170 ANNUAL REPORT. 



Gen. Le Due. lu regard to the burning of bagasse. If you 

 have a machine that will split the cane and get the juice all out, 

 and have a good chimney of brick, you will be able to feed the 

 bagasse directly to the flames so that it will be practicable to 

 run your furnace. There is no doubt of that; I have seen it 

 done and have done it myself. The great question before U8 

 here now, and before those who have assembled year by year to 

 discuss sorghum matters is, I think, what shall we do to make 

 some money out of the sorghum f That is the i^ractical question 

 that lies at the foundation of all the interest that we take in it. 

 But there is a broader question than that and one that lies at the 

 foundation, and that is what shall we do in order to produce in 

 this country everything that can be produced by American far- 

 mers, rather than to use those things that come from abroad, 

 produced by some other country ? We will surely profit by this. 

 Even if we seem to be making no money, still if we work within 

 ourselves to supply our own needs we as a country are making 

 money out of that. This was a question which came to me in 

 my ofiticial position: How can this country save to its people 

 that great amount of money which is flowing away to other 

 countries? 



In that country that I told you about I had a good deal of com- 

 munication with the people. I was in the country that Prof. 

 Porter has told you about. I had with me a sample of Minne- 

 sota amber cane sugar. I had a bottle of syrup made by Mr. 

 Kenney, and after they had gotten through with their congratu- 

 lations we fell into a discussion. They said, ^ ' This is open pan 

 work?" I told them, ^' Yes, I believe it is." "I suppose it was 

 some that was made in Texas or in Georgia?" '^No, it was not 

 made in Georgia." "Where was it made? It was not made of 

 cane?" "No; it was made out of a kind of cane; it was made 

 in Minnesota." There were there twelve gentlemen at the time; 

 men who had spent their lives at the business, and some of them 

 who had fortunes of $250,000 each, perhaps, invested in sugar 

 mills. They looked at it again and again and they said, "It 

 cannot be jiossible tliat you are telling us the truth !" "Yes," 

 I said, "that was made in Minnesota, and it was made by a far- 

 mer, and it was made in open pans." "Well, by the gods!" 

 said one of them, "we are done, boys, we may as well stop !" 

 and they sat down and stopped and looked, as much as to say, 

 ' ' these Yankees up North are going to beat us to death ! " They 

 knew the kind of labor we have to do our work and that they 



