THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 25 



was raised. This syrup was sold to the trade at 50 cents a 

 gallon. These figures mean that Mr. Smith received as a gross 

 total $330 an acre from his sugar cane. 



Nineteen miles from Fairhope Dr. J. H. Foley, on his model 

 farm, near Magnolia vSprings, has gone extensively into the 

 same sort of farming. Dr. Foley has twenty-one acres in cane. 

 Having a larger field Dr. Foley did not use as much fertilizer 

 or employ such intensive methods of farming as did Mr. 

 Smith. Yet from each of his twenty-one acres Dr. Foley is 

 now securing 600 gallons of syrup. This syrup is being packed 

 in air tight cans' and shipped to Chicago in car load lots. Dr. 

 Foley has sold his entire crop to Chicago dealers for 50 cents 

 a gallon. 



The soil is sandy, with a clay subsoil. It is the same sort 

 of soil as thousands and thousands of other acres' in the pine 

 belt of Alabama, a soil that is rich but not extraordinarily so, 

 but which has the firmness necessary to its building up by the 

 use of fertilizer. 



MODERN AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS. 



The richness of these returns' from Baldwin county sugar 

 cane fields is no doubt due to the use of a modern steam mil) 

 and evaporating plant. The mill which is owned by Mr. Smith 

 is similar to the five-roller mills of the Louisiana cane fields. 

 This mill in the first place, extracts from the cane about 20 

 per cent more juice than does the old-fashioned cane mill whose 

 motive power is' a mule traveling around and around in a cir- 

 cle. This alone gives an increase of one-fifth to each acre, as 

 compared with the old method. 



A fine description of the principles, the use and the advan- 

 tages of this steam mill is furnished by Professor B. B. Ross, 

 the State Chemist. Professor Ross superintended the instal- 

 lation of the mill. He went to Fairhope and assisted in the 

 adjustment of the machinery and watched the firs't run of 

 syrup. 



In speaking of the machinery of Mr. Smith's cane farm Pro- 

 fessor Ross says : 



"I was at Mr. Smith's place during a portion of the time 

 in which the syrup making apparatus was being installed and 

 I looked after a portion of the evaporating apparatus during 



