Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-10-16
SUGAR MAKING.
An Interesting and Instructive Letter
About Kansas New Staple.

The following letter from the Atchison
Champion, which was probably written
by Noble Prentiss, embodies SO many OF
our own notions about sugar making and
is so full of entertaining observations,
historical, personal and otherwise, that
| we reproduce it entire:
A very interesting old town is Fort
Scott, and a pleasant town for the way
faring man to abide, whether his errand
be pleasure, business, or simply to rest.
1t is more picturesque than most Kansas
towns, BUTT as it is among rocky hills,
which suggest that spnr of the Ozarks
has crossed the Kansas line.
Fort Scott has ancient buildings, being
those erected by the United States in
1912, and one OF these, designated as
General Kearney's Headquarters" has
been fastened picturewise to crockery
ware by Mr.. J. P. Robens, the enterpris-
ing china dealer Of the city. and such is
the local pride Of the locality that III a
single year four thousand pieces of the
historically ornamented were sold to
Fort Scott people.
Between new and old, the time-worn
plaza. and the new shiny additions, he
is dull traveller who cannot be inter
ested in the city of ''Ironquill,' and
many another good fellow beside.
To leave several matters of interest for
more convenient season, one of the
Fort Scott enterprises in which Kansas
has an interest is the sugar mill--the sor-
ghum sugar mill.
When the history of the sorghum
sugar industry IN Kansas is written,
Fort Scott Will be the locality where the
discovery of the method Of manufacture
ing sugar from the sorghum cane was
made. The wrong trail, diligently fol-
lowed for twenty-five years. was dropped
at Fort Scott in the year 1887, and the
right trail was taken up.
1t CHANGED that your correspondent s
last visit prior to the one now subject of
record, was made soon after the discov-
cry was announced, and when all Kan
sas was ringing with the tidings that
Kansas sugar" stood knocking at the
markets of the world. The writer
hereof wrote at that time an ac-
count Of what he saw, which
was copied into many Kansas news
papers, and was generally accepted as
official" 1t is needless to say that that
report" presented the sugar-making
business in a favorable light-nobody
took any other view at the time-and
that the prediction was made that Kan
sas would be making her own sugar by
the We year of 1889.
The scene at the Fort Scott sugar
works in September, 1887, was really
exciting. Right on the heels of the dec
iaratlon of the government chemist,
Prof. Wiley, that sugar could not be
made i'll considerable or paying quanti-
ties from the sorghum cane, the discov-
cry had been made that by discarding
the rollers, which had long squeaked in
vain except for molasses, and accepting
the diffusion or soaking process, sugar
could be made in quantity, it was claim
ed of from 100 to 125 pounds to the ton
of cane. The mill at the time of our
visit was Uttered with the old machin-
cry, chemicals and materials col
lected in the old governmental
experiments, some of the now
useless lumber being costly machinery
imported from Germany Hastily i'm
prOvised machinery was at work under
the new process; the cutter which was
preparing tina cane had been originally
built for an ensilage cutter, and there
were traces of haste every where. Every
body, however, was confident, the only
fear if fear existed, was that too many
sugar factories would be started and the
price of sugar suffer from oYer-produc-
ton.
The Fort Scott sugar works, revisited,
showed changes. In the first place, the
United States was not SO conspicuous
about the premises. The chemists and
and inspectors had disap-
peared, and the works seemed to be run
ming as a private enterprise. This is
well: the old flag and an appropriation
are good things but the directly inter
ested finger of the government is of
doubtful value to the pie. The sort of
knowledge" collected by the govern
power" The operators of the govern
that what IS eyerybodv's business is no.
body's, and costs a good deal besides.
The works with this change were
for the better. The old lumber
accumulated in the period of experiment
had been cleared out. and there was
nothing inside the four walls of the mill
not used in the operations of sugar-mak-
ing.
The mill, by the way, is a wooden
structure, comparatively inexpensive,
but amply good enough for its purpose.
Putting expense on costly stone or other
buildings is waste of money. Four
good tight walls and snug roof suffi-
ciert to shelter the machinery is ample:
a sugar mill need not be as costly as
packing house.
The processes of making sugar seemed
to have been slmplified. and actually be-
yond the boiling, which needs to be done
by man of experience. the operation
seemed as simple as that of making ma
pie sugar. i new boiler. bv the wsy,
had taken the place of Mr. Hinze. who
officiated at the time of our first visit.
The present boiler, like the former. is
German. Germany, a great manufactur-
er OF beet sugar. educates host OF sugar
boilers: for the sugar-making world.
Everything was IN order and all the
space was economical. Wagons were
driving up rapidly and discharging their
loads of cane from the fields. which sur
round the mill. The methods of han
ding the cane had been considerably
The operation of converting
the cane into the chopped feed" which
is dumped into the battery" as the
iron tanks are called. was a rapid one.
The answer to the question, "Can
sugar be made from the sorghum cane:"
was being abundantiy given. There
were piles of barrels filled with sugar,
and here the freshly made sugar Law in
high piles on the floor, and a workman
a t1.lsAi IlSsSnrpa xvouNiar ch4raI
taste. 1t was fine brown sugar and no
trace of the sorghum taste was per-
ceptible.