The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-06-21

of this phenomenal state of affairs, so
he unheaded the barrel and found in
stead of syrup mass of sugar. II had
never before seen such remarkable
FORMULATION, F." says Mr.. Kenney, "and
in order to get an explanation I wrote
to DR.. Wiley, chemist of the depart
ment of agriculture, Washington. -
DR.. Wiley's explanation was that the
fermentation had acted upon the gums
and other chemical substances in the
sorgum syrup which have prevented
granulation so changing their form
that the subsequent boiling removed
them, leaving nothing to prevent the
free granulation of the saccharine mat
ter. DR.. Wiley expressed the opinion
that surprising possibility for sor-
ghum had been discovered.
When Mr.. Kenney found that he had
accidentally discovered process of
graduating the sorghum product he
made no attempt to secure patent,
or even to herald his great discovery.
He simply sat down and wrote a letter
to S. M. Owen of Minneapolis, editor
Of Farm Stock & Home. This letter
begins simply with: cit looks as if
had made very important discovery. :"
And after telling what had happened
he asks all interested to experiment in
order to learn the most simple and
practical way of developing the dis
covered process.
There seems absolutely no doubt of
the commercial value of Mr.. Kenney's
discovery. The sugar is there. 1t was
produced by boiling, fermentation and
subsequent boiling. The exact length
of boiling both in the first and second
instances, the right period of fermen-
tation, and the possible substitution of
chemical treatment in place of fer
mentation, remain to be established by
experiment. What is certain is that
sugar can be produced in this way and
can be produced very cheaply. No ex-
pensive plant is needed, no elaborate
arrangements for treatment.
That much having been determined,
the horizon widens. For sorghum can
be raised anywhere where Indian corn
will grow. The difficulty with the
sugar question has always been that
the sugar producing plants would grow
only under certain conditions, which
| were found to exist only in limited
sections of the earth's surface Cane
sugar could only be produced in tropi-
cal regions in particular quality of
soil and with certain degree of
moisture. 1t is we'll known that the
| limits of sugar cane production are
very closely defined. 1t is the same
with sugar beets. They can be raised
to advantage only in particular soils
and under certain climatic condi-
tions. Their range is wider than cane,
but still has limits.
But with a sugar producing plant
! which will grow through the whole
corn belt of America as we'll as in all
central Europe, which is as easily
raised as corn, and which will yield as
| much sugar to the acre as sugar cane
or sugar beets, it is plain that the
sugar question would be solved. Such
solution means:
The death of the sugar trust.
| The removal of the sugar subject
from politics.
The complete abolition of foreign
competition in the supply of the
American sugar market.
! A decrease in the value of canesugal
properties.
The probale extinction of the beef
sugar industry.
The opening of a new field for CAPT,
tai in the manufacture of sorghum
sugar.
The most interesting feature of the
discovery is its simplicity. Many
farmers are now raising sorghum,
crushing the cane and producing syrup
in competition with syrup manufac.
turers. A crushing plant can be put
in for a few hundred dollars and is
| within the reach of many farmer
or group of farmers. If nothing fur
ther is required except boiling, fer.
menting and boiling again, it is quite
easy to forsee the western farmer sup
plying himself with sugar as cheaply
as his Vermont brother lays in his an.
nual crop of maple sugar. Mr.. Owen
prin is Mr.. Kennedy's statement in to-
days Farm, Stock and Home and says
editorially of the possibilities to the
| farmer:
''If sorghum, an easily and cheaply
grown plant that is rich in sugar and
that can be grown wherever corn can
be-, can be made into sugar without a
costly mill or other appliances, then
sugar making becomes as simple and
easy as corn meal making, and each
farm home or community can produce
its own sugar, and be free from the
exactions of sugar trusts and the pro-
fits of middlemen. Sorghum sugar is
as sweet, as finely favored and as
capable of being refined as the best
southern sugar product. A method of
cheaply graduating it is all that is re-
quired to make it the cheapest and
most easily secured sugar in the world,
and it now looks as if the method had
been discovered.