Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1906-07-20
THE GRANGE
Conducted by
J. W. BARROW. Chatham, N.Y, .
Press Correspondent NctD York State
Grange
IL VIII Hardly Prove Profitable to
Menufacture II on the Firm.

IL VIII Hardly Prove Profitable to
Manufacture II on the Farm.
Now that the denatured alcohol bill
has become a law and will take effect
Jan. l, 1907. the question will doubt
less be raised among farmers if it will
be possible for them to manufacture
alcohol from their various farm prod
ucts in individual distilleries upon the
farm. They have been led to
and rightly. that denatured alcohol can
be manufactured from many farm
products, and therefore II will create
a new market for their products.
Professor II. w. Wiley, chemist of
the department Of agriculture, says
that 1t 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
o may be, II cannot be manufac-
tured except under the supervision of
a e official, and the manufac-
turer must pay the salary and X
penses of this official; at least it is
likely that he will be required to do so
under the regulations. Thus in the fu-
ture he manufacture Of alcohol. as at
the present, will probably be conducted
In large establishments. The principle
involved Is exactly the same as that
employed in the manufacture of beet
sugar, which, II is found, is imprac-
ticable in a small way. Central fac
tories are necessary for the success of
the sugar industry, and central 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
that the successful practice of the fu-
ture will consist of the establishment
of a central distillery in a good local
ity accessible to farmers. In these dis
tilleries alcohol can be most econom-
ically made from the raw materials
which the 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 distilleries.
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
OF the basis of fifty bushels of corn
to the acre, he says there would be APP
p~roximately ten IONS of stalks to the
acre. Corn which If utilized when
sufficiently ripe would yield 2,400
pounds of f~ermentable matter would
produce 10 gallons of commercial al
cohol. While fifty bushels is more
than the average yield per acre at
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
imately 100,000.O 900 acres-it can read
lily be seen that the mount of COM
mercial alcohol produced from the av-
erage of ten tons of stalks per acre
would be quite incomprehensible.
Potatoes also would yield a very
large product and the potato crop
would be vastly larger than at the pres
ent time, from the fact that potatoes
for alcohol need not be of the best
quality or finest flavor; In fact, many
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 tax
ing into consideration their quality.