The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-31
By VIII T. sheehan.


 A development, an agricultural oe yelopment. with a scope so wide ano with possibilities so vast that they may not be appreciated at this time Is shaping in the Gulf States. The movement now is in it's inception. But the results that have already been at- tained are pregnant with promises or riches.
 The movement is the planting with sugar cane of the timber lands which the lumber men have denuded of trees. A vast field is open to this endeavor- In the South. in Alabama especially. there arc millions and millions of acres awaiting the coming of the farmer and his blow. The lumber man and the turpentine man have passed along and done their days work in the woods. The scared and scared woods now await the true worker, the true wealth bringer, the farmer and the producer.
 The lands upon which the pine woods stood will pay best if they are devoted to the raising of sugar cane
 This is not the writer's opinion. It is the opinion of the men who have organized and who are maintaining the Interstate Cane Growers Association. It is the opinion of men who have lived in Baldwin Cot>lty and who have had enough experience to know. It is the opinion of Professor B. B. Ross State Chemist, and other members of the faculty of the Alabama Polytech- mic Institute. that pine lands are es- pecially adapted to the growing of su- gar cane and that the richest results gan be had from growing that crop, if Industry and intelligence is mixed in the cultivation of the land.
 Cane on Pine Lands.
 The primary purpose of the Inter- State Cane Growers Association is the devotion of the pine lands to the cul- tivation of sugar cane. The Associa- ton will hold its next annual meeting In Montgomery. January 25. At this meeting the possibilities of the up lands when they are put to growing cane will be discussed and the results that others have secured with this crop will be recounted.
 Baldwin County will be an exhibit . in this coming discussion before the Cane Growers Association. Baldwin County shows what crops of cane can be grown on pine lands and what they can be sold for.
 i'here Is, for example, the sugar cane
 a.,of MT. E- smith. nIlr Fairhope. The farm has only six acres of land ID cane, hut on each acre the enormous total of 660 gallons of syrup was raised. This syrup was sold to the trade at 50 cents a gallon. These fig ures mean that Mfr. Smith received as a gross total $330 an acre from his sugar cane.
 Nineteen miles from Fairhope Dr. J. H. Foley, on his model farm, near Magnolia Springs, has gone extensive ly into the same sort of farming Dr. Foley has twenty-one acres in cane Having a larger field Dr. Foley did not use as much fertilizer or employ such intensive methods of farming as did MT. Smith. Yet from each of his twenty-one acres Dr. Foley Is now se- curing 600 gollons of syrup. This syrup is being packed in air-tight cans and shipped to Chicago in car load lots. Dr. Foley has sold his entire crop to Chicago dealers for 50 cents 9 gallon.
 The soil is sandy. with a clay sub soil. It is the same sort of soil as thousands and thousands of other acres in the Pine Belt of Alabama, 9 soil that Is rich but not extraordinari- ly so, but which has the firmness nec- , essary to its building up by the use of fertilizer.
 Modern and Scientific Methods.
 The richness of these returns from Baldwin County sugar cane fields Is no doubt due to the use of a modern steam mill and evaporating plant. The mill which Is owned by MT. Smith is similar to the hve-roller mills of the Louisiana cane fields. This mill in the first place, extracts from the cane about 20 per cent more juice than does the old-fashioned cane mill whose motive power is a mule travelling around and around in & circle. This alone gives an increase of one-fifth to each acre, as compared with the old method.
 A fine description of the principles. the use and the advantages of this steam mill is furnished by Professor B. B. Ross, the State Chemist. Pro- lessor Ross superintended the installa- tion of the mill. He went to Fair hope and assisted in the adjustment of the machinery and watched the first run of syrup.
 In speaking of the machinery of MT. Smiths cane farm Professor Ross says:
 T was at MT. Smiths place during portion of the time in which the syrup making apparatus was being installed and I looked after portion of the evaporating apparatus during the first run which was made, although I was able to remain during only portion of the syrup making season. In MT. Smiths plant, steam Is employed both for the operation of tn" mill and for the evaporation of the juice and syrup The mill employed is of the most mod ern type and consists of two heavy crushing rollers for crushing the cane thoroughly. and three rollers of the or dir ary type for thoroughly expressing the juice from the crushed cane. With this mill an extraction of at least IS to 20 per cent. more juice can be se- cured than by the employment of an ordinary horse mill, and as the com mon horse mill frequently extracts not more than 55 to 50 per cent. of juice is will be noted that the relative in- crease in juice extraction is even great er. It will, therefore, be seen that the employment of a mill of this kind en- Gbles the syrup producer to save and utilize a large proportion of the juice that usually goes to waste in the ilA- perfectly crushed cane"
 Workings of the Mill.
 The mill referred to is similar in construction to the more improved types of five roller mills in use in Lou is;ana and Cuba. The juice runs from the mill to a small tank situated on q lower level and Is thence pumped up to the top of a Altering box filled with Spanish moss and any suspended me chanical impurities are removed dur ing this Altering process. The juice runs from this Altering apparatus To evaporators which are arranged in