St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1916-11-25
"LONG SWEETENING"
IN GREAT QUANTITIES
Crockett & Wells Big Syrup Mill
Turning Out Product of
Louisiana Cane
OF GALLONS
YET TO BE SHIPPED
Several Weeks of Steady Running
Before Season Closes, Which
Has Been Successful

n 1cp1 CoClbdI1fC VI IlIlS llC"o-
paper, accompanied by several
friends made a brief trip last Tues
day noon to the big cane syrup
mill of Crockett and WE'LL, located
about four miles southwest of the
city. We were cordially received
by both Mr.. Crockett, who is on
the ground actively experimenting
operations, and by several of his
assistants.
The mill is the plant of the old
Opelousas Sugar Company, which
lay idle several years until bought
III by the enterprIsing Alexandra
wholesale grocery firm some
months ago. The new owners i'm
medlately began the work OF re-
pairing and otherwise improving
the mill and also installed a modern
canning apparatus. Work for the
season began on Monday, October
49, and since that date the
machinery has been going night
and day with the exception of Sun
days. They. employ quite number
of men and the payroll amounts to
several thousands of dollars each
month. Most of the cane being
ground is shipped to the mill from
other points, only about five
hundred tons being brought in by
local farmers. A spur track of the
Texas and Pacific road runs up to
| the mill from the main track,
some distance further, and on the
day the newspaper representative
was there several cars of cane were
ready for unloading.
In addition, another track runs
up to the loading platform at the
warehouse and it is an easy matter
| to load a car with the finished
product. The warehouse is
sight to behold, in that it is orderly
packed with cases of canned syrup,
properly labelled and ready for
the breakfast table. The cases
are mostly of the six-gallon size
that is they contain six one-gallon
cans. However, the syrup IS also
placed in other sizes of containers
two and three-gallons, and MT.
] Crockett explained that the most
! of their trade was in the gallon
size there being little demand for
the halves. quarts and pints.
It is plain to see that there IS
no lost motion around the big mill
and everything runs like clockWofk.
Each man has his job and ne at
/ tends to his particular duties. The
! machinery is in good repair and
rms with out a hitch. The cane
goes into the the giant rollers at one
end of the building and the syrup
is canned. labelled and packed for
| shipment at the other end. me
..haeasse'' is fed direct into the
furnace under the giant boiler.
/ thus assisting in the raising OF
/ mower for the operation of the
machinery and saving quite an
item in the fuel bill.
/ Messrs. Crockett and WE'LL have
! been engaged for several years IN
buying large quantities of syrup
from other producers and selling
same under their own name. Ihls
season is their first attempt TO
produce the syrup themselves.
They realized quite, time ago
the desirability of operating a
nlant in the "de land where de
sugar cane grows and when they
were offered the local mill they
/ bought it without any loss OF
time. This seasons run is in the
nature of an experiment but the
! next season they expect to handle
a large tonnage and produce a
greater quantity of syrup.
Mr.. Crockett presented us with
a generous sample of syrup and
it measures up, in quality and
appearance, with the best in the
land. The most Of their trade, MI.
Crockett explained, was in the
states of Arkansas, Kansas, Texas,
/ Oklahoma and New Mexico, though
they had made some small ship
ments to other states in the west.
He stated that the greatest trouble
they experienced was in localities
where the aduIterated Louisiana
cane syrup" blackstrap and glucose
had already prejudiced the people
with the product of the Louisiana
open kettle syrup, which is al
syrup and not mixture. The
blackstrap moiasses of commerce
the by-product Of the sugar re-
finerv and almost depleted of its
original sugar content There i: