Connecticut western news., 1906-07-26
DENATURED ALCOHOL.
It w;u Hardly Prove Profitable to
 MnuufE cture It on the Farm.

It WIFI Hardly Prove Profitable to
 Manufn ncture It on the Farm.
 Now that the denatured alcohol bill has become law and will take effect Jan. 1, 1907. the question will doubt less be raised among farmers ic 1t will be possible foz them to manufacture alcohol from their various farm prod uctS ia individual diStilleries upon the farm. They have been led to suppose, and rightly. that denatured alcohol can be manufactured from many farm products. and therefore 1t will create new market for their products.
 Professor II. W. Wiley. chemist of the department of agriculture. says that it will hardly prove profitable to undertake to manufacture alcohol in a small way upon the farm. No diff ference how small the quantity of al- cohol may he, it cannot be manufac- tured except under the supervision of a revenue official. and the manufac- turer must pay the salary and ex- penSes of this official: at least 1t Is likely that he will be required to do so under the regulations. Thus in the flu ture the manufacture of alcohol. as at the present. will probably be conducted in large establishments. Tte principle involved Is exactly the same as that employed In the manufacture of beet sugar. whtch. It is found. Is imprac- tkable In small way. Central fac tories are necessary for the. success of the sugar industry. and ceatral diStil- leries will be necessary in the alcohol Industry.
 We are inclined to believe that this advice is timely and important. for the successful manufacturer of alcohol re quireS a thorough knowledge of the chemistry of the process and a high degree of technical skill. and no doubt Professor Wiley Is correct in saying tiiat the successful practice of the flu tUre will consist ct the establishment cf a central distIllery in a good local ity accessible to farmers. In these dis tilleries alcohol can be most econom- icIily made from the raw materials which tie farmers furnish.
 Secretary Wilson looks with much encouragement upon the benefits which the farmers are likely to reap from the sale of products to these distillcrieS. Some of the figures which he gives as his estimate on the producing power of certain crops are quite beyond ones comprehension. Figuring the corn crop on the basis of fifty bushels of corn to the acre. he says there would be ap- proximately ten tons of stalks to the acre. Corn which if utilized when sufficiently ripe would yield 2.4oO pounds Of fermentahle matter would produce ITO gallons of commercial al- cohol. While fifty bushels Is more than the average yield per acre ut the present time. yet this yield could be largely increased in the west on the heavier corn lands, and when the vast acreage of corn in the United States Is considered-and it Is approx irnatel- 1o0.o00.O0O acres-it can read fly be seen that the amount of com mercial alcohol produced from the av- craze of ten tons of stalks per acre would be quite incomprehensible-
 Potatoes also would yield a very largo product and the potato crop would be vastly larger than at the pres ent time. from the fact that potatoes for alcohol need Tot be of the best quality or finest flavor; in fact. .nany thousand bushels that now virtually go to waste could be utilized. and yet, he says. from the present acreage the average yield of potatoes should give 255 gallons of commercial alcohol per acre. and he believes the amount would be doubled by the planting Of more productive varieties without talk ins into consideration their quality.