HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 145 



1 can now say it has passed the experimental stage. From what 

 I can see and what others can taste, it may be considered an in- 

 dustry that is well defined, and the machinery for making it is a 

 perfect success. Two hundred gallons of syrup, worth at whole- 

 sale forty-five cents a gallon, is not an uncommon thing with 

 men that have the latest and most improved machinery. You 

 all know that the product of the cane grown here in Minnesota 

 is something you never need to be afraid of. The stocks of syr- 

 ups kept on hand by our dealers have been glucosed to death, if 

 I may say so. They are pronounced by the state board of health 

 as unhealthy, and although beautiful in appearance, are unfit to 

 use on our tables. 



I am looking for and expect to see a great revival in the Am- 

 ber Cane industry. It has been tried for a good many years; peo- 

 ple have worked along with no experience and without anyone 

 to guide them; the business has had to be worked up, and I have 

 brought up samples from year to year, and have worked at it 

 right along for thirty years, and I have more confidence to-day 

 in the industry than I ever had before, especially for Minnesota. 

 I find after inquiries among cane growers from various sections 

 of the country, that a man can make syrup here and give away 

 one-half of it for making, and still have twenty more gallons to 

 the aicre than they can in states further south. Eighty gallons 

 to the acre as a rule is an average yield for Mississippi, Louisi- 

 ana, North and South Carolina and Arkansas. I saw representa- 

 tive men from those states at New Orleans, and they gave as an 

 estimate eighty gallons to the acre as an average yield; while we 

 frequently get two hundred. I got last year from two acres and 

 a half of ground, five hundred gallons of syrup that weighed 

 eleven and three-quarter pounds to the gallon. 



I consider Porter's steam evaporator ahead of any vacuum pan 

 that costs thousands of dollars. This reduces the juice by means 

 of steam. A great many people are using steam from the boilers 

 of their threshing machines to boil their syrups. Porter and 

 Densmore make machines of all sizes, and are well able to fit out 

 us farmers. They also have the tools for clarifying and making 

 the syrup. 



I don't know what you think, but I think it is a perfect shame 

 that the states below us should send up their grain in the shape 

 they do, in syrups mixed with acids and unhealthy things, 

 when we can raise two hundred gallons of beautiful syrup to the 

 ^cre. In the farmer's occupation there seems to be so much 

 Vol. IV— 19. 



