LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 241 



as a manufacturing enterprise, but to consider fully and discuss the question : 

 " Can the ordinary farmer, with the means at his disposal, and with the time and 

 experience which he may have, afford to make or try to make sorghum sugar?" 



In discussing this question, I take it for granted that by saying ordinary 

 farmer, we mean the farmer who has a certain amount of capital, not large by 

 any means, that he has some help besides his own individual exertions, and 

 that he, like the majority, raises a variety of crops. 



Beginning sorghum sugar manufacture without experience, he is almost 

 certain to fail the first year. To produce sorghum sugar steam heat is abso- 

 lutely essential, for with the slight control which a person can have of an open 

 fire the making of any amount of sugar is impossible. Sugar can be made 

 but not with profit. 



He must have then steam heat. After he has got the sugar in the form of 

 mush sugar it must be kept for a day or two in tubs or vats in the crystallizing 

 room, in which the temperature never falls below 70°, and finally the sugar 

 and molasses must be thoroughly separated. At the southern sugar planta- 

 tions this is frequently done by allowing the molasses to drain away through 

 a coarse sieve, but with sorghum a centrifugal is absolutely essential. 



It is apparent then that the essentials for sugar manufacture are steam heat, 

 a warm crystallizing room, a centrifugal, and I may add considerable experi- 

 ence ; for I doubt if any person has ever made sugar without paving the way 

 to final success by failures numerous and extensive. 



Steam heat is expensive, and one who is about to use it can safely double 

 the figures used by a representative of the steam heating company in calcu- 

 lating the actual outlay for boiler, pipes, valves, etc. 



Sugar making then requires three things which most farmers have not: 



First, Experience ; 



Second, Steam heat; 



Third, A centrifugal. 



Being destitute of these essentials, it will not be to his interest or advantage 

 to visit a manufactory to get the experience, and to go to a large outlay for 

 steam and a centrifugal. No ; the sorghum sugar industry must, as it appears 

 at present, be left in the hands of capital sufficient to hire skilled labor and 



ni sh machinery too expensive to be owned by the farmer alone. 



An association of farmers forming a company for the making of sugar 

 would seem the best way in which to bring the farmer and factory nearest 

 together. 



A company organized in this way would seem as likely to be successful as 

 any of our cider and apple jelly factories which are spread over the State. 

 Near the college tliere is now a cider mill, which also works up sorghum 

 brought to it into syrup, and with an increased outlay for boilers, vacuum, pan 

 and centrifugal, could make sugar. 



Cooperation must be employed to produce sugar profitably ; individual 

 farmers can not accomplish it. 



There now seems a new industry opened to the farmer and manufacturer. 

 Analysis of sorghum cane made at the college and elsewhere shows it to con- 

 tain three-fourths as much crystallizable sugar as the southern cane. It can 

 be grown at one-third less cost, for while the southern cane requires constant 

 cultivation and attention for a year, the sorghum only requires three months. 

 The southern cane lias no useful by products like the valuable seed of sorghum. 



It is certainly more difficult to extract the crystallizable sugar from the 



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