Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-07-14

WIZ EChhlClntu WHO HIS
served as commissioner of agriculture
has bad n hobby. The benign Mr..
Newton, who was the first to hold the
position, had a fondness for string
beans, and was interested to n consider
able extent in other kinds of garden
truck. He dispensed beet and cucum-
Der seed with lavish hand. Most of
the seed he distributed were of very old
varieties, but they did very little dam
age, rs most of them were too old to
terminate. He was accused of intro
ducing the Canada thistle and the weed
Familiarity known in New Jersey as the
Clutch cuss" into more than half
the states and territories, but no one
thought he did IL with malicious intent.
His successor. Gen. Capron, was in
terested in short-horn cattle, but, as
they could not be purchased at bank
rupt seed stores, and could not be car
ried through the mails, he did not dis
tribute any of them at the expense of
government. Mr.. Watts had a partially
Tor wheat. He owned a wheat farm
and raised considerable of that grain.
1t Is said that he acted as BUYER and
seller in supplying the department with
seed wheat. Many farmers in Michi-
gan, Minnesota, and California com
planned that the varieties sent out were
poor and that the quality of the grain
was Indifferent. No grumbling, how
ever, was heard from the owners of
trotting horses and poultry fanciers
who received and fed out most of the
trial packages of grain. No one re-
ported that horses died with the heaves
in consequence of eating it, and there
was no unusual mortality among chick
ems that devoured il in connection with
other food. Gen. lie Due, as is well
known, concentrated most of his en-
ergies in attempting to introduce the
culture of tea. He raised a little tea,
but an ounce of it cost as much as a
hundred pounds of the imported article.
DIR. Loring, the present incumbent,
has no fOndness for string-beans or
black tea, but is specially fond of sugar
and syrup. He likes the kinds that
are produced with difficulty. Congress
having voted an appropriation for the
encouragement of sugar-making or for
making experiments in its manufacture,
he has issued the following circular:
Each manufacturer is requested TO
submit an account of his work TO the
department, covering the following
BVthN'f Wa 4. All dCCuIdlt
the number of acres of sorghum
brought to his mill; the yield of sor-
gum per acre; the mode of fertilizing;
the time of planting, the time required
for maturing the plant, and the value
OF the crop rs food for cattle after the
juice had been expressed. ?. The
amount of sugar manufactured; the
amount yielded per ton of cane; the
quality of the sugar; the amount of
sugar manufactured; the process of
manufacturing; the machinery used;
the success of the evaporation, the vacu-
um-pan and the centrifugal in the work
of manufacturing. 3. The number of
hands employed in the mill; the cost of
fuel; the cost of machinery; the wages
paid for labor, and the price of sorghum
ut the mill If not raised by the manu-
facturer. The returns, when received,
will be submitted to a competent COM
mittee for examination, and i'm order TO
compensate the manufacturers for the
work of making these returns, pro-
pose To pay for the ten best returns the
sum of 81 200 each, the decision to be
made by the aforesaid committee. Each
return must be sworn to before Il COM
petent officer"
For the promotion Of beet-sugar pro-
duction the sum of 81 200 will be paid
for each of the two best reports as for
sorghum.
All proposals to enter upon this work
for the department must be laid before
the commissioner on or before Aug. l,
1882.
There appears to be no good reason
for offering premiums for manufacture
ing sugar from sorghum, beets, or any
other substance. The country is better
supplied with sugar than with almost
any other substance that is employed
as food. The price of many articles of
food in general use has doubled within
the last two months, but that of sugar
has not advanced. At present fifteen
pounds of good sugar can be obtained
Tor bushel of potatoes, and
eight pounds can be obtained
for bushel of corn. There would
seem to be better reasons for offering
premiums for raising potatoes and corn
than for sugar. Ali the experiments in
making sugar from beets in this coun-
try have resulted in financial failures.
At least 100000 have been sunk in
various enterprises, and about enough
sugar made to sweeten the coffee that
would be drank ut one breakfast
throughout the country. The business
of making sugar from beets may be
fairly profitable in some foreign coun-
tries, but there is little or no prospect
that IL will ever be profitable here.
Several have succeeded in making good
sugar and strip from. northern cane,
and much larger number have failed.
IL is very questionable il money enough
has been derived from both to pay for
the machinery and apparatus that have
been purchased for manufacturing
them. Unquestionably there is more
profit in making sugar from tropical
cane than from any other material. If
man with capital wishes to make
money in manufacturing sugar he will
ose no great amount of time in going
some country having n tropical
T ut least n semi-tropical climate, rails
pg cane, and working il up. The true
policy in agriculture is in selecting
crODs that are most favorable and hest