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details of the process they employ. It is tHe fear of com- 

 petition 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 

 gravelly 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 cul- 

 tivated. When the corn is twenty inches high allow it to take care of it- 

 self, 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. Bat 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 compare 

 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, Rice county, Minnesota, 

 writes : 



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

 pans, centrifugal, bons dust filterers, etc., etc., will co^t $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 re- 



