REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 159 



In tlie Ohio Valley there has been a tendency to decrease in area of 

 sorghum since 1869, while there has been a i%arked increase in the 

 South and v/est of the Missouri. For fourteen years, ending- with 1875, 

 the average product of sirup in Ohio has been 2,051,005 gallons, a little 

 more than the crop of 1860 ; the average area is 25.868 :icres, and the 

 yield 79.4 gallons of sirup and 1.S9 pounds of sugar per acre. 



As an illustration of the increase in new Western States, the product, 

 in 1875, in Kansas is reported as 2,512,512 gallons; in 1869, by the 

 census returns, 419,400 gallons. The crop of 1875 was produced on 

 23,026 acres : average per acre, 110 gallons. 



Georgia reported the same year 15,905 jvcres, yielding 73 gallons per 

 acre, or 1,161,065 gallons, averaging (JG cents per gallon, and estimated 

 to cost 28 cents per gallon. A larger quantity of sirup is extracted as 

 experience is acquired and processes improved. 



As an estimate for twenty-one years since the introduction of sorghum, 

 11,000,000 gallons of sirup per annum might approximate the product. 

 At an average value of 65 cents, (it is less now,) the value of the annual 

 product would be $7,150,000. The sugar of sorghum is a small item, 

 yet in fourteen years, in Ohio alone, it amounts to 506,000 pounds. In- 

 cluding sugar and forage, th(J annual value must be not less than 

 $8,000,000, and the aggregate value $168,000,000 since its introduction 

 by the Department of Agriculture. 



MAPLE- SUGAR. 



In sections where the rock-maple prevails the manufacture of sugar 

 and sirup from it is a remunerative adjunct to other farming industries. 

 The season of manufacture — beginning where winter ends and ending 

 before the ground is sufficiently thawed and settled for " spring work'* 

 I)roper to begin — occupies a period in which little other farm-work can 

 be pursued. The apparatus for collecting the sap and manufacturing 

 involves a very small investment. The fuel consumed is usually on the 

 ground, consisting of .the i)ruuings of the maple grove, which is bene- 

 fited tbereby; and within a month or six weeks from the time the proc- 

 ess of production begins the farmer i»ay have the cash in hand for his 

 surplus product, and that at a season when he rarely has other cash 

 prodactions to dispose of. 



Vermont has probably given more attention to the development of 

 this industry, and been more on the alert to discover and promptly 

 adopt improved processes of manufacture, than any other State. As a 

 consequence, it has made large relative gains on other States having 

 like resources. Though among the smallest in productive area, at the 

 last census, in the amount of sugar produced, it had outstripped all 

 others, exceeding New York, the next highest, by 2,202,262 pounds. 

 Estimating the product of that season at 10 cents per pound for sugar 

 and $1 per gallon for sirup, the value of the crop would be 8901,453. 

 Except the labor of the ordinary force on the farm, at the most imprac- 

 ticable season for other farm-work, the outgoes are so small, that at least 

 90 per cent of this gross sum is net income, earned, as it were, inciden- 

 tally, while waiting for the frost to come out of the ground. It is not 

 strange, therefore, that the beautiful rock-maple "orchards," which em- 

 bower the declivities and crown the hill-tops of this agricultural State, 

 " are often held at a higher value than other land covered with hard- 

 wood timber or laud under cultivation." 



Maple-sugar production is mainly limited to the States named bdow, 



