146 ANNUAL REPORT 



competition that everything seems to be overdone but the Amber 

 cane, and there is a field for supplying this whole Northwest. I 

 will say that I am surprised that the farmers of Minnesota should 

 neglect such an opportunity, and it is because they don't know 

 what they can do. It is a simple matter, and the machinery is al- 

 so so simf»lified for making that it isn't what it used to be on the 

 Cook evaporator, that we couldn't take our eyes off hardly for a 

 minute without burning its contents. Now with a steady steam 

 X^ressure we can make a syrup of the best quality at the rate of a 

 gallon of syrup a minute. I can boil ten gallons of juice a min- 

 ute and produce a gallon of syrup that will weigh eleven and 

 three-quarters pounds to the gallon. 



I hope to see a revival of the sugar cane industry in Minnesota. 

 I know there is money in it ; I find and am more and more con- 

 vinced there is nothing that pays as well. The fact that there 

 is no opposition and not many in the business, shows that this is 

 a field for young men that ought to be explored. There have 

 been several young men at my works this year and some of them 

 staid a day or two to take in the whole details of the business. 

 A man going into this business of course ought to have some 

 previous experience. Probably many of the men here that have 

 some experience, if they knew a little more of the present sys- 

 tem of working, would make a success of it. 



I have brought up samples of my syrup, and if anyone wishes 

 to examine it to know what can be made from Amber cane he 

 can do so. It is pronounced by good judges to be almost equal 

 to maple and the best syrup on the market. 



Out of a crop of 7,000 gallons that I have made the past season 

 it is nearly gone already, and I won't have nearly enough to sup- 

 ply my customers through the year. 



As long as this state of things exists there is an unoccupied 

 field that should have the attention of the young men of Minne- 

 sota. I know that the business is a perfect success, and if there 

 is one that doubts it let him come to my place when the machin- 

 ery can be operated, and it won't take but an hour to convince 

 him that there is a field here in Minnesota that is unoccupied. 



I have been asking Prof. Porter to take hold of this question 

 and have its principles taught at the state experiment station. 

 I think it is something the state should attend to. My idea has 

 been that if the legislature should give us a bounty of five cents 

 on a gallon for a marketable article of syrup, when they are 

 bringing in the glucose syrup by the thousands of barrels, that 



