STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 137 



good condition will heat three hundred gallons of juice in fifteen min- 

 utes, or about one-half the time it takes to grind the corn for that 

 quantity. In these deficators the rest of the lime is added as soon as 

 they are filled. It is then heated nearly to the boiling point, when 

 the steam is shut off, and the thick blanket of vegetable matter re- 

 moved. It is then allowed to remain quiet to settle the heavier por- 

 tions which do not raise to the top. This juice is next run into a six- 

 hundred gallon tank, and stored ready for the evaporators. 



This storage tank holds the entire contents of the two deficators, and 

 will last the evaporators one hour. I have mentioned this treatment 

 of the juice before boiling. It comes to the evaporator nearly as clear 

 as spring water, with the fodder taste taken out, which, for making 

 first quality syrup, is absolutely necessary. Now we come to the 

 evaporators, two of Porter's No. 3. They will boil six hundred gal- 

 lons per hour into heavy syrup. I only use one at a time. Their ca- 

 pacity is from sixty to ninety gallons per hour of syrup, in proportion 

 to the richness of the juice. The advantage of having two evapora 

 tors is in cleaning the pipes, which are of copper. We can change 

 from one evaporator to the other without delay, which is all important 

 when we consider ten minutes represents one hundred gallons of juice 

 and the time of seven or eight men. I could say everything for this 

 evaporator, for I owe my success in this business to it, and if I had 

 twenty car loads of syrup I could sell it all at good prices. The busi- 

 ness is now reduced to a perfect system, and both sugar and the finest 

 syrnp that is made is made with these evaporators. 



We have brought samples of 8,000 gallons. I think the entire crop 

 would give four pounds of sugar per gallon, and I feel that I can de- 

 pend on the results with certainty. The seed almost pays the cost 

 of cultivation. The work bj^ steam requires much less fuel than by 

 the old way of boiling. The demand for the syrup grows better. The 

 past year we dried the crushed stalks, and all kinds of stock do well 

 on them, eating them in preference to wild hay, I learn that most of 

 the syrup, as madeby the farmers, was bought up at from 25 to 30 cents 

 per gallon, shipoed to Chicago to sweeten glucose, sent back and sold 

 to a wholesale house at about 30 cents, and retailed at from 50 to 60 

 cents. 



There ought to be good cane works in every county to supply the 

 home demand for syrup and sugar. It is a direct home trade. It 

 saves transportation, and barrels of it can be exchanged for any kind 

 of groceries. People will buy the pure article. I do not care for the 

 glucose. 



