Morning journal and courier., 1883-11-26
Monday, November 28, 1883
SORGHUM SUGAR.

Sorghum sugar has again been brought to the attention of the public by the announce ment that the experiments, which have been going on at the Agricultural department in it's manufacture have been ended by the ex- haustion of the appropriation. During the season just ended there have been produced by the government workers in sorghum eleven thousand pounds of sugar, and about three hundred gallons of syrup from two hundred and thirty two tons of sorghum cane. The expenditures for that period were in the nsighborhood of $11 1000, and some of the Washington correspondents are trying to belibtle the sorghum sugar business by call ing attention to the fact that sugar at dol lar pound is not cheap. This is not fair, for it makes no difference what the government experiments cost if they show that sugar can be pro6tably made from sorghum. The total production of the sugar at private man. ufacteriss during the present year will reach, in round numbers, 1,25o,0O0 pounds. Half of this has been made ct Rio Grande, New Jersey, and the rest in Kansas and Illinois.
 The government expsrimentsrs have tried several methods of extracting the sugar from the cane. The best results have at last been reached by what is known ss a system of diffusion. This process comprises the chip ping of the reeds into fine particles by a but on an immense scale When chippsd the sorghum is placed in a battery of iron or copper cells, where warm water is turned on and allowed to psrcolate through the mass until it reaches the last cell. Eighty per cent. of Baccharins matter has been extracted in this way out of total of eighty eight. The process is not new one. It has been used extensively for the past twenty-five years in countries where beet sugar Is made and has gradually driven all other systems out.
 Commissioner LorinR, who has never been enthusiastic over sorghum, will not, 1t Is said, ask for any further sppropriati on for department experiments In his report he will recommend an appropriation of $1,OOO for each State, to be expendedI by the State agricultural association in the purchase or leasing of ten acres of land for the expert mental planting of sorghum; these ten acres to be composed of sections of two acres in different parts of the State, so that climate
 
 and reported. Of the popularity of this scheme the commissioner has no doubt, as it will be; in his opinion, Q miniature river and harbor bill where all the State delega- tions are equally interested.
 If the growing of sorghum does turn out to be profitable business, as 1t now seems likely to, Professor Collier, who was dis charged from the agricultural bureau by Commissioner Loring, will be justly entitled to praise, for before he left the bureau he had demonstrated, by long continued series of experiments, that sugar could be cheapIy made from sorghum in two thirds of the States of the Union. It has been charged that Commissioner Loring turned Professor Collier out because he thought that the pro- fessor's work was attracting too much atten- tion. Whether this be true or not it is true that Professor Golfers experiments were very thorough and instructive.