(129) 



Large quantities have been and are being made from Indian corn 

 stalks. This department would not recommend the erection of 

 machines for that purpose, but where they exist, and cane is 

 stripped of its corn for roasting ears in market gardens, the stalks 

 could be utilized in this manner rather than left to dry up. It 

 does not make so much syrup or sugar as sorghum, but it is as 

 good. 



Capt. Blakeley has submitted specimens of sugar and syrup to 

 the Merchants' Exchange of Minneapolis, and they speak of it in 

 the highest terms as being equal in every respect to the sugar and 

 syrup of commerce. It was then submitted to the polariscope, and 

 it showed the presence of ninety- eight per cent of sucrose, or true 

 sugar. 



From repeated experiments made by the Minnesota refinery, and 

 by the Commissioner of Agriculture at Washington, it costs about 

 two cents to make a pound of sugar. Take the price of ten to 

 twelve cents, its present value, and the profit is apparent. 



Not only does this new process add sugar to the country, but 

 pure syrup, a thing much rarer. Millions of gallons of adulterated 

 honey are sold every year, as well as other impure syrups. By this 

 refining process pure syrups of delightful flavor are made so cheaply 

 they can undersell even the adulterations so common in all stores. 

 The United States make 315,000,000 gallons of syrups from 

 sorghum and Louisiana cane, while the country consumes twice 

 that amount. It has its growth in the laboratories of the adultera- 

 tor, instead of the sugar mills of the country. It will add no little 

 to the healthfulness of the people when this vile trade is arrested, 

 which can only be done by making a pure syrup that will undersell 

 the fabricated article. Sorghum presents the only solution to this 

 difficulty, and it is to be hoped the time is not far distant when it 

 will be accomplished. It will require a large increase in the culti- 

 vation of cane. If the erection of mills has the same effect in 

 Tennessee as it had in Minnesota, the increase in the amount grown 

 will be enormous. It will be the same here, doubtless, as there 

 are large amounts of land devoted to products that often fail, such 

 as cotton, tobacco, and wheat. Sorghum never fails. When it 

 gets a start it will grow with or without care. 



The farmers of Minnesota grow^arly amber to the exclusion of 

 all other varieties, and they think no other kind will succeed ; but 

 9 



