The Lakeland evening telegram., 1917-11-09
Possibilities Of This INDUSTRY Point
ed Out BY Experts

/
sugar mill in the state, but there's
lot Of syrup made" says the State
Marketing Bureau. There is short
age in the worlds supply Of sugar and
the price is going up. OF sugar
Americans used eighty-four pounds
per capita last year, and ye we i'm
ported large part of the total Of
3,S000,000 tons consumed.
$50 many things are being done in
these days by chemists that there is
no surprise at the report from Wash
ington that glycerine can be made
from sugar. at much less cost than
from fats. No other article is Of
more nutrient value than sugar, and
now we may find by it's conversion in
to glycerine and thence into nitrogly-
cerine it becomes one of the most
powerful explosives, in which event
there will be increased demand for
sugar. 1t IS no stranger, however,
than that cotton is now being changed
into an explosive of tremendous
force. and that explosives are made
from coal gas, and that coal tar has
no less than a thousand by-products,
including NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and
heart remedies-and innumerable
dyes, including the blue that put the
indigo industry out of business.
Eleven Factories
"In connection with the making Of
sugar it may be bit of news to many
of our Florida folks to learn that for
the season of 1917, just ended, that
eleven factories. built on American
models, by the Japanese on the is
land of Formosa, turned out 451, 900
tons of sugar. 1t may be recalled
that after the close of the Russian
Japanese war that the great powers
prevented Japan from occupying any
large area on the Asian continent,
but granted it the island of Formoss,
noted for many years for its produc-
tion of camphor, which the Japs have
largely increased and practically
made a monopoly of it, one which
Florida can help break, If the indus
tries now underway in Putnam and
Clay counties are increased and ex-
tended into other counties. and
pushed with Janp enterprise.
Before undertaking the sugar bus
mess the Japanese government sent
its representatives to Louisiana and
Cuba, where they familiarized them
: selves with the sugar situation. Jap
anese agents at different times also
visited the camphor plant at Satsuma
lin Putnam county.
The Island Of Formosa
1T is interesting to know that with
in two decades the whole of the is
land of Formosa, about one.fourth the
, area of Florida, was largely occupied
by untamed savages-many Of them
being bear hunters-and the sugar
} and camphor industries were Of minor
Importance along the coasts. In q
brief period the industrious Japs have
partly tanned the Formosa aborigines
l and put them to work making cam
phor, enough of it to control the
Q worlds market, and developed a sug
4 ar output quite up to that of Porte
g Rico, where the industry has beer
n carried on for over hundred years
"Dr. r. f. Rose, state chemist. ha'
for years advocated the making o.
! sugar in Florida. The Disston Com
e pany built a mill at st. Cloud is Os
ceola county, some twenty years ago
but mismanagement and other factors
e contributed to its failure, not becaus'
s cane could not be raised.
y FLORIDA can make camphor. Cam
phor is necessary in the making o
: celluloid. a substance possible of be
a ing nodded into any desired shape a
e Its substitutes, bone, ivory and wood
i cannot be. Besides camphor has US
q in medicine and in other ways. Th
/; State Marketing Bureau has sample
v of camphor made at the Satsum
@ plant in Putnam county, the first Ell
,erprise of the kind in the Unite'
States
n Sea Island Cotton
s "Our state too. is one of three /
q the Union producing sea island Q
long staple cotton, worth double tha
of short staple. Long staple is use
n for the best makes of thread, ant
" there is special call for it now in tn