136 ANNUAL REPORT 



if cut soon enough, say by September 18th. In boiling seed, water 

 should be hot, then put seed in; it will not burn on kettle then. I 

 have answered your questions as near as possible tShould you wish 

 to see what can be done I will send five gallons in new keg, on cars 

 here, $2.90 My crop is now more than half sold. 



I have jotted down the following additional notes: 



Eleven years ago the present month it was thought by quite a num- 

 ber of persons that the Amber cane industry in Minnesota ought to 

 be encouraged, and to do this successfully required a State organiza- 

 tion. The present condition of the industry is such that we can all 

 work with renewed confidence. The reports from Fort Scott, Kansas, 

 from Rio Grande, N. J., and from our own State, enable us to pre- 

 sent evidence that this State, for quality of syrup and sugar, will com- 

 pare favorably with any other state. 



To give you anything like a report I shall have to refer to my own 

 work. My former factory was made before we had learned the kind of 

 buildings adapted to the wants of the work; so, early last summer, I 

 planned and built four new buildings, with special reference for hav- 

 ing everything in the right place. The results have proved it a pay- 

 ing investment. 



The boiler capacity of the works is ninety-six horse power, the 

 engine sixteen horse power. (This might seem to some out of propor- 

 tion, but it was just right.) I run two cane mills, that furnished 

 about ten gallons of juice per minute. The juice was elevated by 

 pumps to two settling tanks, of three hundred gallons each, filling 

 first one and then the other. As soon as I began to fill a tank I put 

 into the juice about one-half the lime required for a good defication. 

 The object was to prevent the acids which come from the joints and 

 sheaths from inverting the sugar. 



This is in keeping with the work at Fort Scott, except that they 

 placed the lime on the sliced cane. 1 have practiced this for many 

 years, and think cane juice ought not to stand without being treated 

 with lime. As we fill one of these tanks in thirty minutes we then 

 commence to fill the other, so that when the juice is drawn into the 

 deficators it has not usually stood more than thirty minutes to settle 

 before going into the deficators. It goes from the tanks to the defica- 

 tors. These are wooden boxes, 2^ feet wide, 2f feet deep and 6i feet 

 long, lined with copper. They each have a coil of two-inch pipe, 

 fifty feet in length if straightened, which fill with steam and are pro- 

 vided with tight-fitting steam joints, so that by loosing two set- 

 screws they can be taken out and quickly cleaned; and when kept in 



