404 SORGHUM. 



ply to settle off the thick substance from these skimmings, running the clear 

 juice into the tanks from the outside inside, and keeping it a time — one year. 

 I want to make good vinegar. 



The President. — How do you reduce that, with water? 



Mr. Poivell. — Don't reduce it at all; just about as it comes from the mill, 

 settlings and skimmings, just let it stand till it works itself down to vinegar. 

 I pump mine up and filter it through straw filters to take out any little parti- 

 cles I have noticed some receipts in the papers; men want to go through a 

 great ceremony; I think that is all wrong. 



The President. — How many gallons of vinegar do you make off sixty acres? 



Mr. Poioell. — In making 7,2G8 gallons of syrup I made 6,000 of vinegar. 

 Those 6,000 gallons of vinegar needed no expense nor labor, except to provide 

 yourself with tanks; the tanks will probablj^be forty-five to fifty dollars apiece. 

 With the exception of a little attention, while doing your other work, you need 

 not take time specially for this, onlj' to see that in transferring from one tank 

 to the other you take out the impurities. I have had some covering put over 

 the tanks, matched flooring, and those tanks have not, frozen only so that I can 

 take a pencil and work it right round the little slush of ice on the top. The 

 mercury indicated 30° below zero before I left home. 



A Member. — Do you sell the vinegar for manufactured cane vinegar? 



Mr. Powell. — I sell it for pure manufactured cane vinegar. 



The President. — How does it compare with other vinegar in price? 



Mr. Puwrll. — As far as price is concerned, I asked, until quite recently, 

 twenty cents a gallon by the barrel. I found it accumulated on my hands, and 

 I put it at sixteen. But I have something that is better for me in the locality 

 where I live. I have 10,000 gallons of better vinegar than you can buy in the 

 city of Chicago. Three years ago I ordered from a large factory in Faribault 

 six large storage tanks, capable of holding about 2,600 gallons each. I am 

 using four of these to run mj' skimmings into- There is a class of skimmings 

 I do not allow to go there, but that that I think is fit I run there, and there I let 

 it stand till I get through with ray other work; and, if it is too late to filter it, 

 then I let it stand till next spring. Then I filter it, open the windows and doors 

 for free circulation of air, and you will have better vinegar than you can buy, 

 I believe. I do not add any water to it. I filter it through a couple of barrels of 

 straw. I believe in simplicity. These highfangled notions, that cost a great 

 deal of money, I am going to repudiate till I know something about them. The 

 barrels are placed one on top of the other, and the juice pumped up and al- 

 lowed to run through them. There is not a particle of any thing in the 10,000 

 gallons but the skimmings; but, in an experimental way, I have taken a gallon 

 or so and dusted in a little sulphur, and I find that it clears it a little. The 

 sample exhibited here was nothing of the kind, however. It was drawn out of 

 a tank containing 2,500 gallons. It commences to ferment in the tank very 

 soon. It freezes in the winter, but that does not hurt it a particle. I do not 

 put the green skimmings into it. I run the green skimmings outside, and they 

 are settled till they will run comparatively clear into the tank, and the other 

 is drawn off. 



