Sorghum Sugar Reviewed. 



The Rural New Yorker givea an outline of a 

 bnlletin recently issued by Prof. H. W. Wiley, 

 Chemist of the Department of Agriculture, in 

 which he gives many forcible reasons for his be- 

 lief that with our present knowledge, methods 

 and appliances the making of sorghum sugar is 

 not only unprofitable, but must entail a loss, 

 unless this is made good by national or State 

 bounty. He gives a thorough review of all the 

 chemical analysis of sorghum and of the history 

 of the industry from the first three small vials 

 of sorghum sugar made by Dr. Battey of Rome, 

 Ga., in 1S54, to the results of last season's work 

 at Fort Scott, Kansas. In 1SS2 the Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture made an award of $12,000 

 to concerns making sorghum sugar. The fol- 

 lowing parties started experiments to gain a 

 part of the award : The Champaign Sugar and 

 Glucose Manufacturing Company of Champaign, 

 111.; Professor Magnus Swenson; Paul Steck, 

 San Francisco, Cal.; Nelson Maltby, Geneva, 

 Ohio; Drummond Bros., Warrensburg, Mo.; A. 

 J. Decker, Fond du Lac, Wis.; William Frazier, 

 Eaopia, Vernon county. Wis.; Jefferson Sugar 

 Company, Jefferson, Ohio; Oak Hill Rsfining 

 Company, Edwardsville, III. ; C. Bozareth, 

 Cedar Falls, Iowa. The two last made little or 

 nothing, and, therefore, were counted out. The 

 eight others made an aggregate of 116,165 5 

 pounds, so that the amount of premium or 

 bounty given was as high as nearly 9.8 cents 

 per pound. 



The following failures to make sorghum sugar 

 upon a commercial scale are reported : At 

 Crystal Lake and Hoopeston, near Chicago, 

 factories were built in 1S79 and ISSO, but the 

 attempts to make sugar were total failures, and 

 the factories have been abandoned and dis- 

 mantled. In 1S79 a factory was built at Fari- 

 bault, Minn., but the manufacture of sugar was 

 unprofitable, and the factory closed in 1SS2. 

 A large factory was built at Champaign, 111, 

 in 1SS2, and several hundred thousand pounds 

 of white sugar were made in that and the two 

 following seasons, but the enterprise did not 

 pay and the factory was abandoned. The 

 factory at Hutchinson, Kan., was built in 1SS2. 

 In 1SS3 and 1SS4, in all, 450,000 pounds of 

 sugar were made at a loss. The factory was 

 i then abandoned. A sugar-mill was established 



at Sterling, Kan., in 1SS2, but after making 

 270,000 pounds of sugar in 1SS3 and 1884 the 

 business was abandoned as unprofitable. A 

 factory established at Franklin, Tenn., was op- 

 erated in 18S.3-4 without the production of any 

 sugar, and, of course, abandoned. At Ottawa, 

 Kan., a large glucose factory was converted 

 into a sorghum sugar factory. Sugar was made 

 in considerable quantities in 1SS4 and 1SS5, and 

 the house was then closed, the business having 

 resulted in a financial loss. 



The professor next gives a number of figures 

 showing the analysis of and the quantity of 

 sugar extractable from sorghum cane by the 

 best modern method. These appear to show 

 beyond any question that the failure to make 

 sorghum sugar profitably in this country has 

 not been due alone to defective machinery nor 

 lack of skill, but chiefly to the quality of the 

 cane which has been used. 



While the worker in sugar-cane and sugar- 

 beets is reasonably sure of his material — that it 

 will remain the same during the season — the 

 sorghum-sngar maker has no such assurance. 

 The same variety of cane, in the same degree of 

 maturity, will show the most surprising differ- 

 ences in the sugar contents of its sap. The pro- 

 fessor is very severe on the "sorghum enthusi- 

 ast " and the " sorghum crank," who have been 

 glowingly portraying the glorious future of sor- 

 ghum, extolling it "as the one great savior of 

 the country, furnishing alike its bread, its 

 sweets, its meats, and its drinks." The pro- 

 fessor thinks hope for the business is not in 

 new methods or new machinery; but in wise se- 

 lection of seed, intensive culture, and judicious 

 fertilization, which are the factors that can make 

 the sorghum sufficiently saccharifacient. The 

 factory at Rio Grande, N. J., had the most ex- 

 tensive and thoroughly equipped sorghum-sugar 

 house ever built in the United States. Of it 

 Professor Wiley says: "For five successive 

 seasons, from 1882, it was conducted with the 

 highest skill. With the aid of a State bounty of 

 $1 per ton for the cane and one cent a pound for 

 the sugar, the company was able to hold to- 



I gether financially. With the close of 1886 the 

 State bounty expired and the factory has now 



' been closed and dismantled, since it could only 

 be run at a loss without the bounty. In all, near- 

 ly 1,500,000 pounds of sugar have been made 

 by this company." At the present time there 

 remains only one sorghum-sugar factory on a 

 large scale in the country, namely, that at Fort 

 Scott, Kansas. One is building at Topeka and 

 one at Conway Springs, Kansas. Colonel Cun- 

 ningham, Sugar Lands, Texas, is also preparing 

 to make sorghum sugar in connection with the 

 sugar-cane. 



