Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-12-13
Political farming.

fOltlcai farming.
Ben Perley Poore's Farm Talks 3" in
the Boston Culiuator are very readable, if
not very reliable as lessons in agriculture.
Ben has been the Washington correspondent
of the Boston Jouanal for the last thirty
years or so, and though he owns an inherited
farm, of which he is very proud, he is not
much of farmer. What he knows about
farming is of the date and style of the good
Horace Greeley. As congress is now be
ginning its session, Ben is in Washington,
and his last Farm Talk" is about the
agricultural department and DIR. Loring.
Ben and the doctor are neighbors and
friends in ancient Essex county, where the
famous Essex junto Of old federal poll
tics still weakly survives as a mutual admir-
alton society. Ben, of course, gets all his
points about the department from the doc
tor, and his article reflects all the doctors
little jealousies regarding his predecessor
and those in the department who still re-
tain any good will towards General LIE Due.
This is shown in his notice of the sugar ex.
periments, of which Mr.. Poore says
Experiments in manufacturing sugar have been
made to considerable extent at the department OF
agriculture, where every conceivable commodity
has been tested, from sorghum to cornstalks beets
and millet, at an enormous expenditure Of money.
Much Of this money has been literally thrown
away, but the happy idea of DR.. Loring in en-
lifting practical manufacturers all the coun-
try by the offer Of premiums has produced the
desired result. Professors Scoville and Weber,
of the Illinois State Industrial University, claim
ka., ltal In. ,f tfaR
| turing sugar from cane. This will enable us to
| save 800, 900, 900, which send every year to
| the West Indias and South America for sugar.
| paying at least seventy-fve per cent Of this In
| specie or its equivalent.
One of the leading dailies, speaking of
Dr. Lorings hostility to the sugar expert
ments, recently remarked that the doctor
lost the chance of his life in not allying
himself with Them, and riding into popular
i ity on the wave of their success. The willy
doctor has evidently seen the point, and Mr..
Poore's article shows how he is trying to
turn himself. The money spent by Gen.
lie Due was " literally thrown away" but
DIR. Loring's "happy idea of offering pre-
miums to manufacturers has brought sue
cess This is quite the most impudent and
cheeky thing done yet by the redoubtable
doctor. The department experiments were
a" costly failure" but the doctors premiums
have had the effect to stimulate Professors
Scoville and Weber of the Illinois State In
dustrial University to "solve the problem"
This is Mr. Poore's statement, but evidently
he, in making it, is merely the mouth-piece
of the commissioner. Now let the reader
see how plain tale will overthrow this It's
sue of lies, for it is no less.
Two years after the saccharine value of
sorghum as sugar making plant had been
demonstrated by the department chemist
under Gen. LIE Dues administration, the
Illinois Industrial University undertook a
series of experiments to test to accuracy of
that work, and the two professors named,
following carefully the methods of the de-
partment, reached identical results. These
professors, experimenting at the expense of
the state of Illinois, made some improve
ments, or supposed improvements, in the
details of the process and patented them in
their own name, in consequence of which
|
The past season they have been at work
making sugar and molasses from sorghum,
and have met with the same success, on a
smaller scale, as that which attended the
Rio Grande company in New Jersey to
which we have referred, but to which Mr.
Poore does not refer to at ALL Why does he
not ? Plainly because the Rio Grande
company avowedly worked upon the system
established by the experiments under Gen
lie Dues administration, while the Illinoi.
results can be cunningly made to appear a.
the consequence of independent and NOR,
successful work by other chemists, stimu
lated by the premiums offered by DIR. Loring
But how about those premiums Tn,
last congress appropriated some $4,000 t.
be used for continuing the experiments o
the department; but DIR. LoriDg, in his usua
top-lofty way, annulled this law of congress
refused to continue the experiments, ant
offered the appropriation In the form of pre-
miums to private manufacturers. 1t ha
turned out, of course, that the doctor had NJ
power to do this, and his premiums canno
be paid except by a special act of congres
which he is not likely to get. As to the ez
periments Of the Illinois professors beinl
stimulated by these premiums, it is onl
necessary to add that they were all undel
taken and finished before the premium
were offered, and they do not pretend tina
their process differ in any essential partier
lar from those published by the department
before their experiments were undertaken.