The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-12-07
sueAR.MAxrsa AND THE FARMERS

sUaAR-MAKING AND THE FARMERS
We print the following article which
is taken from the last issue of the Kan
sas.. Farmer, because we believe it will
pay toagitate the subject of sugar max
ing i'm this State. 1t is the one manu-
featuring interest that can be made to
pay not only the manufacturer, but
every farmer and every business man
within reach of a plant. Sugar facto-
ries are being worked up all over the
STATE; and there is no reason why
Allen county should not keep up with
the procession.
Sugar of good quality and in paying
quantities can be made of sorghum
cane. In Kansas this has.been demon
strated 80 many times that there is no
longer any doubt about it. Kansas is
peculiarly well adapted to the growth
of sorghum. This may be said of the
State generally, and it is true particu-
Jarly of tie Southern part where most
of the experiments have been made.
The WELD of cane is from eight to
fifteen tons To the acre; an average,
thus far has been about ten tons, and
the factories have been paying two
dollars a ton delivered-they purchas-
ing the entire crop, stalk, leaves and
head.
To make a certainty nfsugar prodnct
it must be made on scientific princi-
pies. Water will not boil till it is heat
ed to certain degree, Butter will not
come" until certain conditions are
complied with. Sugar can not be
made from juice until certain chemical
conditions are produced and this the
ordinary farmer does not know how to
do. Sugar making machinery now IN
use is altogether different from that
used few years ago. Instead OF roll
ers to crush the cane and squeeze the
juice out, a soaking process has been
substituted.
The cane is fed to the cutting mach
inc and cut into pieces about an inch
in length and the heads are permit ed
TO drop through a slot near the mach
inc for the purpose; the cut cane is then
dropped before large fans and the
leaves are blown out. Being freed
from the heads and leaves the cut
pieces are elevated into a machine
which grinds or tears them, and from
there conducted into cells or batteries,
each of which holds one ton. The cells
are great iron vessels their bottom
opening and closing like a trap door,
SO that when the chips or pulp has
parted with all its juice, the door opens
and the contents fall out of
their own weight. There are about
ten of these cells and together they
constitute a battery. Warm water is
introduced, and just as water
becomes sweetened when it is poured
on sugar, SO this water put on the cane
chips becomes sweetened by absorbing
the sweet matter in the cane. After
cell No. is thus treated the water is
draws off and run into No. 2, while
fresh water is put into No. l and this
process is continued until the chips in
every cell have been treated as many
times as there are cells. By the time
the water is drawn from the last cell it
contains about all the sugar there was
in the cane, usually 9S to SO per cent.
of it, twice as much as was ever OBJ
tanned by the roller system.
After leaving the battery the juice
is conveyed to watts and pans where it
is clarified and evaporated, leaving a
syrup which is removed to the ''strike
pan" and then to the centrifugal"
which last machine revOlves rapidly
separating the syrup from the sugar.
There are now four sugar factories
in Kansas, located at Topeka, Fit Scott
Douglas, (Butler county,; and Conway
Springs, Sumner county,. This year
was the first for all of them except that
at Fl. Scott, which was erected three
years ago. This year it produced r..
600 barrels of sugar-450, 900 pounds.
The other three made about 800 900
pounds in all, total product for the
four of $50, 900 pounds, all good, mer-
charitable sugar.
The cost of putting up a factory that
will work up $50 tons of cane daily
will not fall much short ofSl0O, 600. The
first plants cost a great deal more than
those which will be built in future, be-
cause a great deal of costly experience
resulted in improved processes and
machinery which people may now use
at actual cost. 1t was expected that
the Topeka works would cost about
$50, 900 but they were laid out for
capacity of $50 tons of cane daily. We
here repeat our advice given some
months ago, that where it is possible
farmers in a county should organize
and build four or five small strip fac
tories with one central sugar factory.
This would use up an immense guam
tity o. cane, putting the juice into gu
gar-bearing strip or "melada," and
that could be shipped to the central
works where it could be sugared with
out regard to frost. The strip factor.
les would not be very expensive seper-
ately, and fpe o. then, in a county
a0outd be Uorth more to their proprie-
tors than as many national banks,
and more to the farmers than q dozen
frst-ctdss Touring mills. Sorghum
cane can be grOsDn every gear in Kan
sas, and good sugar can be made from
it at o profit of at least cents pound
as sugar is now selling.
HOW MANY TIMES SHOULD A cow BE
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