The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1892-06-17
SUGAR AND MoLAssrs.
The Fart Fiiled by Sorghum Down south
Dnring the War.

Daring the Wsr.
At home and abroad sorghum came to
take the place of the vanished sugar
The children NJ home ate it in their gin
ger cakes. and the soldiers in camp
drank 1t in their rye coffee The mo.
lasses and sugar of Louisiana were pro
durable in degree til the fall Of Nclls
burg; but the spirit of Independence WAS
rife. and each state desired and deter
mined to rely as much as possible
on It's own products, The theory
sof state sovereignty was extended
even 20 sorghum. and its intro
duction was hailed everywhere rs one
of the greatest boons of a beneficent
Providence. The juice of the cane
extracted in a primitive fashion by crush
ing the stalks between wooden rollers
revolving upon wooden cogs and impelled
by orse-and-iitte darky power. was
caught in an ordinary trough. boiled
down into proper consistency in preserv-
ing kettles. kitchen pots, or whatever
might be utilized for the purpose. and
barreled for use as sorghum molasses
The syrup thus produced was quite a
palatabe one. with slightly acidulous
and not disagreeable flavor, but with an
unpleasant tendency TO make the mouth
sore. Ii was known rs ''long sweeten-
ing, in contradistinction TO its prede-
cessor. 'shor sweetening,' the sugar
that was scarce.
From its use in the place of sugar sor-
ghum soon leaped into high repute as an
almost universal food staple. 1t was
warranted 10 cure any case of hunger IN
man or beast. Writers i'm the suggestive
daily press undertook in elaborate and
exhaustive ESSAYS to show that sorghum
syrup was nearly as nutritious as meat
and an exceedingly good substitute for it,
while the seed Of the sorghum cane was
capable OF being ground into a meal that
made most excellent and wholesome
brown bread. They claimed that the
problem of blockaded existence had been
solved in the discovery of plant which
produced in itself meat and bread Cor
the human family and provem,er for
cattle. Yet the average denizen of the
Confederacy, whether at home or in the
army, while rendering due credit to the
ingenuity and skill with which the cause
of the flood staple was advocated by
its champions, appealed to the higher ar
bitrament Of his own digestion; and
though willing to accord sorghum its
real merit as serviceable and useful in
the place of something better, lie was
always ready TO exchange it for the more
certain and familiar nutriment of bacon
and ''corn pone 10 see it fulfill the
functions Of sugar in the latest recipe for
Confederate coffee and tea was well
lint ~. -. Ire
usurpation Of the high places of pork and
corn was more than the appetite Of
hungry rebeldom would endure.
There was a secondary use to which
sorghum was put, in which it met with
decided favor from select few. This
was its use in the manufacture of black
ing. The manuscript recipe books of
that day say that wonderful shoe black
ing. as good as Mason 5 best, /" can be
made Of sorghum molasses, pinewood
SCOT, meats foot oil and vinegar.
Yet, on the theory of the survival Of
the fittest, the average Confederate must
have been right and the theoretic writers
in the newspapers wrong about the value
of sorghum, for bacon and corn bread
have long since regained their wonted
ascendency in the south, and sorghum
has vanished entirely from the fields
where it once ilourished, save perhaps,
where here and there some man and
brother cultivates it vet in his little
truck patch, making long sweeten-
ing for til consumption of his family
in rs primitive method as that in which
he helped his quondam owner to make it
"endurin o the wah. "
In the hardest times of the war period,
when provisions were the scarcest, the
latch TO the larder of every southern
housekec.er hung out to each southern
soldier no matter how ragged or humble.
For him the best viands about the place
We're always prepared; and his was the
high prerogauve of receiving the last cup
of real coffee sweetened with the solitary
remnant of sugar. With compassionate
pity the women recognized the hardships
IN the army life Of the Confederate soldier,
and were always ungrudSingly ready to
mitigate its seventies in every possible
manner.-A. c. Gordon in The Century.