Investigation of the Scientific and Economic Relations of the Sorghum Sugar Industry: Being a Report Made in Response to a Request From the Hon. George B. Loring (1883)

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SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. 31 It is from tbe States of New Jersey and Illinois that we are able to cite examples of success on so large a scale and attended with such a satisfactory result as fairly puts to rest any doubts as to the production of sugar on a great scale, in a northern climate, with a commercial profit. Our first knowledge of the New Jersey enterprise came from the last year's report of Professor Cook, director of the Agricultural Station, but for the current year we are able to record the personal observations of several members of this Committee and others. We cite as follows from Professor Cook's report, 1881: 1st. The State of New Jersey has, at its Experiment Station, made, during the year 1881, a series of well-conducted trials in sorghum cul- ture. and sugar production, the full details of which will be found in the report of the director, Professor George H. Cook. (See Appendix, document, p. 71.) From this document it appears that, during the autumn of 1881, the sorghum .cane of 700 acres of land was worked for sugar at the sugar- house of Charles M. Hilgert. This sugar-house has been built at Rio Grande, Cape May County, New Jersey, at a cost of about $60,000. The product of crystallized sugar was sold to refiners at 7 and 8 cents a pound. The yield, although not as large as expected, is still regarded as satisfactory. Owing to the "drought of unprecedented severity and length," the farmers of that region, who calculated on a yield of 10 tons of cane and 30 bushels of seed per acre, actually obtained only about 5 tons cane and 20 bushels of seed, which sold for 65 cents per bushel. This trial was so far satisfactory that it is proposed to work the product of about 1,000 acres of land for sugar the coming season (1882) at the Rio Grande Sugar Works. October, 1882.—The foregoing statement applies to the experience of the past year. We are now able to add the following information obtained by a personal examination of the plantation and sugar works of the Rio Grande Sugar Company, Cape May County, New Jersey. This company are the present owners of the before-named works and also of 2,400 acres of land, chiefly of a light and not fertile soil, being on the peninsula between Delaware Bay and the sea, within 5 or 6 miles of Cape May and 75 miles south from Philadelphia. April 19, 1882, and following, they put in of— Acres. Amber cane 958 Link's Hybrid 25 Early Orange 23 Honduras 2 By actual survey - 1,008 Warned by former experience, the company determined to own and cultivate its own cane. The very cold and wet spring occasioned the loss of a considerable portion of the first planting, the loss being also due in part to deep planting by unskillful hands.* * It is important to note here, as showing some of the practical difficulties attend- ing the introduction of a new industry, that the farmers charged with the planting of this crop, and naturally confounding it with maize, persisted in planting the seed about 4 inches deep, and in rows 4 feet apart and 4 feet between hills, while in point of fact the seed requires to be lightly covered, only one inch sufficing, and in rows 3 feet apart, the plants only a few inches asunder, or in hills of many seed to the hill. Very much of the deeply planted seed perished ; while that lightly covered and in close rows made a fine "stand," requiring only to be thinned out by hand of the weak plants. The very severe gales and torrents of rain, which swept over this county Septem- ber 22 to 25, left no trace of injury in these broad acres of sorghum, as we first saw them, September 28, while the adjacent corn-fields were prostrated.

32 SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. The deficient portions were replanted in June, leaving such portions of the first planting as came up, to grow together with the second planting. This circumstance worked considerably to the injury of such portions of the crop, and reduced the exponent of sugar notably. Not- withstanding this untoward circumstance, the crop, as we first saw it, " near the close of September, presented a noble spectacle of vast fields of luxuriant cane ready for the rolls, and still full of vigor, and of a deep green color. The Amber cane stood about 8 to 10 feet in height. The Orange and Link's Hybrid was higher, being from 12 to 14 feet. The Amber cane only was ripe at that time, and the harvesting had been in progress from the 28th of August, at the rate of 120 to 150 tons of cane delivered daily to the mill; which is the present limit of the floors to accommodate the sugar wagons. The mill is a powerful apparatus of three rolls, each 5 feet long and 30 inches in diameter,* driven by a steam engine of 125 horse-power, crushing the cane with an opening of only one-sixteenth inch between the rolls. The stalks are not stripped, only the seed heads are removed in the fields. This mill is capable of crushing 300 tons or more daily, but the floor space of the works limits the output as before stated. The product of sugar exceeds the expectations of the projectors. The Amber cane on a large area stands not less than 10 tons to the acre on about 700 acres; the exact figures for the whole crop can be given only when the account is fully made up.* Each day's cutting is accurately recorded, and so much can now be safely stated. We saw the "strike" of the vacuum pan of 1,600 gallons on the 28th of September, and again on the 1st of October, filling nine wagons, of one ton capacity each, with "melada" yielding 2£ to 3 barrels of sugar to the ton. The yield of sugar to the wagon would be, by estimate, greater by about half a barrel (the barrel holds 355 pounds) if more time could be allowed for it to stand before going to the centrifugals. From the mill the green juice flows to a tank of 1,000 gallons capac- ity, whence it is pumped to defecators, after which it is hurried through the open pans to the vacuum pan, where it is reduced to about 32° B., and thence to the larger pan of 1,600 gallons, where it is raised to about 45° B., at a temperature of about 140° F. There are two " strikes " of this pan daily. The lack of space for cooling compels at present the working of the melada in the centrifugals, of which there are four, before it is completely cooled, so diminishing, as just stated, by prob- ably a half barrel, the yield of " firsts." We examined the books of Mr. Henry A. Hughes, the superintend- ent, who is a sugar-boiler of twenty years' experience, which showed the juice of the daily workings, as tested by polariscope, to have a co- efficient of from 10° to 12° for the raw juice, which is polarized several times daily. For the week, ending the day of our first visit, 656 tons of cane were crushed, yielding 115 barrels of sugar of 88°, and 89 bar- rels of molasses of 47°. This first sugar was equal to 63 pounds to the ton of cane crushed.t 'About JJ50 acres of tbe laud under cultivation this year were cleared of woods and shrubs too late to'admi$ the use of lime before plowing and applying the gnauo. The result is very conspicuous in the diminished growth of caue, which, on this tract, is not over 5 tons to the acre, while on otherlaud 7, 8, and 9 tons ure cut on several hun- dred acres, and as high .as 17^ tons of Amber cane, by actual survey. Ten tons of Amber may probably be a fair average product for this year, as entimated by the super- intendent at the early purt of October. tOwing to the lack of space and the pressure of the crop, the molasses of this year's crop is held back until the crushing is over, when, unless sold at a satisfactory

SORGHUM SUGAE INDUSTRY. 33 The fertilizers used on the land of this plantation this year were about 25 bushels of lime, followed by 150 pounds of Peruvian guano, having as much sulphate of ammonia added as raised the nitrogen to 8 per cent. This guano cost $53 per ton. A few acres were treated, as an experiment, with fair results, with barnyard manure. On about 20 acres fish guano alone was used, the effect of which was to reduce the available sugar by about 1° on the polariscope. On the whole, the lime, guano, and stable manure gave good results. Greensand marl, which abounds in New Jersey, remains to be tested hereafter.* The crushing of the cane with leaves settles one of the "sorghum questions" on which there has been much difference of opinion. In practice, on a large scale, the removal of leaves would involve an im- practicable amount of labor. In the 1879 Report of the Department of Agriculture, p. 59, are experimental results showing an increase of both juice and sirup from the crushing of the entire plant (seeds excepted). A small loss of available sugar and a gain of sirup will probably result from crushing the blades with the stalks; a subject requiring further examination. It is by no means improbable that in the plant's life the sucrose is elaborated directly in the leaf, and is gradually transferred to the stalk, where it accumulates. t The full returns for the crop of this year will not be in before the closing of this report. But we are able to state, from a communication of date November 8, 1882, from the president, that the probable results of the season's work, ending with November 11, ara as follows: 6,000 tons of cane; 950 barrels of first sugar, and 1,100 barrels, 50 gallons each, of molasses. The seed Is not yet measured, and a full balance- sheet remains to be made up which may perhaps come in season to be added to this report. The Orange cane turns out rather better than the Amber, being richer in juice and with an average test of 13° B. This Committee have received from Mr. Knight, the sugar refiner in Philadelphia, a barrel of the sugar, sample of a lot of 350 barrels refined by him, of the Rio Grande Sugar Company. It ranks, on the independ- ent judgment of experienced grocers to whom we have shown it, as "0" sugar. price, it will be worked for residual sugar. It may be well to state that it is found in practice that the second crop of crystals (technically called "seconds") is about one-half the first yield, and the third crystallization gives about one-half the "sec- ond" ; so, if the " firsts" are 60 pounds to the ton of cane, the " seconds" will be 30 pounds, and the "thirds" 15 pounds, or, in the aggregate, 105 pounds to the ton of cane. The sesd gathered from the Amber cane on the Rio Grande plantation, this year, measures, as we are informed by Mr. Hughes, the superintendent, 20 bushels average to the acre of cane cultivated ; the yield from the Orange is 2 bushels per ton. "The whole subject of fertilizers remains to be investigated by well-directed and carefully recorded experiments, both in the laboratory, the field, and the sugar-mill. The begasse and defecation scum pressed in cj,kes by the filter-press are believed to be of value as elements of fertilization; and the stubble which springs with luxuri- ant growth as an aftermath may be of more value to the next crop if turned in ag a green crop than if employed as forage. The questions of over fertility and rotation remain to be solved by experience. All we know, at present, is that the sorghum appears to thrive best for sugar on soils not too highly fertilized, and naturally of a light sandy loam. tPor additional statements respecting the Rio Grande plantation and mill, see the letters in the Appendix from Capt. R. Blakeley, of Saint Paul, Minn., and Mr. Harry McCall, a sugar planter from Donaldsouville, La. Also, in the same connection, a letter from Mr. George C. Potts, president of this company, to the Tariff Commission, and a copy of the blank form for returns of the mill, &c., required to be sworn by the superintendent to secure from the State of New Jersey the bounty provided in the act of that State, as mentioned in the letter of Mr. Potts. S. Mis. 51 3

34 SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. Analyses of the soils of different fields are now in progress, to de- termine, if possible, the causes which influence such very unlike pro- ductiveness as the experience of the season of 1882 has shown to exist. The differences of yields being per acre, 3£ (guano, no lime), 5£ (guanor no lime), 7£, 8, 15, and 17 tons, respectively. 3d. The Illinois Industrial University, at Champaign, 1ll., have pub- lished a report " on the manufacture of sugar, sirup, and glucose from sorghum," by Henry A. Weber, Ph. D., professor of chemistry, and Melville A. Scovell, M. S., professor of agricultural chemistry (1881). The authors say: From the approximate analysis of the [1880] cane, it appears that one acre of sor- ghum produces 2,559 pouuds of cane-sugar. Of this amount we obtained 710 pounds m the form of good brown sugar and 265 pounds were left in the 737 pounds of mo- lasses drained from the sugar. Hence, 62 per cent. of the total amount of sugar was lost or changed during the process of manufacture. This shows that the method of manufacture in general use is very imperfect. In 1881 the results of an experiment on three-sixteenths of an acre of land are, as calculated on one ton of topped and stripped cane: Pounds. Weight of juice 834.4 Weight of sugar 77.2 Weight of molasses 119.7 In 1882 the results of the sugar-mill at Champaign, 1ll., are reported as being very satisfactory to owners. A sample of the sugar made October 19 ("product of yesterday's run of 3,600 pounds"), which reached us a few days later, was found to be of excellent quality, completely free from any trace of sorghum flavor, nearly white, and polarizing 97° .0. We learn from the report (see Ap- pendix, p. 78) of this year's work up to October 28 that bone-black is used at the Champaign works, in which respect they differ from the Bio- Grande mill, wuere no bone is used. Professor Scovell has written us the following letter referring to the partial report, which will be found in the Appendix: CHAMPAIGN, ILL., October 30, 1882. DEAR SlK: I inclose a partial report of our doings at this factory this year. We will not be through grinding for a week yet, and will not be able to finish '' seconds," &c., for at least a month. The report is as full as we could make it at this date. The results are creating much enthusiasm in the West. We have many visitors from abroad every day. There is no question in my mind but that the production of sugar from sorghum will be a great industry. Very truly, M. A. SCOVELL. Prof. B. SILLIMAN. 4th. The experimental farm of the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, in that State, have lately issued a report in compliance with legislative resolution, addressed to his excellency J. M. Rusk, governor, giving the results obtained in," Experiments of Amber Cane, &c., at the Exper- imental Farm, 1881." (See Appendix, document pp. 79-104.) Mr. Magnus Swenson,who conducted the sorghum-sugar experiments at the Experimental Farm, has sent to this Committee a sample of both white and light-brown sugar manufactured by him from sorghum juices. The yield of cane-sugar on two plots of land planted with Early Amber gave Mr. Swenson, for "Plot A," 923 pounds of cane sugar and 103 gal- Tons of sirup; for " Plot B," 907£ pounds sugar and 87 gallons of sirup, vr acre. "I separated," he says in his letter to the Chairman, " in all

SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. 35 about 1,200 pounds of sugar, samples of which I send you." Mr. Sweu- son's reported details of work fully corroborate the results obtained at the Department of Agriculture. One hundred and eighty manufacturers in that State report having made about 350,000 gallons of Amber cane sirup last year, or about 2,000 gallons each. October, 1882, Professor Swenson writes as follows of the operations of his experimental works for the current year: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT, Madison, Wis., October 19, 1882. DEAR SIR : My works on the University farm are in full operation. In spite of the very bad season the yield is very satisfactory. I am making 60 gallons of sirup per day (12 hours). This, I think, will yield at least 350 pounds of sugar and 30 gallons of molasses. The total cost of running my works, including $2.50 per ton for cane and f5 for incidentals, is f27. The analyses of the defecated juice show an average of about 10.5 sucrose and 3 of glucose. I have now ready for the centrifugal about 7,800 pounds'of mush sugar. Very respectfully, M. SWENSON. Prof. B. SlLLIMAN, New Haven, Conn. Under date of October 30, Professor Swenson writes as follows:* I expected when I wrote to you last to have all my " first" sugar separated by this time, but the engine I have been using was sold, and I had to rent another, which caused some delay. I have separated only 1,000 pounds. The yield has so far been 45 per cent. of the weight of the sirup. The sugar is of a light-yellow color, and is in every respect of a good quality. The cost will not exceed 5 cents per pound, even on this small experimental scale. I am very sorry that I cannot furnish you with more complete returns. I shall not be able to finish my work until the last of next week. Please remember me with a copy of your report when printed. Very respectfully, M. SWENSON. 5th. Capt. E. BLAKELEY, Faribault Refinery, Minnesota.—Captain Blakeley's experience in the mannfacture of sugar from sorghum has already been referred to, under a former head; we add here his fuller statement of the case, which will be read with interest as a fair exposi- tion of the reasons for a partial success which he very candidly declares to have been a commercial failure, notwithstanding a considerable out- put of good " C" sugar, of which he has supplied the Committee with a liberal sample. SAINT PAUL, MINN., April 18, 1882. DEAR SIR : Some time since I received your circular asking for information on the subject of manufacture of sugar from sorghum. I have been very reluctant to re- spond, for the reason that I did not feel that I had, as yet, much information to give, but after thinking that possibly I had as much or more than any one else upon this subject, I have felt that I ought to make known what I have done, although little has yet been accomplished. In 1879 there was an attempt to build a sugar mill and refinery in this State at Faribault, which, like most new enterprises, wanted the proper machinery and means, to make it a success, and after that season's work the company abandoned the effort. During the winter and spring of 1880 I was induced to take hold of the property, in hopes I might be able to make the effort to make sugar from sorghum a success. Dur- ing the season we made some 15,000 gallons of sirup. The cane was g,rown by persons who had never grown any for making sugar, and was quite inferior and badly handled; still, we made about 5,000 pounds of sugar of very nice quality, a sample of which is sent herewith. This amount of sugar was made from 1,200 gallons of •imp, or a little short of 5 pounds of first sugar from the gallon of sirup. During the season of 1881 we made our arrangements for what we hoped would prove a more complete and successful season, but were nearly or quite as badly dis- appointed as the season before, as the season proved bad for the growth of cane; the harvest was very wet and the cane was nearly ruined before it could be delivered at * See final report from Prof. Swenson, p. 140.

3G SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. the works. Still we again made 7,000 pounds of a nice article of sugar similar to or better than the season before. But we regarded the plan upon which we had pro- ceeded a bad one, and nave suspended operations until we can place our mill upon a. plantation of our own, and grow and harvest our own cane, as our experience for two seasons has convinced us that it is impossible to depend upon the farmers to properly grow and harvest the cane until they have had instruction and have been made to understand that this is the most profitable crop that can be grown in this State. There is no doubt of the success of this industry, and if it can have the fostering care of the Government until it can be established, it will astonish the country. With good cultivation, good land, and skillful manufacturing, an acre of land should pro- duce 1,000 pounds of sugar and 20 bushels of seed. The sugar will be worth in this market, if the present tariff is maintained, 8 cents per pound, and the seed is equal to corn to feed to cattle and hogs. I am thoroughly convinced that this is to be one of the great industries of this country. I am sorry to be compelled to make so poor a showing, but the mill was located in a village of 10,000 inhabitants, and, under the circumstances, it was not possible to make it a success. I shall look for the report of the Academy with the full assurance that it will con- firm all that I have said. . Respectful! v, R. BLAKELEY. Prof. BKN.J. SILLIMAN, Chairman of the Committee of National Academy of Natural Sciences, Ntw Haven, Conn. 6th. Mr. JOHN B. THOMS, of the Crystal Lake Refinery, Chicago, 1ll., in two communications of date April, 10, 1882, to Chairman imparts the results of three years' working on a large scale. He is a practical sugar refiner of eight years' experience in the West Indies. In 1879 with a " miserable mill" he obtained juice of 8£° B. (sp. gr. 1.060), and from a gallon of sirup weighing 11 pounds got a yield of about 4£ pounds to the gallon. He obtained from 15 to 23 gallons of sirup to the ton of cane, weighing 11£ pounds to the gallon, the sirup yielding 4£ pounds sugar polarized 53° of Amber cane, which is the only sort he has worked; has known as high as 21 tons cut to an acre, and states 12 tons as an average. He sold of the crop of 1879 over 50,000 pounds of good " 0 " sugar, which was tested in Boston and New York, and polarized 96 £ per cent. of sugar. In 1880 his crop of about 300 acres was nearly all de- stroyed by a hurricane, and the product of about 30 acres of damaged cane was all made into sirup which polarized only 42 per cent. For many details reference is made to his communications given in the Ap- pendix p. 119. It will be observed that he cites an experiment for the production of sugar from corn-stalks (maize) in 1880, which was a fail- ure, the stalks of sweet corn "in the milk" not furnishing juice enough to pay expenses. 7th. Mr. A. J. RUSSELL, of Janesville, 1ll., writes to the Chairman, of date March 22, that he has obtained in his own practical experience "280 gallons of sirup to an acre of land, and 7£ pounds of sugar per gallon," or 2,100 pounds sugar per acre; very light yellow, and polar- ized 96-i^- per cent. The sirup was of a very light straw color, trans- parent, and free from sorgho flavor, ranking with choice New Orleans molasses. The yield of seed was from 25 to 40 bushels, and sold for 50 cents per bushel as food for stock. In an earlier communication to the Commissioner of Agriculture of date December 28,1881, Mr. Russell states the yield per ton of cane to be from 9 to 20 gallons, and sugar from 1 to 9£ pounds per gallon, varying with the greater or less per- fection of the machinery, processes, &c. But he cites as an average in his experience, 10 tons cane per acre, 14 gallons sirup per ton of cane, 7£ pounds of sugar,per gallon of sirup, 2£ cents per pound as cost of sugar. While, in good growing seasons on good land, he cites from experienced farmers the opinion that the product per acre is 20 tons cane, of 17 gal-

SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. 37 Ions sirup density per ton, and 9£ pounds sugar per gallon. If the manu- facturer purchases the cane from the farmer, the cost of the sugar is put at 3J cents per pound. These letters are in the Appendix, p. 118. . 8th. GEORGE W. CHAPMAN, secretary Eice County Farmers' Club, Kansas, writes of date February 4, 1882, to the honorable Commis- sioner of Agriculture: I worked up last season 75 acres of cane, Amber and Honduras. Amber yielded 9 tons stripped and topped, and the Honduras 33f tons raw stalk to the acre, being the largest yield of cane yet known in Kansas. * * * I made some sirup by an evaporator and it all granulated to a solid. From such a yield of cane as the Honduras here named it is easy to obtain over 3,000 pounds of crystallized sugar to the acre and 100 gal- lons of sirup. (See his letter in Appendix.) 9th. While the sorghum sugar industry is comparatively an unex- plored field, no attempt having been made heretofore in any European country to investigate systematically the conditions requisite for suc- cessful cultivation and utilization of the sorghum cane, the necessity of such investigations is strongly insisted upon by M. Basset, one of the highest French authorities on the sugar industry, who devotes some 32 pages of the third volume of his " Guide Pratique des Fabricant de Sucre" (Paris, 1875) to an impartial discussion of the question of the extraction of sugar from sorghum and maize stalks. On page 217 of the volume in question Basset describes two experiments on canes grown by himself at Paris from which he extracted in the first case 8 per cent.. in the second 11 per ,ceut., of the weight of the canes in crystallized sugar. In the first experiment the defecated and concentrated juice granulated after the first boiling in four days; the second product from the molasses of the first product took a longer time for crystallization. On page 218 the same author expresses himself as follows: Nous croyons done que le sorgho offre un avenir se"rieux & l'industrie sucriere, et que cette plante, susceptible d'entrer avec a vantage dans nos assolements culturaux, est appelle~e a devenir en France un puissant auxiliaire de la betterave. II ne faut pas eongera opposer ces deux ve"ge"taux 1'un a 1'autre; ce eerait uu acte de ve"ritable folie; la betterave est indispensable a notre agriculture, et la prospe"rite" de cette plante est lie"e il celle de la production dn pain, de la viande, de la laine, etc.; ainsi qu'a I'am61ioration du sol, on ne peut songer a supplanter ou a remplacer cette pre"cieuse racine. Cependant, pourquoi rejetterait-on sans exameu se"rieux et sans expe"rimentation, par mauvais vouloiret parti pris, un ve"ge"tal dont la richesse sac- charine peut venir en aide a la production sucriere ? Ce serait evidemment une faute impardonnable, et la fabrication compreudra facilement que c'est a elle a prendre les devants et a entrer dans une voie d'ame"lioration que la culture ne"gligera pendant longtemps si elle ne se sent pas soutenuepar I'iudustrie. 10th. Mr. S. W. JOHNSON, a member of this Committee, states that Messrs. Doolittle and Bartlett, farmers in New Haven County, Con- necticut, have for many years made a successful business on a consid- erable scale in growing sorghum and making melada for the supply of their neighbors in a home market. From this melada Mr. Johnson has prepared the two samples of "C" sugar submitted to the Academy herewith (samples of melada marked X and Y, and of crystallized sugar XX and YY). These results are obtained by open-pan evaporation and without special skill. The only point in which they differ from the practice Of those who have produced chiefly sirup (glucose) without sugnr is that they have permitted the canes to mature. The sirup made by them weighs 11 to 12 pounds per gallon, and crystallizes, on standing, into melada.

38 ' SOJRGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. llth. CLINTON BOZAETH, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in his address before the Cane Growers' Association at Saint Louis, in January, 1882, as quoted. in the Proceedings of that Convention, p. 19, gives in brief his success- ful experiments in the production of sugar and sirup on a large scale for twenty years. Samples of Mr. Bozarth's melada, sirup, and crys- tallized cane sugar are before us. 12th. Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Cane Growers' Association. 8vo., pp. 36. Saint Louis, 1882. This report contains the address of Mr. Bozarth, the above named, and numerous data from various culti- vators, together with a carefully considered address of Prof. W. H. Wiley, of La Fayette, Ind., on adulterations. 13th. Sugar-Canes, and their products, culture, and manufacture. By IssAO A. HEDGES. 12mo., pp. 190,1881. In this revised and enlarged edition of his well-known book, Mr. Hedges, who is a veteran in sor- ghum-sugar production, has brought together a considerable amount of important matter and original data bearing on this subject, which the Committee have consulted with advantage, and to which reference is made for many details of interest in the history of the development of this industry. 14th. JOSEPH S. LOVERING (1857), " Sorghum saccharanum, or Chi- nese Sngar-Cane."—Mr. Lovering's original memoir has become rare. It is, however, reproduced in Mr. Isaac A. Hedges's volume on " Sugar- Canes," pp. 123-140. The experiments of Mr. Lovering are of especial interest as showing how early in this industry many of the important points needful for success in producing sugar from sorghum were clearly recognized and laid down. Mr. Clinton Bozarth, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, whose sugar samples are before us, says, in his late address at Saint Louis, that he has for over twenty years followed the rules laid down by Mr. Lovering with success. Yet so slowly do the most clearly stated principles reproduce themselves in practice that compar- atively few cultivators have followed the example of Mr. Bozarth. 15th. The Jefferson Sugar Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of sugar and sirups from the juice of Cane and Corn Stalks.—The following letter from Mr. Henry Talcott, president of the company named, was written after his visit to the Kio Grande Sugar Works, and is of spe- cial interest from his statements respecting the absence of any ill effects. of frost upon his cane, after repeated sharp freezings. His success with open-pan boiling is also valuable to the small farmer, and his final report after "swinging out" the sugar of his crop will be of general interest. JEFFKRSON, ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO, November 2, 1882. DR. PKTER COLLIER, Chemist, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.: * * * I have been endeavoring to secure a practical method of producing the same results which they have obtained at the Rio Grande Company's works—where I have just been to see for myself—that our farmers could all adopt with small means, and make this industry universal. I think our company can show the world as com- plete success in about four weeks as the Rio Grande have done, on a much smaller and simpler scale. We are now crushing and boiling from 10 to 15 tons of cane stalks daily; have been doing this for four weeks past. Our returns in yield are the same in substance as the Rio Grande, but, unlike them, we have had ten or fifteen good hard, white frosts, some of them hard enough to freeze ice on water thick as window-glass. Our cane was standing in the fields; we are yet cutting it. I had 10 acres of it on my own farm. We see no ill effects from it in our work; we have made just as good a yield of juice; it makes just as good sirup and sugar; and all we have lost, as far as we can discover, is the leaves for our cattle fodder. Mr. G. C. Potts wished me to notify you of this fact on my return home, also to send you some samples of our work. We cook in open pans, by the Stewart process, only much more perfect than

SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. 39 he ever did his work (except in theory). P. C. Knight analyzed our mush sugar and finished sugar yesterday in their refinery, and pronounced it the purest and best sugar they ever saw. The sugar was our "second." This year's stock is still in our hot room granulating slowly, for we dare not cook it dry in open pans, for we are ao liable to scorch it when near done; so we make time and warm room do part of the work. We shall not use our centrifugal until the close of this month; shall then have from 60,000 to 80,000 pounds of mnsh to work over. I shall make as complete and clear report of it to the Department as 1 possibly can; I shall also visit the Champaign Works in Illinois next week, and compare notes with them. I have an invitation to do so, and must see the bottom of this industry so far as it is practically developed. Of course the vacuum pan and animal-bone filter make the refined sugar at once—a specimen of it they sent me yesterday, and I inclose a little of it for you— but this expensive machinery, if it is more profitable, cannot be made to come in gen- eral use. Our farmers must do this work as handy as they can make good butter or cheese, to get them into it in any great numbers. Our factories are learning, many of them, to do the work, and several others are to-day making mnsh sugar at their own molasses factories, while we furnish them solution B and do their centrifugal work. I will send a little sample of sugar we purged yesterday for Mr. P. A. Upp. of Edger- ton, Williams County, Ohio, who made it under our directions, and then brought to the factory to see our works, and with his own eyes see finished sugar of his own make. I guess he was as well pleased with the result as any fond mother could well be with her first-born. He returned home with his sugar, and said he should now go shouting among his own people, for he had accomplished well what his people all said was an impossibility. Yours, respectfully, HENRY TALCOTT. 16th. B. V. RANSOM, of Salem, Nebr., is one among many farmers who has been successful in making both sirup and sugar from sorghum in a small way, and especially he deserves respectful notice for his accurate statements of his observations for 1881 and 1882, the full details of which will be found in the Appendix (p. 125). It is interesting to observe his remarks on the varieties of sorghum which he cultivates, and his mode of manufacture with open boiling and time defecation, by which he has worked out his success in a plain common-sense way. 17th. C. CONRAD JOHNSON, Baltimore, Md., a sugar master of practical experience in San Domingo, W. I., has submitted to the Committee an elaborate statement expressing his views on the subject of sorghums, with reference to the prospective production of sugar from their juices as appears from an examination of Dr. Collier's results. Mr. Johnson's communication appears to the Committee so valuable, in view of his familiarity with the whole subject of sugar production, and the very practical view he takes of the investigation, and of the probable future of this industry, that his letter is presented in full in the Appendix, page 131.

II. CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY. 41