( 131) 



the Department of Agriculture a correspondence held with persons 

 owning these supplemental machines, from which the following in- 

 formation has been gathered. The reader will notice how reticent 

 they are about giving the details of the process they employ. It is 

 the fear of competition which influences them to this silence. 



W. Z. Haight, of Winnebago, writes : 



" The early amber is the best variety for sugar making. Select sandy or grav- 

 elly land, and prepare it as for a crop of Indian corn. Sow the seed in drills four 

 feet apart, and cultivate in the same manner as corn is cultivated. When the corn 

 is twenty inches high allow it to take care of itself, as plowing it again would cut 

 the surface roots, and thus injure the quality of the juice. When the seeds are 

 in the dough state begin to cut, first stripping off the leaves and cutting off the 

 heads. Cut it off at the first and last joint. Some allow it to lie after cutting five 

 or six days, while others contend it is best to grind at once. I have never seen any 

 difference, and the range gives more time to get it ground up. My syrup makes 

 about eighty per cent of granulated sugar. It will make good syrup when the 

 seeds are too green to germinate, and it also makes, for me, good syrup when it has 

 been cut and has lain seven weeks. But this is an extreme that should be avoided 

 if possible. If possible to avoid it, it should never lie longer than one week. An 

 ordinary good mill and evaporating pan should make 20,000 gallons syrup in one 

 season. I get my syrup worked into Sugar on the shares, and my sugar will com- 

 pare favorably with any sugar brought from New Orleans. Any farmer can reduce 

 his juice to syrup, leave it in pans to granulate, and by use of a centrifugal convert 

 it into sugar. The centrifugal is a sieve-like box that revolves with great rapidity, 

 and it throws out the molasses, leaving the sugar. There is next to no waste in the 

 syrup, as what does not make sugar will make fine syrup." 



Mr. J. B. Thorns, of Crystal Lake, Illinois, writes : 



" A ton of cane will make twenty gallons of good syrup. This syrup sells for fifty 

 to sixty cents per gallon. Each ton of cane will make one hundred pounds of 

 sugar and eight gallons of syrup. The machinery to work out one hundred tons 

 per day will cost from $1,200 to $1,500. This includes the services of a man to 

 teach the business." 



Mr. C. F. Miller, of Dundas, Bice county, Minnesota, writes: 



Cane machinery is very expensive. First-class machinery, with vacuum pans, 

 centrifugal, bone dust filtererp, etc., etc., will cost $10,000. This will work up a 

 crop of two hundred acres in a season. A machine that will work up a crop of five 

 hundred acres will cost double as much. But it can be used for refining purposes 

 all the year. The business is more remunerative than anything I ever knew of. It 

 will make any man of good judgment rich in a few years. He can make enough 

 in the first season to pay all expenses, and the cost of the machinery. The amber 

 cane is the best. It will make in this climate two hundred and fifty to three hun- 

 dred gallons per acre. I have made four hundred gallons on one acre. Many 

 other varieties are raised here, but amber is the best. The early orange comes oft 

 too late to suit us, but would make a fine successive crop with you in Tennessee." 



