Wichita eagle., 1888-12-12
AGAIN pyscornAGFp

AGAIN DISCOURAGED
Everybody was discouraged with the ort
look for sorghum. The present commits
slOIfer OF agriculture, u very. wssria friend
OF sorghum and q gentleman fer whom
have the highest respect, did all he could
but he believed his subortlinates. who
think We're not worthy of belief in the mat
ter. We said 10 the government thai il
they would let Us alone. aud permit Us "a
use some OF the machinery which we have
in our factory at Fort Scott, we would get
along all right with some money.
. / do not know what we would have done
or where the sorghum sugar industry
would have been had he not come forward
with the ''where-w:th." / had all OF the
confidence necessary TO supplya plant, but
reeded the capital, which Mr.. Drake sup
piled.
The ratio of sugar used per capita IS
constantly Oh the increase. and IN The past
twenty years in the United States 1t has
Increased from thirty TO sixty pounds per
capita. When be was boy they only had
sugar when there was company. Now
every body uses IL. For the marketing OF
sugar there is almost an iliimitable field.
In lss7 we made money. Again this year
we made aproft. Sorghum sugar can now
be made proftably at present prices but
NOT with just any kind OF machinery or by
anybody any more than Hour u.ill
can be.
There are two classes o. people who in
terfere with the development of sugar
from sorghum. Those who lay behind and
say it can't be done and those darneC
fools, who want to do it all at once and
put a mill on every quarter section II the
state.
The Judge referred 20 the several sugar
plants in the state and said that if soma
OF them had not been financial successes,
il was not the fault of sorghum. but be-
cause those places had neither the ma
chinery or the skill. He hoped to see more
mills in Kansas. The consumption of sugar
has grown TO be 100000 annually
HOW CANE YIELDS.
The Judge said ton of cane would yield
100 hundred pounds of sugar and from 10
to II gallons of molasses, which was eX-
cellent feed for hogs even should it find no
market. Their two plants at TT. Scott
and Topeka had made 100 car loads of mo-
iasses this year. Can't make it into alco-
mol as we can get no authority and there
is no one TO use it in this state.
The leaves, seed and molasses of the sor-
ghum plant will make the pork and beef
for your packing houses. | have letter
from the director of the experimental sta
tion at Columbia, Mo-, who says that in
ferdiuQ our molasses 10 hogs, he finds il Go
be worth l. 15cents per pound or one pound
of molasses as good as one and one-ha!t
pounds Of corn This makes
the molasses worth f6I5 cents
per gallon for such purposes. | will fur
nish any amount at that figure. But sup
pose it is not SO valuable as that, see what
you have when you raise eight to ten toas
of cane TO the acre. You can make more
pork from an acre by feeding the molasses,
the seed and the leaf than you can from
corn at seventy bushels per acre. The leaf
weighs about ten per cent of the total ton
mage. We also burn the dry leaf for fuel
at the factories.
COST OF A FACTOEY.
How small factory can | build and
operate protitably!" is question l cannot
answer. The tendency is to larger rather
than to smaller ones. 1t takes just as much
skill TO run smaller one. Would
now build smaller one than
the one at Topeka last year.
The size of the factory soould be con-
trolled to a certain degree by the area that
can he brought into it. Cane cannot be
hauled with much profit for mere than
three or four miles Wages can just about
be made at eight or nine.
Wichita when she builds, says she will
build the biggest one in the country and
they will, il they build any. From SEQ,
600 to 800, 600 should be about the cost OF
a proper sized one The one at Ft. Scott
cost 100000. Probably one that large can
be put up for $4,000. 1t has capacity
for working POO tons of cane per day. But
you ought also TO have money To buy
cattle and hogs to feed from the crop.
HOW TO MAKE IT PAY.
The way to utilize the product of the
sorghum plant Is to prepare the
hogs and cattle for the great
We now have a cheaper sugar plant than
the tropical sugar plant, a cheaper plant
because we have the leaf rs a feed
product.
QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
The Judge then began TO answer uues-
tions. To the question, How many kinds
of cane are there:" he said there were
over 100 varieties. At the Sterling ex-
perimental station those TO be used gen
orally are the early amber, early orange
and Links Hybrid. At Fort Scott we paid
81 per ton This included the leaf and
the seed. That grown by others in 1sS7
there averaged 81 tons to the acre. This
year it averaged 9 tons. The company s
this year ran 10 tons aud little over. In
1885, it made II tons. Ten tons is called a
usual average, but it is safer to say Z or
tons. We have had cane make Is tons
to the acre. A ton of cane
will make about two bushels of
seed, 100 pounds of sugar and
ten to twelve gallons OF molasses. The
seed must be ripen when the cane is cut for
best sugar results. Yes, YOU can raise a
second crop from the same stubble after
cutting the first crop, but the season must
be very long or the second crop viii be oply
fodder II Will take experiments and ex-
perience to solve the small mill problem.
Don't know the plan of cutting and clean
ing and mascerating in a small mill and
then hauling the dried chips 10 a large
mill will work The chips can not be cut
and stored as the cane sugar Will be turned
into invet sugar or glucose. The cane
should be delivered to the mill within
twenty-four hours or not longer than
thirty-six hours The cane can bear freez-
ing all right. II IS the thawiDg that
hurts il.
1t can be burned in Silo, but It will
cost more than II is worth. Yes. this
sugar can be refined just like any other
1t simply consists in washing the molasses
from the crystals. The sugar we made
was 9s per cent pure. Ordinary sugar on
the market CT the same color as ours
without refining will not be over 20 per
cent pure. There are publications
Getting forth faots have stated
Prof Cowsills reports Of our work
at TT. Scott, are rather full. The country
is full OF sorghum literature.
The Judge was then asked whether or
not the system under which they operated
at Fl. Scott was patented. lie explained
that Prof. Swens0n had discovered the use
of the carbonate of lime in the process 70