The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-26

the Interstate Cane Growers Associa- ton Professor B. B. Ross of Auburn. State Chemist of Alabama, read a pa DOT of great interest on The Sugar and Syrup Industry in Alabama. Its present status and possibili- ties"
 The paper of Igofessor Ross was in part as follows:
 The assembly of the third annual of the Interstate Cane Growers Association in the capital city of this State is an event which should mark an epoch in the agricultural his tory of this commonwealth and I can but feel that the time of the conven- ing of this organization is most auspi- cious and opportune, now that large of our farmers and planters are giving most serious consideration to the question of the intelligent and judicious diversification of crops in with plans looking to material reduction in the production of the South's great staple.
 The coming together here of repre- sentatives of the cane. sugar and syrup industries of our sister States affords a most excellent opportunity to our own cane growers to get in touch with the progressive men and methods that have achieved success in other portions of the sugar cane belt. and the exchange and interchange of ideas and experiences which will be afforded by the discussions of this as- sociation will. I am sure, prove both a stimulus and an inspiration not only to those who have merely made mod est beginning, but as we'll as to those who are already conducting operations upon a more comprehensive scale. .~Al ,.Ir I would say that am confronted by the difficulties incident to the fact that within little more than years time, have been called upon to prepare and present papers upon some pnase or feature of this subject before no less than five or six different conventions and 1t therefore, no easy task to avoid repetition or to present essen tially new facts connected with this subject, and trust I shall be pardoned if, by way of emphasis. I should re- iterate some of the views I have ex- pressed in previous papers.
 The fact will no doubt be developed and emphasized that a very large pro- portion of the cane growers of the South are also producers of other crops In conjunction with, or supple mentary to, the cane crop, and the adaptability of this crop to a system of diversified farming, under appro- priate conditions, has been so well es- tablished that there are within the limits of the sugar cane belt. few intelligent farmers practicing diversi- fled agriculture, who fail to include at least a small area of cane in the dis tribution of farm ge among the different crops.
 History teaches us, and observation AhA kInk AAA rrg- cultural prosperity of no single State or nation, has been built or maintained upon a single crop, or upon a solitary agricultural industry. while agricul- ture, science and practice have demon strated that those countries and com munities which have attained the high est measure of agricultural progress and achievement have jud1ciously utilized supplementary or secondary crops as auxiliaries in the production of their chief agricultural staples.
 Cane as Auxiliary Crop.
 In this connection, would say that throughout large portion of the cane growing regions of this State 1t would probably be chiefly desirable to increase the production of sugar cane as an auxiliary or subsidiary cror rather than as a staple, while in oth- CT portions of the State, particularly in the extreme Southern tier of coun- ties, there are some considerable areas which. by reason of soil, topography and climatic conditions. arc probably better adapted to the culture of sugar cane than to any other important crop.
 While the official reports of the twelfth census of the United States reveal tho fact that sugar cane was grown and cane syrup manufactured in forty-four out of the sixty-seven counties of the State. the area of prof itable and satisfactory cultivation of sugar cane would have to be restric- ted to a considerably smaller num- Der of counties, although 1t can be produced with greater or less success throughout the whole of Southern and Middle Alabama. In many of these counties patches of no larger area than from one-half to one acre are to found in cultivation. while in the Southermost tier of counties of the State some tracts of from ten to fifty acres are being devoted to cane grow ing for syrup cultivation.
 Speakers at previous conventions oi this association have called attention to the importance of the question oi increased sugar production. and its i'm portance will at once be realized wher the fact is noted that this country produces only about sixteen per cent of its total sugar consumption. and that sugar Is the only important az ricuItural product which we are conn pelled to import While we produce and export 8 large surplus of cotton. bread stuffs. feed-stuffs. animal products etc. we are compelled to import an nually nearly two and half million tons of sugar. while we, ourselves produce under favorable conditions a crop of not exceeding 45O,000 to 50o,- 900 tons of sugar.
 That a country. whose agricultural possibilities and potentialities are SC tremendous as our own, should be compelled to secure so large a propor- tion as five-sixths of it's total con- sumption of so important an agricul- tural product from foreign sources seems all the more strange when we consider the enormous and phenome- nal growth and development which