250 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Col. Warner. The syrup that was raised a few years ago 

 was manufactured out of old-fashioned sorghum. The reason 

 that it went into disrepute so extensively over the country, 

 I think, was that there was a little acidity to the syrup. 

 I have raised it extensively. They could not do without it in 

 the South. In Tennessee and Kentucky, and in the Gulf 

 States, they raise an immense amount of it. When they had 

 negroes, they raised it for them. They do not mind that pe- 

 culiar taste, but the educated taste of the northern people will 

 not tolerate that acidity. 



Mr. Powers. What I have used is made by Brown & Utley, 

 in Columbia. We all have to go there. 



Mr. Yeomans. I imagine that one reason why my friend 

 has had such good success with his sorghum is because he took 

 it to a good town to be manufactured. Now, in regard to the 

 matter of sorghum, and the peculiar acidity that is spoken of 

 after the syrup is manufactured, if you will go to Messrs. 

 Brown & Utley, they will tell you that it is not properly manu- 

 factured. When they first commenced the manufacture they 

 did not understand it, and the article they produced was not 

 as good as it is at present. I am not speaking now from per- 

 sonal knowledge of the matter of raising this crop, because I 

 have not raised it myself, but I know the facts in regard to 

 it, because I have had a great deal of conversation with them, 

 and I understand that as they have had more experience in the 

 manufacture, they have been able to overcome this trouble, 

 and they say it was because it was not in the first instance 

 properly " cooked," as they put it. Now they have no trouble. 

 All kinds of ^ sorghum are raised there ; it is not the Min- 

 nesota amber alone. The old-fashioned plant (I don't know 

 what they call it), with a large stalk, is still raised there, and 

 they manufacture it into syrup, and that syrup is good, and it 

 keeps well. So far as raising it is concerned, I imagine that 

 the gentleman who said, " none for me," was one who never 

 raised it, and knew very little about it. A great many of the 

 farmers of Columbia do not raise it for the purpose of making 

 it an article of commerce of any importance, but they raise it 



