St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-10
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM.
Official Reports on That Subject
Not Very Rosy.

WASHINGTON, April 9.-H. w. wiley,
chemist of the agricultural department,
has completed bis record of expert
ments in the manufacture of sugar
from sorghum, conducted last year at
Rio Grande, n. j.; Kinner. La, and
Conway Springs, Douglass and Ster-
ling. Kan, and the bulletin will be
issued by the department in few days.
The work at Sterling differed from that
at the other places. 1t was an eXamina-
ton of all the obtainable varieties of the
sorghum plant, begun by the Sterling
Sugar company and completed by the
department. TIE work at Rio Grande,
n. j., was carried on by III. a. Hughes,
whose purpose was to determine
whether or not sorghum sugar could be
successfully manufactured on a small
scale. Prof. Wiley says he does not see
any favorable result coming from the
two years trial at Rio Grande. All the
conditions combine to render the manu-
facture of sugar OH small scale COM
mercially unsuccessful. The practical
experiments carried on at Douglass, the
bulletin says. consisted in thorough
trial of the open system of diffusion
(the Hughes SyStem) to test Its fitness
for working OH large scale. They
were not a success, owing to the failure
of the battery to work properly.
The agricultural results, however,
were of the most encouraging nature,
showing that i'll that locality a crop
of sorghum cane can be grown which.
with proper treatment may be expected
to yield eighty or.ninetv pounds of sugar
per ton of pure cane. Prof. Wiley de-
votes considerable space to a presenta-
ton of points to be considered in build
tO,x
Kansas possess the best soil and eli
mate for sorghum raising, so far as is
now known. Texas. Louisiana. Arkan-
sas, Tennessee and North Carolina
probably present equally favorable con-
ditions, but this yet awaits demonstra-
ted. The Indian territory is destined
to be the center OF the industry. The
expectation of establishing a successful
sorghum industry in the great maize
fields of the country must now be def
lnitely abandoned. A season of manu-
facture reasonably certain for short days
is an essential condition to success in
the manufacture of sorghum sugar. The
water supply must be abundant and
easily accessible. Factories must be To-
Gated in close proximity to the fields, so
that the cost of transportation of the
cane may be reduced to minimum. A
cheap and abundant supply of fuel is
not less important than the raw mate
rial itself. Recent experiments show a
strong probability that the refuse chips
of the cane may be used for fuel. The
cost of complete factory, capable of
working 200 tons of cane day, may be
estimated at from 100000 to 500, 1000; and
finally, In order to succeed, investors
must secure some one to take charge of
the factory who understands the needs of
the business, and has had some expert
ence in the conduct thereof. In detail
the bulletin is very complete. 1t con-
tains the reports of the assistants in
charge of the experiments at the several
stations, with daily records of results in
tabulated form; analysis of sugar beets
grown in Kansas from seed furnished
by Claus Spreckels. and the effect of
the diffusion process upon the eXtrac-
ton Of sugar from sugar cane. The
latest report on this subject showed
that an average of 1914 pounds of sugar
is made from ton of cane.