1881.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



167 



WHEAT. 

 Experiments in sowing wheat at different 

 tieptlis, sliow tlie following results. The first 

 column shows the depth seed was sown ; 

 iecond column, the number of days that 

 lai'sed before the plants appeared above the 

 ground : third column, proportion of plants 

 that came up: 

 ^imli, - - - It days, - - - % 



I Inoli, 

 J lutlies, 

 Inuhi-s, 

 Indies, 

 Indus, 

 inches. 



days 

 . 18 days, 



3(1 days, 

 -21 days, 



22 days, 

 ■ 23 days, 



; -^If/"'- i Yaln,» piT 100 

 ' „'*' i Pounds. 

 Matters- 



1 a1 



Wbfat stiaw. 

 Rye. -it raw, 

 Cornstalks, 

 Pea straw. 

 Oat straw, 



11 corn fodder, 

 Gretn oat I'oddcr, 

 Clover in blossom. 

 Peas in blossom, 

 Clnvei- hcl'orc blossom, 

 (ireoii 6or(;liuin, 



Hur 



1 .grass. 



Green ry<^ (odder, 

 Grass before blossom, ' 



Grass in blossom, '■ 



Italian rye grass, I 



Orcliard grass, 

 Timothy grass, \ 



Poor meadow hay, 

 Salt marsh hay. 

 Fresh marsh bay, ripe, ' 

 Fresh marsh hay, cut early. 

 Good meado\v hay, 

 Hungarian hay, ^ 



Good elover hay, 

 Timothy hay. 



Cured rye fodder, , 



Cured pea fodder, cut in 



blossom, " 



Extra good clover bay, 1 



Kooln. 

 Turnips, j 



Mangels, 1 



Field carrots, | 



Rutabagas, | 



Parsnips, ; 



Garden carrots, . 



Sugar beets, ] 



Artichokes, ; 



Potatoes, 



Feodi'ig Sliitr.'i. 

 ■Brewers' grains, ' 



Corn-starch feed. 

 Wheat middlings, I 



Wheat bran. 



Rye bran, ' 



Malt sprout'. 

 Palm-nut meal. 

 Linseed cake meal, ' 



Cotton seed meal. 



THE SOUJtCES OF SUGAR. 

 Mr. Lewis .S. AVare has written, and the 

 well-known publisher, Henry Carey Baird, 

 has issued, a little book of sixty-six pages, "A 

 Study of the Various Sources of Sugar," 

 which is valuable in being an intelligent re- 

 sume of all that is known on this snliject and 

 as containing many valuable hints on a ques- 

 tion that is to-day pressing its claims upon 

 the people of this country as no other agricul- 

 tmal interest has done before. It is simply 

 undeniHblc that tlie sources of our sugar sup- 

 ply is a question of more importance than 

 people are prepared to admit. They have 



never given it half the attention it deserves; 

 the fact is, but a few have ever given it a 

 thought; they have been content that we 

 should import nearly all we need for our 

 wants, and send many millions of money out 

 of tUo country to pay for it. 



The object of this little book is to direct 

 public attention to this question. It is hardly 

 necessary for us to say that our author looks 

 to. the sugar beet as the only means at our 

 command whereby we may produce sugar 

 enough for our own needs and render us inde- 

 pendent of foreign sources of siqjply. The 

 cane, sorghiuns, sugar beet, maph;, cornstalks 

 and watermelons are all taken up in turn 

 and considered, their availability discussed, 

 and judgment upon their several merits pro- 

 nounced. 



Sorghum as one of the sources of our sugar 

 supply, docs not, we think, find fair treatment 

 at the hands of our author. He gives, brief- 

 ly, a history of the long series of experiments 

 that have been made to make it a valuable 

 source of sugar supply. He ridicules the idea 

 that sorghinn can ever become valuable to us 

 for this purpose, even while he admits the ex- 

 periments made with it in Southern Europe 

 are very promising; he also declares sorghum 

 to be a variety of sugar cane, but in the .same 

 breath he says that while the French feared 

 for a time it might prove able to compete with 

 the sugar beet, what nas been tried with it 

 are nothing but " foolisli experiments," and 

 remarks that "it seems strange that we 

 Americans are not willing to avail ourselves 

 of what these people have done, but ."must 

 continue nearly in the same paths, for more 

 than thirty years." To ask Americans to 

 forego the attempt to make sugar out of sor- 

 ghum simply because others have failed of 

 success, and to ridicule them for not giving 

 up tlie attempt, is simply uncalled for. The 

 sugar is there, as our author admits, and be- 

 cause Euroi)eaus have failed to extract it pro- 

 fitably is no reason why we should give over 

 the attempt. It is freely admitted we have 

 thus far not done so, but there is the niore 

 reason we should continue our experiments 

 until they are crowned with success. Follow- 

 ing the same line of argument, we might as 

 well demand that the beet sugar experiment- 

 ers and manufacturers shall quit their un- 

 proQtable experiments, as we believe nothing 

 but pecuniary failure has heretofore attended 

 their efforts in the United States. The sugar 

 is in the beets, just as it is in the sorglium, 

 but werhave not been able to extract it profit- 

 ably; for all that, nobody wants the experi- 

 ment discontinued. We would be sorry to 

 see the numerous experiments that have been 

 made to utilize sorghum as a sourcfe of sugar 

 supply discontinued, and we are not yet ready 

 to admit that the partial failures that have 

 attended them must be accepted as a final 

 Settlement of tiie question. 



Corn suga r, or sugar made from cornstalks, 

 finds still les.s favor from Mr. Ware than the 

 sorghum article, although he admits the sugar 

 is there and c^m be extracted. Still the experi- 

 ments so far made have shown that as a sugar 

 producer corn-stalks are even less to be relied 

 on than sorghum, and therefore may be dis- 

 missed for the present, at least, from our cal- 

 culations in supplying the sugar needs of the 

 country. Sugar from watermelons, from sweet 



and from white potatoes is also con.sidered; 

 but, reiusonably enough, they are not rcgard- 

 eiUof sulficient importance to merit extended 

 discussion. 



When we como down to ma])lc sugar our 

 author is compelled to admit the ine-vorable 

 evidence of facts and acknowledge that large 

 quantities have been and are yearly made; 

 nevertheless, the amount is of necessity limit- 

 ed and can never supply the neeilsof the coun- 

 try. The production has never reiiched lifly 

 millions of pounds in a single year, and seems 

 to bo on ft decline; at all events it must al- 

 way.s prove an insignificant factor in supply- 

 ing the needs of the country. It is to some 

 extent profitable, hut all will admit there is 

 no great future before it. 



Mr. Ware will find few to agree with him 

 in his estimate of the capacity of the South- 

 ern States to grow sugar. In hi.s effort to 

 hold up the sugar beet he is led to imdervalue 

 the cane sugar possibility quite as much as 

 ex-Commissioner T.« Due overrated the sorg- 

 hum and corn-stalk business. Although it is 

 shown by his own tables that 319,005,000 

 pounds were produced in 1870, he is betrayed 

 into saying that while wonders have been ex- 

 pected the results have thus far been so insig- 

 nificant, compared with our total consump- 

 tion, that they hardly de.serve consideration. 

 Now, as it was about one-fifth of the total 

 amount con.sumed in the United States in 

 1870, we think the above statement at once 

 loose and misleading. He doubts " if the 

 lands, for example, of Lousiana will be in a 

 proper state for cane cultivation for himdreds 

 of years to come." We do not care to char- 

 acterize such a statement as it deserves. 

 There is improper cultivation, he alleges; 

 more labor is needed; the cane seed shoidd be 

 imported from other latitudes, and, to crown 

 the whole, he raises the question " whether 

 the temperature of the Southern States is suf- 

 ficiently high or constant for the proper ma- 

 turity of the sugar cane." This, too, after 

 sugar has been largely and profitably grown 

 there for more than a hundred years. 



While fully appreciating all that has ever 

 been said in favor of the introduction of Ijeet 

 sugar growing in this country, and often as 

 we have advocated the new industry, we 

 canuot see the propriety of di.scouraging a 

 policy of honest, faithful eflfort in other direc- 

 tions. We believe the lime will come when 

 we will grow all the sugar we require, and 

 that beet sugar will play a very important 

 part in the sum total ; but we neither believe 

 in the wLsdom of belittling all other products 

 of v\:hich sugar is made, not that the sugar 

 beet is going to send sugar cane, sorghum, 

 and maple trees to the right about so soon as 

 is predicted in this little book, especially as 

 every eflbrt but one made in this country has 

 proved an unprofitable investment. In. the 

 light of the above, and that sugar growing 

 from cane in Louisiana has long l)een a pro- 

 fitable industry, we are not prepared to agree, 

 and fail to be convinced "of the impossibility 

 of the cane, under the best of circum.stances 

 in the South, competing with the sugar beet 

 in the North even by present methods." The 

 only success — and the facts compel us to say 

 it hardly deserves that name— that ha.s at- 

 tended beet-sugar growing in this country has 

 resulted from compelling the farmers to grow 



