17 



earnestly recommend that all appropriations for field and manufactur- 

 ing experiments in agricultural matters be made to take effect from the 

 1st of January each year instead of the 1st of July. 



POINTS TO BE CONSIDERED IN BUILDING A FACTORY. 



It is of the utmost importance, both for the individuals and the in- 

 dustry, that intending investors in the sugar business should carefully 

 consider the problem presented to them in all its forms. Failure is not 

 only a personal calamity but a public one in that it deters capital from 

 investment in an industry which, properly pursued, gives promise of a 

 fair interest on the money invested. 



Soil and climate. The importance of soil and climate has already 

 been discussed. In the light of present experience it must be con- 

 ceded that a soil and climate similar to those of southern and western 

 Kansas are best suited to the culture of sorghum for sugar-making 

 purposes. Further investigations may show that Texas and Louisiana 

 present equally as favorable conditions, but this yet awaits demonstra- 

 tion. Conditions approximately similar to those mentioned can doubt- 

 less be found in Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and other locali- 

 ties. The expectations which were entertained and positively advocated 

 a few years ago of the establishment of a successful sorghum industry 

 in the great maize fields of the country must now be definitely aban. 

 doued. He who would now advise the building of a sorghum-sugar 

 factory in northern Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, or Wisconsin would either 

 betray his ignorance or his malignity. A season of manufacture, 

 reasonably certain for sixty days, is an essential condition to success in 

 the manufacture of sorghum sugar. Early frosts falling on cane still 

 immature, or a freezing temperature on ripe cane followed by warm 

 weather, are alike fatal to a favorable issue of the attempt to make sugar. 

 Sober and careful men will not be misled by the claims of the enthusi- 

 ast, by the making of a few thousand pounds of sugar in Minnesota, 

 by the graining of whole barrels of molasses in Iowa. Four or five 

 million acres of laud will produce all the sugar this country can con- 

 sume for many years and these acres should be located where the cli- 

 matic conditions are most favorable. During the past season sorghum 

 cane matured as far north as Topeka, but in 1886 the cane crop at Fort 

 Scott was ruined by a heavy frost on the 29th of September, and in 1885 

 a like misfortune happened at Ottawa, Kans., on the 4th of October. 

 These interesting facts show that these points are on the extreme 

 northern limits of safety for sorghum-sugar making, and the region of 

 success will be found to the south and west of them. 



Natural fertility of soil must also be considered as well as favorable 

 climate. The sandy pine lands of North Carolina can not hope to com- 

 pete with the rich prairies of southwestern Kansas and the Indian 

 Territory. Indeed, in my opinion, the last-named locality should it ever 

 be opened to white settlers, is destined to be the great center of the 

 14056 Bull. 20 2 



