TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 



35 



A NEW USE FOR CORN STALKS. 



The American people are accustomed to surprises. 

 Perhaps it would be more nearly correct to say that 

 the American people can scarcely be surprised. New 

 and wonderful achievements succeed each other so 

 rapidly, and the improbable of yesterday so readily 

 becomes the common-place of to-day, that we are pre- 

 pared for almost anything. Experiments lately made 

 by Mr. F. L. Stewart, seem to point to a revolution in 

 sugar-making, although it may be that obstacles not 

 yet encountered will finally intervene to dwarf or pos- 

 sibly destroy the apparent importance of his discover- 

 ies. It is nothing less than a method of making a 

 merchantable article of sugar from common corn- 

 stalks. The corn is grown as usual until the grain has 

 arrived at the "milk" stage, then the ears are stripped 

 oflE and the stalks allowed to stand a certain length of 

 time when it is found that the amount of sucrose in 

 them is doubled. 



It is confidently asserted by Mr. Stewart that corn 

 thus treated will bear as high a percentage of sucrose 

 as the sugar beet and, as is well known to all farmers, 

 may be produced at a small cost probably one-half 

 or one-third that of the sugar beet. It will be seen 

 that the ears are to be plucked at the time when they 

 are most palatable as well as nutritious, and that there 

 need be no waste in that respect if the corn be utilized 

 to fatten stock. It is believed too, that the bagasse or 

 crushed stalks may also be used as stock feed to a con- 

 siderable extent, so that there will be but little waste 

 of any sort, while the sugar extracted would prove a 

 large gain to the farmer. While the IRRIGATION AGE 

 cannot assure its readers at this time that these dis- 

 coveries of Mr. Stewart will necessarily lead to the 

 wonderful results predicted by the enthusiastic exper- 

 imenter, yet a short review of the situation, showing 

 the enormous opportunity for a possible industry of 

 this kind, may not be out of place. 



While the people of the United States do not con- 

 sume as much sugar, per capita, as do those of one 

 or two other countries, yet they consume, in the aggre- 

 gate, about one-half of all the sugar produced on the 

 earth. For the calendar year 1892, our imports of 

 sugar and molasses amounted to $108,053,167; and for 

 the fiscal year ending with June, 1893, the value of 

 sugar imports reached the stupendous sum of $116,- 

 947,430, of which $12,846,509 represents value of the 

 beet sugar brought in from other countries. 



While the area of land capable of producing the 

 sugar beet with a profit is very large in the arid zone, 

 and with the present stimulus of government bounty 

 might soon be made to meet a large part of our sugar 

 demand, yet should the bounty be discontinued aa 

 proposed, the industry might not be able to expand. 

 With this contingency in view it is timely that exper- 

 iments be made with other crops, as above indicated. 



A crop that is of the greatest advantage as forage, 

 which yields sugar in commercial quantities besides, 

 must be regarded as of the utmost value. 



Sugar beets in Nebraska and California yielding 

 about 12 per cent, sucrose bring, at the factory, from 

 $4 to $4.50 per ton with a certain bonus for each one per 

 cent, of sucrose above 12. The average being somewhat 

 above the standard, the beets grown the present year 

 have averaged somewhere near $4.50 per ton, though 

 at the Watsonville factory in California the price 

 has been uniformly $5 per ton for select beets. In 

 suitable locations the cultivation of beet roots at these 

 prices has been found to be a profitable business, and 

 lately several hundred acres of land were sold to 

 tenant beet farmers, at Chino, Cal., at prices averaging 

 $150 per acre. It is presumable that the men who 

 bought the land knew its worth, having raised one or 

 two crops of beets on it before purchasing. 



If then, good beet land is worth $150 per acre, good 

 corn land should be valuable if any sugar-making 

 enterprise in connection with corn culture shall be 

 perfected. 



That the United States should depend upon foreign 

 countries for seven-eighths of the sugar consumed ia 

 scarcely creditable to our industry and ingenuity, and 

 the stimulation of home production of that necessary 

 of life should be urged by every proper means. 



Cannot we in some measure account for the present 

 hard times when we reflect that the American coffee 

 cup, to say nothing of the cream used, cost us for the 

 year ending with June last, the sum of $257,240,167. 



A NEW WEIR SYSTEM. 



Southern California has been the field of many im- 

 provements in irrigation appliances. A fruitful source 

 of trouble has been the lack of an equitable plan for 

 dividing the water among the parties entitled thereto. 

 In nearly every irrigation canal the conditions are 

 identical, to-wit: A certain amount of water to be 

 divided in varying proportions among a certain num- 

 ber of irrigators. In nearly every instance consumers 

 are expected to bear their proportion of loss by seep- 

 age and evaporation between the head of the main 

 canal and their respective gates. This loss is a vary- 

 ing one, being so great on a hot day that if each gate 

 is set to take its quota without shrinkage, the man at 

 end of the system seldom has enough to drink. 



The West Highlands Water Company in San Ber- 

 nardino county, Cal., is putting in a system of weirs 

 which will completely avoid this difficulty. Their 

 main ditch is one mile in length with six lateral 

 branches each the same length. At the head of the 

 first lateral the ditch expands into a large cemented 

 basin having two outlets, one opening into the main, 

 the other into the lateral. In each opening is set an 

 iron gate of ample width and height and having a 



