The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-01-21

there daily and the growers liiu
ready sale for them at the shipping
platform at attractive prices. Egg
plants are. bringing 1925 to $3.50:
peppers. $500: beans, $3.50 to $500;
cucumbers, s3.75; okra, $500, and
squash, s175. It is believed that
prices will now rapidly increase.
Plant City Courier
Florida Ranges Producing Better
Grade of Cattle
As result Of a study of beef cattle
production on the ranges of Florida, it
was found BY the United States De
partment of Agriculture that in Palm
Beach county approximately 1915
acres appear to be required to carry
an animal through the year. It also
was learned that calf crop Of so To
so per cent may be expected annually;
rapid improvement of the native stock
can be made by the use Of purebred
bulls; the mortality is no higher on
these ranges than on the western
ranges; the use Of heterogeneous con-
cenHates in connection with winter
grazing offers the most practicable
solution ct the winter-feeding prob
lem; utilization of the native grasses
with the object of gradually improv-
ing the pastures may be considered
one Of the chief problems.
It appears that the ranges can best
be utilized in units of considerable
size; 10000 acres has been taken as 4
convenient unit on which to base esti-
mates. There is great need for furth-
er investigationaI work on range prob
lens in connection with large opera.
tions, not only in Florida, but in the
entire Coastal Plain area, the specia-
lists say.
Cane Syrup improved by the Use Of
Earth Filter
Infusorial earth applied to the man
ufacture Of cane syrup produces
clearer, milder, and more palatable
product than is usually obtained by
sulphur Qualification or by skimmiag.
The Bureau of Chemistry, United
States Department of Agriculture. has
been experimenting with the new
process, and their report recently
published in Bulletin 921, seems to in
dictate that the day of the dark. mud
dy, unattractive cane syrup has nearly
passed The use Of milk of lime and
sulphur fumes to separate the impuri-
ties from cane juice is difficult to con-
troll properly and not entirely salts
factory. Too much lime makes the
syrup very dark in color and too much
sulphur dioxide gives it a metallic
taste, which makes it generally un-
popular
Swimming, which is another method
used for clarifying syrup, usually pro-
duces a palatable product, but one
that is apt to be discolored by sedi-
ment and difficult to standardize.
The new process consists in heating
the juice as it comes from the mill to
the boiling temperature At this stage
a small amount of infusorial earth
about IL pounds to 200 gallons Of
juice is added, and after mixing thor.
Eoughly the juice is pumped through
a filter press. The resulting filtrate
lies bright and clear and ready for I'M
mediate evaporation to syrup. No
further skimming or other treatment
lis necessary The color will depend
upon the care taken to prevent scorch-
ing during the evaporation and the
flavor Of the syrup will be the natural
Erane flavor. The material added is
IAN inert, tasteless substance which
has 10 action other than to remove
impurities from the juice.
The process can net be conducted
/ properly by the farmer who produces
only small amount Of syrup BY skim
ming and evaporating but ii does
i lend itself to small steam factories
! and to the larger syrup factories Of i
Eeapacity ranging from a few hundred
to many thousand gallons a day. The
earth filtration process in a syrup fac
tory handling 30 tons Of cane day
vii add about 32 cents per ton Of
lcane ground to the cost Of nlanufac-
ture. However in plant Of this ca
pacity employing the skimnaing pro-
cess, the daily loss is figured to be
from % to so gallons Of syrup. When