The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-03-19

tritious food for cattle, from their ele-
ments 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 period of ten years, would ex-
tinguiSh our national debt.
Incredible as the fact may appear, it
is deducible from the product of 960
pounds of sugar obtained from the stalks
Of an acre of Indian corn, in addition to
their yield of sixty-uine bushels of good
shelled corn. Ortake it in another form.
Putting our Indian corn crop at the
average of $400, 600, 600 in value, and es-
timating the sugar in the stalks at only
half the value of the corn, with the pro-
ductiOn of so vast an amount of S200,-
600, ,000-more than double the sum of
the gold and silver extracted from all
our mines between the British Domin-
ions and Mexico, and equal in value to
the cotton crop of all our Southern
States.
When the first Napoleon, when France
under the blockade of the English navy,
was cut off from Ter foreign supplies.
offered a reward of 10, ,000f for home
produced substitute for the sugar of the
West Indies which could b. produced
equal to the wants of the French peO-
pie, he secured a reward worth incalcul-
ably more to France than all her victor
les in the battle ZELDA reward the value
Of which cannot be reached in the mil
lions of money saved to France in her
beet root sugar. How, then, can we
estimate the value of these new appli-
ances which render the production of
sugar from sorghum and corn stalks
more profitable industry on our large
Southern plantations than cotton. and
on our small Northern farms yielding
richer return than corn, wheat, grass or
potatoes z
The old Mexican inhabitants of Santa
Fe, New Mexico, will tell you that from
their grandfathers they inherited the Sc
cret of extracting sugar from cOrnstalks
and that the corn fields Of their valley
for generations gone by have supplied
those people their bread, meat and sugar,
to say nothing of the whisky yam
kee notion" We find, too, that our
fOrefathers Of the war of independence
knew something of the saccharine value
of COrnstalks, from the extract of letter
written by Abigail Adams to her huS-
band, John Adams, dated September "a,
17S7, which is as follows:
= An instance may he seen in the progress
which is made in grinding constalks and
boiling the liquor into mOlasses. Scarcely
town or parish within forty miles of us but
what has several mills at work and had the
experiment been made a month sooner,
many thousand barrels would have been
made. No less than eighty have been made
in the small town OF Manchester 1t Itanswers
very well to distill, and may be boiled down
to sugar. There are two mills fitting up ia
this parish. They have three rOllers-one
with c0Ts and two smooth The stalks are
stripped of the leaves and tops, 50 that it is
no robbery upon the cattle, and the juice
ground out lis said four barrels Of juice
will make one OF molasSes but in this people
differ widely. They have 4 method Of re-
fning it so that it looks as well as the best
imported mOlaSses.
Had these beginnings in the way of
substitutes for foreign sugar been act
lively and perseveTingly followed up we
can no longer doubt That some thousands
of millions OF dollars would have been
saved to the country which have been
spent in importations Of sugar and mo-
lasses. Now. this new industry opened
to our Southern planters, Northern far
Iners and capitalists, offers such profits
from q crop Of sorghum and cornstalks.
and from the extraction Of their sugar.
that our home product of all grades,
from the cOarsest browns to the finest
whites, viii soon turn the balance Of
trade on sugar, and likewise in rum and
mOlasses in our favor.
The strongest argument III support Of
the scheme of the annexation of the is
land Of st. Domingo was the plea that
it wOulG render US independent of Cuba
III the important article o. sugar. The
new machinery and processes employed
in the extraction and cTysfalliZatiOu Of
The sugar from the sap Of sorghum and
COTnstalks are simple and cOmpaI ativelv
inexpensive. Sorghum sugar. worth ten
cents, can now be produced, all costs in
cluded. at less than four cents per
pound. The machinery and implements
employed include grinding mills, driving
pans and centrifugal dTiers They are
now at Chicago, operated by steam, and
many persons are preparing TO follow
the profitable example Of the Chicago
firm already referred to on the score of
at least ton of sugar per day. There
is room in this work for hundreds Of
small factories in the United States, for
the nearer the mill 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 important subject
can be obtained at or from the agricul-
tural department. The object of this
communication is simply to herald the
advent of new industry among our
people no ntOrLtS Hj1titicnuluS fallacy,
but highly profitable field Of industry,
equal to the gain of 500, 900, 600 to the
country and wide as the zone Of sorghum
and Indian corn.