The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-01-04
CORNCOB MEAL.
Used For Making Maple Sugar, o
fee md

Used For Making Maple Sugar, Cof-
fee md Tohncco.
I'VE are constantly meeting with
fakes and fakirs. said a young Wall
street broker the other day, "but L of
the slickcst schemes that | have ever
come across was a corucob mill IN
Cairo, Ills. The way | became acquaint-
ed. with the business was through a
friend Of mine L there, who was in
terested in the deal and who picked me
up, a young chap without any money.
and made me the purchasing agent in
Chicago.
1T was a long time before l myself
knew the wherefore of the mill. 1t was
erected in an inaccessible place, two or
three miles out from Cairo, and a board
fence ten feet high was built around it.
The company had its W private wires.
70 Chicago. Kansas City and New Or
leans, and every detail Of tie business
was sc~rupulously kept secret. The m
ployees themselves did not know what
use the corncots were put to. They
merely knew that large quantities Of
cobs were sent in, but the company gave
it out that they were seeking to invent
q new process for paper pulp. and that
silenced questions.
"This was not the only use for the
cob meal, however. The company fur
nished it straight to Il concern out IN
Kansas City and to another down IN
New Orleans. 1t was part Of my bust.
ness, however, to find out the DISPOSE
tion that was made of the meal, and
this is the strange part Of my story.
The firm out in Kansas City showed me
q large vat and a distilling apparatus.
In the vat coffee berries were placed and
boiled. The drip, which was strong
black coffee, passed by means of the
distiller over to another vat containing
nothing but this corncob meal. The lat.
ter became saturated with the coffee
Juice. Both berries and meal were dried,
and the boiled berries were placed upon
the market as q cheaper grade OF coffee.
while tho meal was put up in packages
and sold for ground coffee.
"The firm in New Orleans had a sim
liar scheme, except that it made use OF
the stems of tobacco leaves. You know
that in cigar and other tobacco factories
the leaves are s4mmed and the stems
are cold to snuff manufacturers. But
this firm boiled the stems, distillins
them off into a vat containing corncob
..- fCfo roc,lt r. cold 90 fOh4nP0
under a brand you'd easily recognize
were / to mention it.
"Anotber curious use for corncobs l
discovered in Chicago when was doing
the buying. wen: around to all the
biz grain elevators and contracted to
take their cobs at 81 per car. All you
had to do was to run your car on the
siding next to the elevator when they
opened a shoot and fill the car with
coEs in a very few minutes. So you see
there was very little expense attached
to it, as the elevator people helped load
tie cars in order to get rid Of the cobs.
But l was greatly surprised one day to
find that | had a rival who was trying
to bull the market. He had gone to the
elevator men and offered them Sl.25 per
car for the cobs. l hunted him up and
laughingly told him that | didn't know
there was another fool in town looking
for corncobs. Later on he told me the
use he made of them. lie showed me
three or four immense kettles in which
he made strip ont Of the commonest
and coarsest brown sugar. Into the strip
be dumped his cobs, broken up into lit.
tie hts. The result, after straining, was
u of the best limitations of maple sirup
that | ever struck. 1t tasted exactly
like the genuine.
The firm that | worked for paid $780,.
900 for its plant and declared a small
dividend the first year. The second year
it paid ESQ per cent dividend. 1t ran
along swimmirgly until the Illinois
Legislature passed a law prohibiting the
expectation of adulterated food stufs.
That killed the scheme. The plant Is
being used now as a Touring mill"
New York Commercial Advertiser.