STATE HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 171 



In the last two or three years there has been as mnch improve- 

 ment in the manufacture of amber cane products as there has 

 been in the new process making flour. This invention was brought 

 out by a practical worker of our Association, Mr. John F. Porter, 

 of Red Wing, Minn. It has, in my opinion, reduced the opera- 

 tion of sugar making in the North to a decided success. 



I manufactured on one of Mr. Porter's copper evaporators the 

 past season more than 6,000 gallons of heavy syrup, weighing 

 from 111 pounds to 12 pounds per gallon. In the manufacture 

 of this crop there were days when a well-defined sugar grain 

 formed in the syrup before it was fairly cold. This evaporator 

 is constructed to boil by steam, and so fast, that no inversion of 

 the sugar takes place, providing suitable cooling facilities are 

 furnished after syrup is finished. Syrup that will weigh 111 

 pounds per gallon at the point that we finish it contains about 236 

 degrees of heat, and tests by the saccharometer while hot about 36 

 degrees, a heat sufficient to melt solder. The rapid work which I 

 was able to do, with several gentlemen to time the amount of syrup 

 per minute, the evaporator produced onegallon per minute of thick 

 syrup; the amount of juice to produce 1 gallon syrup was 7 gallons 

 per minute; the juice averaged 8 degrees saccharometer. I have 

 seen it as high as 11 degrees and not uncommonly 9 degrees. 

 One degree after you go above 8 degrees is more in making sugar 

 than the first 5 degrees. The past season in Minnesota, though 

 producing juice of fine quality, for some reason the saccharine 

 strength was not as great as most other years. I have found 

 that cane blown down before fully matured never attains full 

 saccharine strength. 



• I have also found that a heavy rain on the cane after it is ripe 

 somewhat reduces the saccharine strength. I have been in- 

 formed that the cane grown for the government works at Fort 

 Scott, Kansas, had much of it taken on a second growth. In 

 my experience nothing is more detrimental to success in sugar 

 making than this. I received a sample of sugar from the works 

 at Fort Scott. It w^as a credit to those having charge of the 

 works. There are several reasons why the amber cane indus- 

 try is not making more progress in the Northern states. Glucose 

 is as much a detriment to the amber cane interest in the North 

 as oleomargarine is to the butter interest. If we had a law and 

 a state inspector to test the syrup, and confiscate the products 

 that are sold as "Tennessee Sorghum," that are mixed with 

 from one-half to three-fourths glucose, there would then be a 



