248 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



northern cane. When it is considered that this industry is in its infancy, 

 when it is remembered that the southern sugar industry, in its first inception, 

 languished for long and anxious years, and at times threatened to baffle the 

 efforts of the most skillful, the result is certainly very flattering for the cane 

 of the north. 



But I feel that the past unpropitious season has fallen like a wet blanket 

 upon this young and undeveloped industry. In the more northern States it 

 has proved a sad failure, and many who were its former advocates will now be 

 dumb with disappointment. And right here I wish distinctly to say, it is no 

 purpose of mine to advise my northern neighbors to rush hastily into this new 

 business. On the contrary, I would say to all, go slow, feel your way, and be 

 careful. Let all first experiments be on a small scale, but let them be care- 

 fully managed. Give the business a fair show; give your experiments the 

 benefit of good ground and good tillage, and study as you proceed. Of 

 course you will make some blunders ; but bear in mind our best lessons are 

 derived from adversity. Did not our great national crop of Indian corn fare 

 just as badly as the northern cane? How many of you will abandon it for 

 that reason? How many of my brother farmers have resolved to run their 

 farms without the indispensable corn field? If there were one I am certain 

 he would be considered a fit subject for an insane asylum. And still you must 

 remember that the corn crop has the advantage of long years of experience, 

 while cane culture in the north is anew industi-y. But right here in Tuscola 

 county several parties have embarked in it, and all have met with a measur 

 of success ; and vrhere failure has attended their efforts it was not always th 

 fault of our high north latitude. Want of means has sometimes been the 

 cause, and still of tener want of knowledge and professional skill. 



Time will remedy these last difficulties, and acclimation will do much 

 towards remedying the former. But while the results in this latitude will 

 always be of but local importance, it is to the southwest that I look for the 

 sugar industry to assume iis great national importance. We have already 

 shown that the State of Kansas alone, in 1882, produced over six million 

 gallons of syrup from the northern cane, having nearly doubled its quantity 

 since the last previous year. Think of it for a moment. Kansas alone is 

 capable of supplying this great national want, and yet not materially interfer- 

 ing with her great staple, corn. Take her crop of 1882, which was then $2,781,- 

 459, and let it be doubled once in three years for six periods, and in eighteen 

 years we have attained the gross sum of $178,013,376. Now, if any man 

 thinks that Kansas has not room for this vast achievement let him make the 

 computation for himself. He will find that with a breadth of 200 miles and a 

 length of near 350, and a production of $40 per acre, it would only require 

 about one acre in twenty of that giant young State. I cite Kansas for two 

 reasons : first, she has already placed herself foremost in the production of 

 this commodity, and second, because her silicious soil and arid climate seem 

 to be just what is required for the most perfect development of the northern 

 cane. But these natural qualities are not confined to Kansas alone. From 

 the mountains of Missouri to the Colorado hills, and from middle Texas to 

 northern Nebraska the same state of facts in a great measure exists. Who, 

 then, says that we cannot emancipate ourselves from this annual drain of a 

 hundred millions in the purchase of sweets for the American table? We have 

 shown that one state of this American union is capable, not only of stopping 

 this vast outlay, but of bringing back the same hundred millions per annum 

 in less than twenty years. 



