Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-08-01
pie were swindled in an outrageous manner,

pie were swindled in an outrageous manner
the object of the mill promoters being.
apparently, only to mulct the taxpayers
out Of the bonds they were induced to vote
in aid Of the enterprises. At Minneola. for
Instance, the mill was not completed till
the sugar season was drawing to a close,
and there was barely time TO make one run
of cane that year. Bonds almost sufficient
to build the mill had been voted, to be deliv-
cred when the mill was shown to be capable
OF producing certain quality of sugar.
The cheapest machinery lad been purchas-
ed and when it was tested for the first time
II was found that il was not equal TO the
work demanded of it. The mill promoters,
however did not propose to permit that
to prevent them getting possession of the
coveted bonds. They sent to Dodge city,
forty miles away, and in the night brought
over a wagon load of sugar. which they
purchased at store there, smuggled il
into a mill and before morning Rad carried
it up TO the vat and mixed it in with the
cane juice. This stroke Of enterprise
brought the sugar up to standard and the
bonds were delivered the following day
Ii was the intention Of the mill men to
have bonds voted in number Of other To-
calities at the election that fall, and
to build a large number of mills on
the same plan. The scheme would
undoubtedly have worked mad IL not
been that few days after the :irst rur of
sugar was made at Minneola proud resi-
dents and local stockholders were show
ing some friends through the mill when
they noticed quantities of sugar scattered
over the stairs leading TO the sugar vat.
In the process of manufacture II sugar
from cane juice this sugar ought not to
have been found there An vestigation
followed and some. time after the bonds had
been disposed of the facts of the wagon load
CT sugar were brought out and further orer-
atoms of the sugar mill men in getting
bonds for more mills were stopped.
The English Succeeded.
Most of the sugar mill enterprises. how
ever. were begun in good faith. and their
failure was due to bad management and
ignorance of the business. Most of those
who engaged in IL lost their own money as
well as that of others. Few of them ran
more than one season. Others struggled
along for a number of years, and finally
all but two dropped out In 1871 the mill
at Medicine Lodge, which represents an
investment of over Sl25.00o fell into the
hands of an English company. This COM
pany has undertaken 10 operate il on a
business basis and has net with much
encouragement that ii is making prepar-
atoms to do more this season than ever be-
fore. The capacity of this mill is over 2oo
tons OF cane each day. As The cane runs
about 10 pounds of sugar TO the ton. the
output of the mill is about twelve tons a
day. The diffusion process is used eNclu-
sfvely, the old roller process having been
found wholly unsatisfactory. For num-
Der of years there was great loss from
stoppages, because of imperfect machinery,
but This has new been reme1ied. The ma
cainery has been so improved that last
year there was no accidental stop that ex-
ceeded fifteen minutes.
When the sugar mill craze was on In
Kansas the farmers set apart thousands
OF acres for sorghum cane. expecting. of
course. that they would reap a rich harvest
They were sadly disappointed and were
compelled to feed the crop to stock.