240 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Chemical analysis showed the cane (crystal) izable) sugar to be there in pay- 

 ing amount, but iiow to get it out in the crystalline form has been the task 

 which for a long time seemed almost impossible to perform, but the ])ast year 

 and a lialf has seen the erection and successful operation of two extensive 

 sugar manufactories: The Rio Grande Sugar Works, located near Cape May, 

 N. J., and Champaign Sugar Works, located at Champaign, Illinois. 



The Kio Grande Works are located in a country that is so sandy that almost 

 nothing will grow except sorghum. One thousand acres were raised during 

 the past year, and they expect to produce 500,000 pounds of sugar. 



In a letter from a person who had visited the works during the working up 

 of the crop, it is stated that the entire cost of the planting and cultivating of the 

 crop is covered by the sale of seed at 65 cents per bushel. The Kio Grande 

 Company intended to plant 2,000 acres the coming season, and probably will 

 do so, but they were met with an obstacle they themselves produced. Seeing 

 the marked success which the company have had, the land owners in the 

 vicinity immediately raised the price of their sand plains, which heretofore 

 they had been only too glad to part with at a very nominal price, and required 

 the company to pay a round sum as a tariff on success. 



With perhaps greater success has the Champaign Sugar Manufacturing Com- 

 pany closed their first year of operation. Starting vrith a capital of $3Q,000, 

 they raised 250 acres of cane, from which was produced 125,000 pounds of sugar 

 and 22,500 gallons of molasses. The company, after paying all expenses, 

 making an allowance of ten per cent for wear of machinery and buildings, 

 have declared a dividend of eight per cent on the capital, and have $3,000 

 surplus to pay expenses at the opening of another season. They have also 

 increased the capital stock from 130,000 to $50,000. The process of manufac- 

 ture in use by the company, and which they have patented is very simple. 

 The cane juice after being crushed is neutralized with lime, heated to boiling, 

 skimmed, allowed to settle slightly, then drawn off into evaporating pans and 

 reduced down to semi-syrup. It is then filtered through animal chai'coal to 

 clear it, and boiled to mush sugar in a vacuum pan. The mush sugar is 

 shoveled into iron tanks on wheels, called sugar wagons, and conveyed into 

 the crystallizing room, where it is kept from 24 to 48 hours at the temperature 

 of 70° to allow the formation of good sized sugar crystals. It is finally taken 

 to the centrifugal, where the molasses and sugar finally part company, the 

 sugar left behind being in the state of these samples exhibited. It is now 

 ready for market and readily brings 8 cents per pound at the works. 



Besides these two large factories, there are smaller ones in Minnesota and 

 Kansas and elsewhere, scattered throughout the southern, central, and western 

 States^,. 



Like other new enterprises, sugar making from sorghum has many enthusi- 

 astic men, who think and essay to prove that the production of sugar from 

 this plant is the enterprise which excels all others in its value and importance. 

 One devotee feeds his family on flap-jacks made from crushed sorghum seed; 

 another beds his cattle with the dried crushed stalks; and still another stuffs 

 his hired man's bed with the material which possibly makes that individual 

 more anxious to be called early in the morning than is usually the case. 



The seed is valuable as feed for animals, being but little inferior to corn. 

 Paper can and has been made from the refuse begasse, and is quite remarkable 

 for its toughness. 



But we are not here to discuss the question of success of sugar from sorghum 



