Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-02-03
The Diffusion Process infinitely De-
scribed--It Will Undoubtedly
Do Away with Mills.
A Great Opening over the Entire
South, Both More Profitable and
Certain than Cotton Raising.
All the Sugar Consumed in this United
States Gan BIO Ksisrd at Homs II Pro-
tcctsd by this Present Tariff.
A NEW FIELD FOR THE SOUTH.

| DAN ANIONIOJ Xxx JAN OIL lQl1k
there is great field in Texas for sugar
making, and since the process has now
become sn established fact, a very grand
future for farmers" said Colonel Ell H.
Cunningham, the sugar planter, to s re-
| porter. The gentleman's remark had
reference to sugar making from sorghum
by what is popularity known as the War
mouth experiment.
| "Lsst October, continued the Colonel,
81 visited For Scott and there SAW sugar
made from sorghum and twice since that
time have been to Msgnolis, Governor
Wsrmouth's plantation IN Louisisus,
| where he experimental so successfully.
Here l sSw tropical cSne used.
"You wSnt to know something about
| the modus operandi of rRe diffusion pro-
cess? Well,
THE PREPARATION OF SORGHUM
as Witnessed it at Fort Scott wGs bri, f.
as follows: The cane is first brought il
from the fields with the fodder and tops
Sll or 1t and it is passed through an
ordinary cutter and cut into pieces prob
ably an inch or an inch and half long.
It Is then taken up by 8 drag and
| dropped into 8 series of fans, fans
similar to the fans used
in the threshing and cleaning
of grain. This blows of all the leaf and
hull that binds very close to the sorghum,
which has always been very difficult to
get rid of
IN THE MILL PROCESS,
and which is all deleterious to the juice
The operation settles this leaf,
hull and everything. II is then
carried up smother incline and there il is
passsd over set uf knives and macerGt-
ors, K ives that cut sDd m:cerste st the
same tine. This brings the sorghum in
condition for beng placed in the cifIu-
sion c-ils. This is 8 battery consisting
of csis, some twelve in number ar
ranged IN d single line. After
these cells are filled with sorghum
of course water Is added. Steam and
water pressure is then applied and the
juices are conveyed from one cell to an
other
BY osNoTIC FORCE.
By s continuance of this process only
about three-fourths of per cent. is all
that Is left of the saccharine matter IN the
chips or bsgasse Of sorghum. In bat
terry Of twelve cells after they ere once
| flled s cell Will be emptied every ten
/
plete the diffusion. This juice Is then
taken aud treated similarly to regular
cane iuice-thst is, stripped cane-SeiGg
boiled in vacuum, first boiling and then
| being placed in the double effect, which
is two large psns similar to the vacuum
pans, hsvingR
VERY GREAT HEATING SURFACE.
From the double effect it is passed into
| 10 ryro nj faH
into sugar. This diffusion battery will
undoubtedly do away with mills. Under
the mill process the bes: extraction thSt
nss ever been gotten from sorghum was
| fifty five pounds to the ton, but under the
diffusion pro ess they succeed 10
getting as high as 125 pounds.
The aversge proportion in the
crop is 100 pounds of sugar and about fl
teen gallons of molasses to the ton Of
cane. It will of course take some time
to introduce generally the process, be-
cause the amount Of skilleI labor neces-
s'ry to operate it
Is AT PRESENT LIMITED.
Il has been tried in Ka1sas for some
time past, but LAST year was the first sue
cessiu, one. In Kansas this year there
will be ten or twelve factories established
and running"
"Do you intend to adopt this method
on your plantation?" Intercepted the
reporter.
Eyes, I propose to plant 500 or 1000
acres in sorghum, which intend to diff
fuse by the process adopted in Fort
Scott. shall have my battery ready to
commence operations in June. 1 bsve
great faith in it and think there is great
opening over the entire south for sor-
ghum. It would be crop that is
EASILY RAISED,
and l think we ought to obtain as much
sugar from it as they do in Kansas, if not
more, to the ton, and then in all Of our
country located south Of a
Iatituc .e OF Northern , Texas
and save two crops year, averaging
probably from 1000 to 1909 pounds of
sugar to the acre from each crop. Then
in the country north of that latitude, be-
tween line from Northern Kentucky and
West Virgins, think they can save
Al LEAST ONE CROP
successfully, and my impression IL that II
the tariff duties are not intelfered with
that in five or six years the sorghum belt
of country in connection with the tropical
country will be supplying all
the sugars the United States
would consume, and these $780, 600
now being paid for foreign sugars will al
be kept at home. think it Will place the
whole of the agricultural portion of our
country in /. more prosperous and bet
ter financial condition than they have
ever been. They can plsnt less cotton
and get their money earlier from sugar
than they could from cotton, and by hav-
ing
DIVERSIFIED CROPS,
of course it will make it mure certain
that the farmer will make money. The
sorghum plant is 5 very hardy one and
thrives well, especially in countries more
or less subject to drouth. There
is no planf know Of now
cultivated thst will stand the drouth that
sorghum will. OF course in the event Of
the sugar industry in Texas becoming
general the success of 1t would require
capital so these sugar refneries or tac-
tories would have to be worked
| ON THE CENTRAL SYSTEM,
as 1t were, by the farmers taking stock in
| them, or by outside parties becoming
stockholders and then buVirg the cane
from the farmers by the ton, paying for it
in so much sugar or in money, Just Is
they may contract"
"Tould sugar making be more profit
! able and safer to cultivate than cotton, in