LECTUEES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 345 



man and team to ran the mill and haul the canes from the field to mill was $30. 

 Considering tliat the mill and pan were only run to about one-eighth of their 

 capacity for the season, which was the case, and taking the interest on the 

 capital invested in the mill and pan at the rate of seven per cent, we find the 

 total cost of growing and working up one acre of sorghum to be $45. On this 

 acre were produced 150 gallons of syrup, which, valued at say 50 cents a gal- 

 lon, amounts to $75. The cost of producing this syrup was in this instance 

 exactly thirty cents per gallon. It is claimed by some that it can be produced 

 for a cost not to exceed twenty-five cents a gallon. 



THE CROP OP 18S2. 



One and a quarter acres planted. The history of the cultivation and manu- 

 facture of the sorghum crop of this year is in general a repetition of the 

 preceding narrative. The seed planted was that produced by the previous 

 crop. Side by side with the crop of 1881 was planted an acre of broom-corn, 

 grown with a view to its political importance in the coming fall elections. Its 

 influence was felt, however, at the spring caucus, for when the sorghum plants 

 grown from this seed had got fairly started there were many remarks made 

 about how remarkably it grew, how stocky it was, and how it did shoot up. 

 As the tassels began to form this wonderful growth of stem was explained by 

 a large proportion of the heads showing unmistakable evidence of having felt 

 the baleful influence of broom-corn. In fact about one quarter of the entire 

 acre and a quarter was more broom-corn than sorghum, many of the stalks of 

 this cross reaching to the height of from sixteen to eighteen feet. It was 

 decided not to mingle the two in the process of manufacture, and so far as prac- 

 ticable the stalks showing unmistakable signs of being contaminated with broom- 

 corn were left standing as living testimony to the fact that broom-corn and 

 sorghum cannot be raised in close proximity to each other. 



The processes of manufacture employed were very similar to those used in 

 the former year, the principal defecator being lime, although occasionally 

 this was used in conjunction with sulphate of alumina. The best syrup, that 

 is the one of lightest color and of perhaps best flavor, is the one in which 

 bicarbonate of soda was used alone as the clarifying agent. 



Much of the syrup was boiled down to such a point that when left to stand 

 for a time in a tub, settled into mush sugar, and was ready for the centrifugal 

 without further evaporation in a vacuum pan. The expenses for this year were 

 as follows : 



Planting, rent of land, etc $13 25 



Working up the crop 47 50 



Total expenses _ $60 75 



Two hundred gallons were made at an average cost of thirty cents and a 

 fraction. 



When the experiments in sorghum were commenced it was proposed to first 

 investigate the subject of sorghum syrup and find answers to some such inquiries 

 as these: Can you make sorghum syrup that will not taste grassy? Can an 

 ordinary farmer with the materials which he can usually afford make a good 

 syrup? Can sugar be made in paying quantities by farmers, from sorghum? 

 What is the outlook for growing sorghum — is it going to be a paying industry 

 for farmers to engage in? 



