Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-11-09
SWEET SECRETS.
Sorghum Becoming a Staple Protection with the
Farmers or the Northwest.

Ehfmtfs Oi the NuftHNest.
Fond du Lac cor. Milwaukee Repub-
lican SentiLel:-A call at the Fond du
Lac sugar factory found the proprietor,
A. j. Decker, busy experimenting the
business in every particular, and his
clear understanding of all the details
fits him well for the duties as agent of
the Department of Agriculture, to which
he has been recently appointed. Under
his management it is expected that the
sorghum interests will be placed before
the Department in such manner as to
attract the attention of Congress and re-
ceive the recognition and encouragement
that the industry justly merits. MIR.
Decker informed your correspondent
that the season has been the poorest for
many years, and as late as the LIST of
August the crop seemed to be perfect
failure, but the favorable fall weather
has brought it forward SO rapidly that a
two-thirds yield will be realized, and
that of a very fine quality. As regards
the industry, which is fast commanding
the attention of all farmers in the North
west, Mr. Decker says the sorghum, or
amber sugar-cane, which Is its proper
name, is steadily becoming one of the
principal crops of the West, and pays
the farmer as well as other crops and
gives him an article of sweetening prop
critics from three to six times greater
than any similar goods that he can buy,
and also being perfectly pure and
healthy The light, fancy corn syrup
that is placed upon the market is invari-
ably made from amber syrup and glu-
cOse. The mixture turns out five gallons
of light corn syrup, and, as glucose has
less than two-fifths of the sweetening
power of amber syrup, the five gallons
of factory syrup so made (and it is
nearly all so manufactured) is only equal
in sweetening power to two gallons of
amber syrup, and the consumer has to
pay more for this mixture than he would
to purchase the pure article of home
manufacturers. The fact is becoming
well understood, and there is growing
demand for pure goods, which will tend
to drive from the market all inferior ar
ticles styled fancy syrups. For cooking
purposes, where sweets are desired, the
amber syrup has no equal. With these
facts, is there any reason why the bust
ness is not success, and does it pay the
farmer to raise the cane and the manu-
facturer to make the syrup and sugar,
was asked To this query the following
interesting facts were CLEANED. In the
space of five or six years the industry in
Wisconsin has grown to the number of
$50 factories, which this year will aver
age 1000 gallons of syrup each, making
a total of 100000 gallons. The amount.
of course, will not supply the demand in
the State, as Wisconsin pays annually
nearly $8,000,000 for syrup and sugar.
In time this demand will and can be
supplied. As to making sugar from the
amber cane, Mr.. Decker says it is only
a question of the proper machinery and
skill, and it will give almost, if not
quite, as great a yield per acre as the
Southern ribbon cane. At the Wiscon-
fin University farm last year 997 pounds
of sugar and eighty-seven gallons of
syrup were made from one acre of cane,
and the present indications are that the
work of this year will show much better
results. He says the smalls facto-
rieS throughout the country need
not expect to make sugar in
great quantities, for the long
and continued high degree of heat re-
quired by the open pan-boiling destroys
nearly all the sugar crystals before it
reaches the density required. To de
velop the sugar requires the use of the
vacuum pan, which is very expensive
and requires skill to operate success
fully, both of which will soon give way
to the onward march of industry, and
the sugar question is solved, and the
$40, 900, 600 now sent out of the country
annually for sugar and syrup will be left
at home in the hands of the farmers and
of the country. Last
March George Is. Loring, commissioner
of agriculture, issued circular to the
of sorghum sugar and
syrup, sayi 2 that no practical work
would be done at Washington by the
but would leave the work
to the factories of the country, who had |
developed all the certain facts which |
had been learned of the process of |
and to encourage them to
report the results of their work to his |
offered for the ten best re-
ports 81, 200 each. The result of this
plan, Mr.. Decker believes, will develop !
more fully the advancement of the bust |
ness than all the high-sounding expert |
ments that could be made in Washing
ton. In his trip through the West,
gathering statistics for the Department,
Mr.. Decker says he found many of the
factory men carrying on their work to
such an extent and with such an arrange
meut and precision not thought of be-
fore, and many things that have been
entirely neglected or wasted will hereaf-
ter be brought in as part of the profits
of the business. His report, which will
be submitted some time next month,
will show the products of an acre of
ground to be about"
$50 gal. syrup at so cts. ....... $500
rs gal. vinegar at 20 cts. ... 400
) TBS pork Ga day. fattened on
skimmings, Sc. ....... 40
80 bushels of seed at 80 cts 49,. 1900
One-half ton leaves at $l0... 800
Total ............ 800 40
EuPENSES.
Making $50 gal. syrup at 20 cts. $4,000
Working aud harvesting cane. 1900
Gathering and threshing seed +. 400
Gathering fodder. .......... ZOO
Total. Observation-Disclosures. $4,000
This shows net profit of S;57.40
He says that there are many points of
the business that are in very poor shape,
that will take cine to set Alright. There
is a great lack Of proper knowledge of
many of the essential points in clear,
good favored syrup. This will be rem
edied by the Farmers Clubs discussing
the subject and sending delegates to the
State Cane-Growers' Association and
there lear the successful modes eX-
planned and from the Commission of
Agriculture, who is ever ready TO give
information on the subject.
With these points of success at hand
and the way Of advancement so plain
there is no doubt but that the sugar in
dustry of the West is soon to be a source
of good profit and wealth for the coun-
try.
Blow Out the Light.
An exchange gives some Ants and in
formation which may be useful, as fol-
lows. sspprSonS whose business does