97 



boiling twice to raise tbo figures to 7 pounds. Last year we got 6 pounds in every 12, 

 with two boilings, from some of tbe best cane. If we do not succeed in getting more 

 than 6 pounds per gallon, we will have from the above figures 16,625 pounds sugar. 

 This would bo nearly 90 pounds sugar per ton of cane, and about 700 pounds per anv 

 of land. We feel assured of this much from the yield of that already separated ; but 

 we hope to obtain an average of 7 pounds per gallon from all of the cane worked for 

 sugar during the present season. If cane had fully matured we should not want to 

 stop with less than 8 pounds per gallon. 



The weather, as usual, was bad : 



The last two seasons have been the most disheartening ones for developing this new 

 industry that our country has seen for years. 1 



(0) REPORT OF THE OAK HILL REFINING COMPANY, ED WARDS VILLE, 



ILL. 2 



The report says : 3 



And now we must state plainly that we have not manufactured sugar on a business 

 scale this season. That is, wo have simply made a small quantity as samples of our 

 work, and contented ourselves with turning out the greater part of our products as 

 sirup. We did this for several reasons. 



In the first place, during the two previous years the juice, at its best (and seldom 

 so), had been on the ragged edge ; that is, scarcely enough sugar to crystallize under 

 the most favorable circumstances. In 1880-'81 the best "quotient of purity" (i. e., 

 polarization divided by solid contents) was about equal to the lowest boilings in a 

 sugar refinery, where a vacuum pan is needed, and three weeks' storage in a "hot 

 room " to insure a yield of 25 per cent, in sugar, and afterwards a bone-black filtration 

 to give the sirup a salable color. In 1881-'82 the cane, if anything, was poorer; \vo 

 had fine-looking ripe cane, the stalks of which were sticky with exuded juice; it had 

 been in the society of the chinch-bug, and the juice polarized from 1 to 2 per cent. 

 This year the chinch-bug had been hard at work improving the time as far as possi- 

 ble, and wo knew what to expect. 



As to the weather, etc., the report says : 4 



The past three years the chinch-bugs have been very troublesome in this section. 

 They have done great damage to the cane crop, especially severe in dry seasons, as 

 the past three have been. 



(10) REPORT OF 0. BOZARTH, CEDAR FALLS, IOWA. 5 



Mr. Bozarth introduces his report as follows: 6 



I want to preface by stating that I have been in tho business twenty-four years, 

 and this has been the worst year for cane that we have had for sixteen years. We 

 had a very cold, wet, backward spring. Tho cane was four weeks coming np, after 

 which there were a number of hard frosts, the weather continuing cold and Tfot up to 

 July, which so delayed the crop that it was not much past tho bloom when frost came 

 again on tho 22d of September, leaving the cane poor in sweetness and weight, both 

 marking only b' to 8 Baume" and averaging not more than 7. I have made but lit- 

 tle sugar this season, hardly enough to pay for running through the centrifugal ma- 

 chine, and inasmuch as the sirup is a good price I have not thought best to put it 

 through for tho little that is in it, although there is a considerable granulation 

 through all my sirup, fully as much this year as I could expect, and more, consider- 

 ing tho quality of cano. Last year I had 5,000 pounds that sold in the market for 



1 Op. cit., p. 43. 3 0p. cit., p. 51. *Op. cit., pp. 57 etneq. 



"Op. cit., pp. 47 (. t scq. 4 Op. oil., pp. 55. 6 Op. cit., p. ."?. 



23576 Bull 18 7 



