The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-19
IN THE CANE FIELDS
INVESTIGATIONS BY DIR. III. w. WI
LEY OF THE AGRICULTURAL
DEPARTMENT.
GREATLY SURPRISED.
AT EXTENT OF SYRUP INDUSTRY
AND OUTLOOK FOR IT'S INCREASE.


Specimens of Cane-Cane and Soils
of Georgia to Be Treated of in
Exhaustive Report to Be Publish
ed in January-An Appropriation
of $4,000 to $4,000 by National
Government for Exploitation OF
Sugar Producing Territory Posi-
b1e-WilI Go to South Georgia To-
day.
A trip as far as Adrian, Emanuel
county. with stops along the route,
was made over the Central yesterday
by DR.. H. w. Wiley chief chemist
of the Department of Agriculture, for
the purpose of investigating the cane
growing industry and its possibilities.
DR.. Wiley was accompanied by Capt.
D. G.. Purse, president of the Board of
Trade, Mr.. r. L. Pritchard, land and
industrial agent of the Central, Supt.
7. S. Noise, Mr.. w. G. Cooper, and
a representative of the Morning News,
and, on the greater part of the trip,
by Mr.. J. G. Wells of Woodlawn, near
Guyton, and Mr.. E. E. Foy of Egypt,
both of whom are cane planters. and
whose mills and fields were visited.
The cane plantations and mills of
Mr.. ]. W. Olliff at Statesboro, and of
Capt. T. J. James of Adrian, were
also visited. The trip was made on a
special train, placed at the disposal
of the party by the courtesy of the
Central road.
DR.. Wiley's visit was for the purpose
of inquiring personally into the condi-
tons and the possibilities of cane
growing in Georgia; the results of his
trip he will publish in bulletin form SO
soon as the information gathered can
be put into shape for publication.
This visit is but part of an exhaus-.
tive research that is now being made.
not only into the kind of cane grown
in Georgia, the extent of the territory
in which it can be proftably grown,
and collateral subjects, but also into
the nature of the soil itself. Already
hundreds of specimens of soil from,
Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and
Alabama have been sent to Washing
ton for analysis. This work was be-
gun several months ago, and the anal
Uses are now SO nearly completed
that the 70 tAbufated results, as
as well as the results of the analyses
OF different specimentS of cane, grown
in different parts of the state, will be
published in an exhaustive bulletin by
the Department of Agriculture about
January.
In order to secure specimens of cane
from which to make these analyses
DR.. Wiley selected samples at each OF
the places visited and these will be i'm
mediately mailed to Washington. Some
Georgia cane has already been ana
lyzed and the results shown are most
| fiattering for the future prosperity of
the Georgia crop, as they show 16 per
| cent Of sugar, and from 1 to per
| cent. of glucose, against an average of
only IL per cent. of sugar for the Lou
isiana came.
Condition of the Industry.
Discussing his trip DR.. Wiley said
that he was astonished to find that the
| cane growing industry is in SO flourish
| ing a condition. He questions, though,
| the possibility of profitably making SUI
| gar in this state, that is, SO far north
! that frost is 'usuai In the middle of
| November; still the possibility of the
| syrup industry is limited, he said, only
| by the market that can be made for it,
and such market will embrace the
| Whole of the country SO soon as the
| quality of the Georgia syrup is known
or the quality of the cane itself he
thinks most highly, especially of that
grown at Adrian by Capt James of
which he estimated the yield to be
nearly, if not quite. rs tons to the acre,
better than the average yield of the
Louisiana plantations. His only critf-
cism was of the machinery used for the
| production of the syrup. Such mills as
| he saw, he says are wasteful in that
| they do not press from the cane all of
\ the juice that's possible to get. These
mills are of the Chattanooga type.
three rollers. DIR. Wiley in each case
suggested the addition of a supplement
| tary mill of two rollers through which
| the cane be run before being consigned
| to the bigasse pile. BY this additional
mill, he told the cane grinders, they
| will secure a yield of juice 25 per cent
| greater than that which is now Sc
cured.
OF the quality of the syrup, however,
he had nothing but praise, and was
surprised as we'll to find that it is man
ufactured from the pure juice without
| any other treatment other than strain
ing, not even a clarifying agent being
| used, though the addition of such an
agent is the common practice in other
| syrup making everywhere else.
AS to the making of sugar DR.. Wiley
thinks that it will not be nearly so
| profitable as the manufacture of syrup,
| that is at the present market price OF
the latter product; though, should the
| price of syrup fall to 20 cents aegallon
| or less, it would be more profitable to
| make sugar.
Though most of the canefields visited
had been struck by the frost of the last
| two nights, which led DR.. Wiley to
make the statement about the impossi-
bility of making sugar so far North as
this temperature would seem to indi-
cate the fields are, the planters them
| selves are unanimous that this year
is an exceptional one and that frost as
a rule, that is frost heavy enough to
affect the cane, is rarely or never ex-
perienced before the end of November
and that the weather conditions this
year are so exceptional that they cam
not be taken as a guide in forming an
opinion on this matter.
DIR. Wiley besides taking specimens
of the cane and examining the mills
and fields, also took pictures Of both,
and these will be used to illustrate the
bulletin that he will issue.
Increase of Cane Growing.
That the cane industry is a growing
one in Georgia is illustrated by the fig
ures recently compiled by Mr.. Pritch-
ard; these show that In three wears
the acreage OF cane has been increased
200 per cent, and that, whereas the
market price of syrup three years ago
was II cents a gallon, and the market
a very restricted one, the present price
Of the best quality OF Georgia syrtin ~