154 ANNUAL REPORT 



season he made fifteen barrels of as handsome brown sagar as 

 was ever brought up for exhibition, or as you ever saw. And a 

 barrel of that sugar was sent to Gen. Grant with the compli- 

 ments of the Minnesota Amber Cane Association. 



It has been proved to be a success so far as the manufacture of 

 sugar is concerned. The process by which this result is accom- 

 plished, and the methods to be carried out by which it may be 

 secured, are within the reach of any farmer's boy in Minnesota. 



There is a demand for this product. We are sending out of 

 our country every year a hundred millions of gold dollars to 

 other portions of the world to bring back the sweets that ought 

 to be manufactured here at home — payingthis heavy tax to sup- 

 port others, when we have a soil just as suitable for the produc- 

 tion of cane and sugar, and not only in the cane but in the sugar 

 beet, as any portion of the globe. And why is it that this in- 

 dustry is languishing f 



Permit me to call your attention to two things. In the first 

 place there is the cheap labor of Europe employed in the beet 

 fields there. That is one cause. 



Another cause which is one of the principal hindrances to the 

 manufacture of sugars and syrups here is the manufacture of 

 glucose and its use for the adulteration of all the sweets we have 

 in this country, which has reduced the price at which the syrup 

 can be sold and the cost of the manufacture of it to such an ex- 

 tent that we can not compete with the glucose factories. 



We know just exactly what we can do with Amber cane in 

 Minnesota, and when we have overcome, these two things it will 

 be then a profitable industry in many portions of this country. 



The Sterling Works at Ft. Scott, Kansas, this year have made 

 500,000 pounds of sugar from the cane. They have made about 

 1,000,000 gallons of syrup. They have done this at a profit of 

 about $7.50 an acre, but out of that should come about $2 which 

 the state-pays as a bounty, leaving a net profit to the grower, not 

 counting the seed, of about $5 an acre. 



Now, the industry itself is well established, but there are cer- 

 tain guards we have to throw around it. And the first is to pre- 

 vent the adulteration of this article. Why, gentlemen, you 

 have no conception of the amount of adulteration that is carried 

 on in food products. From the hat you wear on your head to 

 the shoes on your feet this practice is carried on. Your shoes 

 are soled with paper and your hat is covered with shoddy and 

 your clothing is filled with it. And the moment you come to 



