The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1918-12-27
A SWEET SUBJECT

iu6 tHcicOu Sohic ycdiS d6o, IS .tiicu
those who have demonstrated wha
can be accomplished by the combin
alton of muscle, intelligence Okan
iogan soil and sunshine, MATERIAL.
assisted by abundant water. One o
his experiments during the past yea
was the growing of a small tract o
Isugar cane from which sorgum mo
lasses Is extracted. Like all thing
produced from the earth under tn,
Irrigation system in this vicinity tn,
cane did marvelously we'll, and Mr.
Schlief manufactured some 16 gal
Ions of sorgum from the cane raised
He acknowledged to being a novice
at sorgpm making, as it is sometime
he never before attempted, but fol
the initial experiment he did remark.
ably we'll. Mr.. Schlief left a generous
sample of the sOrgum at this office tC
be tested, and while we are not an
expert judge of that saccharine pro-
duct We can report that when tested
in cooking certain articles of con-
sumption requiring the addition OF
mOlasses as one of the ingredients
making up the total component parts
the sample answered the purpose bet
ter than the same article purchased
on the market.
| And speaking of sorgum carries
memory back nearly sixty years, at
\ time when we were given cause to
look upon sorgum with feelings of re-
pulsion, if not verging upon disgust,
| throughout natural life time. That
is one particular reason why our
Judgment on sOrgum cannot be con-
| sidered such as to make a fair report
upon any sample that might be tend
cred for testing
This country has just passed
| through terrible war, and owing to
the stern necessity of conserving
food some restrictions have been
placed upon certain articles entering
into daily consumption that are class
ed as necessities. Those restrictions
were not severe. At no time has the
general public suffered from the lack
of food supplies, or have they been
compelled to resort to prOvender that
is in any sense of the word repulsive.
We have been barred from eXcesses
in certain lines which NJ doubt we
abused when enjoying the privilege
of wholesale consumption. The health
of the people has not been impaired
by the restrictions imposed. Taken
by and large it is safe to say that
the enforced use of certain percent
age of coarser foods, and a slight
curtailment of sweets, has been a
benefit to the people as a whole. 1t
is to be presumed that all have cheer
fully and honestly accepted the
dietary rules laid down by the pow
ers that be, for the man or woman
who shirked this duty cannot be class
ed as a true American. However,
many have looked upon these restric-
tive measures as a hardship, and
| there have been cases of open revolt.
But Holy Moses, what do such milk
and water human beings know about
dietary hardships. They were rolling
in luxurious abundance in compari-
son with what the people of the north
fed upon during the civil war, and
| those of the south had to keep body
and soul together under even greater
hardships in the way of shortage of
provender.
These few lines, in the way of in
troductory, brings us down to explain
ing how it comes that We do not look
upon sorgum as a table luxury With
a gay and cheerful spirit. 1t is be-
cause it was case of too much
sorgum as boy during the cruel
years when the south and north were
locked in a death struggle, the one to
disrupt and the other to prevent dis
ruptiOn of our common country. Al
that time among the masses the re,
| fined syrups of the present day were
unknown to the palate, which sugar
waa curiosity. and very dark brown
n"ist, gritty sugar OF unknown or.
igin and doubtful ingredient. was
ABOUT the only saccharine exc ,Se fOi
swCetening that the common people
C)lCld secure. In those days we hat
4 good deal of experience with sor
gum, from the time the seed were
tuck into the ground to the houl
when the black, stringy. tarry stuf
an'e out of the watts and was rset
rs substitute for butte, and entered
largely as sweetening in all cooking
The means fer handling III, cane ant
reducing to molasses were crude in
deed. The pross was 81 nplr affair
r,ate out Of two sections % 10:
three or four feet long, with the barl
removed. These logs were fastened
in frame ami were revolved b,
horse power The cane was passe,
between these rude rollers and tn
juice caught in buckets. This juic
had sweet but acrid taste. 'rh
yellowish liquid was placed in large
usually oblong, sheet iron tanks O
watts, and hot fires kept burning I'm
der the watts until the impuritie
larose to the surface of the simmerin
, mess and skinned off. In course O
time the sorgum reached the prope
consistency and flavor. All of thi
work was generally done out in tn
open, regardless of foreign bric-a-bra
that might become entangled in tn
sticky substance from the time of TIL
, extraction of the juice to the boilin
down Of the same to syrup.
Y Thus was manufactured yer
+ common article of daily consumptio
= in the early SOS. In many familie
! 1t was not only the ingredient to max
] more palatable bread, but it was ais
y about the only sweetening that Ell
' tered into cooking. Moreover. on ii
bottom of the molasses watts was
layer of a substance that might pas