 action of the lime produced scum, which was skinned of. The sediment subsided
 to the bottom, and the liquid was drawn off,
 placed in an evaporating tank, and boiled
 until it puffed like ''hasty pudding" when the
 fire was drawn and the liquid placed away in a room to crystalline When placing it in the evaporating tank, before boiling, he added a small quantity of sulphuric acid, but this was notion of his own.