Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-16
Glucose Production in Texas.


Texas is most loyal member of the
American union, and doubtless member
ship in that confederation gives her en-
tire satisfaction in every particular; yet ,,
after taking a calmn view of her as
she is one can scarcely dispel the convic-
| tion that nature originally intended
! Texas for some other position. She has
within her borders everything that dis
| tinct nation could need. No other state
IN our association is as favored in this
| particular; indeed il may be rather safely
! maintained that no other area of the
| same size on the whole face of the globe
| is so favored. If wall so high that
| man could not scale il was thrown
! around Texas the Texas people would
! live aud prosper inside without finding
| themselves put TO any Inconvenience
whatever. once they fairly understood
| the situation and got themselves squarely
| down to business.
But we started out to carry the subject
of beer materials one step further. In
the two preceding articles we have
shown, we think, that Texas can pro-
duce the two leading / gradients of beer.
Surprising that Texas was put to the
| necessity of manufacturing her beer
from the stump, as we say, there ls still
another product that she would need
sugar. The sugar now most generally
used by the brewers of this country is
glucose, a substance which, when evap-
DRAFTED to dryness, is known as grape su-
gar. 1t is a much cheaper material than
cane or beet sugar. but brewers tell us
thai were this otherwise they would still
Use glucose, as it works better aud gives
Glucose Is usually manufactured from
corn, and entirely, we think, in the
Northern states. Irish potatoes are
sometimes worked into the finer grades
of glucose, they making q better article
than corn. but the corn article is less ex-
pensive, and hence the one most COM
mon on the market.
Now, should Texas be forced to make
her own beer from her own materials,
she would be placed under the necessity
of producing glucose. This she could do
from corn, OF course, yet she would not
be driven to the use of corn; she could
beat corn by long odds. Careful test
has fully established the fact that sweet
potatoes yield equally as fine a grade of
glucose as Irish potatoes, and that the
yield is much larger. Test has further
shown that two bushels of sweet potatoes
will make fully as much glucose as one
bushel of corn. 1t does not call for the
finest and sweetest potato TO make the
greatest yield, glucose being purely a
transformation of starch. Our common
est and most productive sweet potatoes
are Richest in starch. OF these varieties
a very large per cent. of the lands of
Texas will yield 400 bushels to the acre,
with less labor and outlay than would be
required to cultivate an acre to corn.
For the manufacture of glucose, then,
we have in our acre of sweet potatoes as
much material as we would have in go
bushels of coru-more than four times as
much corn as we could reasonably expect
TO get from one acre, on an average. So,
you see, we are solid enough on the glu-
cose question.
We hope that it will be understood
that we are not advocating the produce
tion of bee- at all, but merely attempt
ing to to show something of what Texa,
is able to do People will drink beer,
and some regions of country must pro-
duce the raw materials out Of which to
make 1t. Should Texas produce these
materials on large scale they would, of
course, bring big money to Texans,
while, at the same time, 1t is not at all
probable that they would lead to tine
manufacture of one gallon more of beer
than would be manufactured did Texas
have nothing whatever to do with beer
yielding products. Why not, therefore,
take in our share of the money while 1t is |
going. and will be sure to 60 anyway, |
provided we are able TO do SO.
This sweet potato glucose question Is |
certainly one OF great Importance to |
Texas. The glucose used in the manu-
facture of beer is proportionately less
than single drop in barrel of water.
Glucose Is being used everywhere. Nine
tenths Of all the syrups and molasses now
on the market are either pure glucose,
or they carry larger or smaller per
cent. of glucose as an adulterant.
General taste has become educated to
demand for It. strictly pure cane
molasses would strike the taste of large
majority among the masses as having
wrong in 1t. There would be
" hat they would call 'an unnatural
flavor" about It, they being accustomed
to the glucose flavor, SO they would take
the mixed article In preference.
There Is doubtless millions for Texas in
the production of sweet potato-s aud tn
manufacture of glucose syrups from
them. Once into it Alright we could Of
We desired 10 do SO at the expense of !
large profits to ourseives) completely run
the corn glucose out of every American
market. Our advantages over the corn
glucose makers would stand as two hun
irsd bushels of corn to the acre against
heir thirty or forty,
Professor Hill ON Irrigation