THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 71 



the Other. As an additional precaution against fermenting 

 and sugaring the syrup is carefully tested by a Bohme ther- 

 mometer as it proceeds through the vats. Each of these vats 

 as I have before stated, have their bottoms filled with galva- 

 nized iron steam pipes' and the heat of each vat can be gradu- 

 ated when it is found necessary to increase or decrease the 

 heat. 



"Most of our syrup is sold in barrels, but a good deal goes 

 out in the market in sealed cans. The sealed syrup brings a 

 much better price than the syrup in barrels'. We sold last sea- 

 son the sealed syrup for 50 cents a gallon. Some of the bar- 

 relled syrup sold as low as 28 cents. Our price, therefore, 

 ranged from 28 to 50 cents a gallon." 



WORK FOR A MARKET. 



"How did you get a market for your syrup?" I asked Judge 

 Black. This was thought to be an important question inas- 

 much as the Cane Growers' at their Montgomery meeting, 

 devoted much of their time to its discussion and all of them 

 agreed that the successful marketing of their product was the 

 greatest problem w^hich confronted the cane growers. 



"Well, we didn't sit still and wait for the market to come 

 to us." replied Judge Black, "syrup from Alabama is com- 

 paratively a new sort of merchandise and it needing pushing. 

 We found buyers mostly through correspondence. We wrote 

 many letters in urging our goods upon the merchants and 

 these letters were successful in bringing results in the main. 

 Moreover, my brother and I took the road several times to 

 open up new markets and again we were successful. The let- 

 ters and the personal talks were so effective that we have sold 

 as high as two carloads of barrelled syrup at one time." 



"What sort of yield did you have from your cane fields?" 

 was the next question. 



"Satisfactory, verv satisfactory," replied Judge Black. 

 "We had something over forty-five acres' in cane and we got 

 upwards of 6,000 gallons of syrup. I should say that we av- 

 eraged 360 gallons to the acre. We probaby got an average 

 price of 40 cents a gallon. So, you see, the financial returns 

 from our syrup crop were much better than cotton and alto- 

 gether satisfying." 



"How did vou fertilize?" he was asked. 



