101 



Further data concerning operations at Crystal Lake and Hoopeston 

 I give in quotations from the communication of Mr. Thorns to the com- 

 mittee of the National Academy : 1 



In the first place let ine state to you I am a practical sugar refiner; spent some 

 eight years in the West Indies making sugar from cane. So you will perceive I caun 

 bore well armed in the knowledge of the business of sugar making. In August, 1879, 

 I saw sorghum for the first time, and although the works were put up by inexpe- 

 rienced persons, besides being so near the time for grinding the cane, wo had not much 

 chance to make the necessary alterations, so had to get along as well as we could ; 

 and as the cane was new to me, and I had little or no faith in its sugar-producing 

 qualities, I resolved to treat it with as much delicacy as a mother would her sick 

 child. 



In consequence of the vacuum-pan boiling the sugar so hot, and not being familiar 

 with the juice, and wishing to get as large a yield of sugar as possible, I boiled it 

 rather stiff, which made the grain finer than I wished it, but to the experienced that 

 did not detract one iota from its strength. I continued to run until I had made over 

 50,000 pounds of sugar. 



In 1880 we had made alterations in order to do some pretty good work ; planted 

 about 300 acres of caue, and a month before it matured it was struck by a hurricane 

 and damaged to such an extent that we received only the product of 30 acres ; that, 

 mixed with dead cane, rendering the juice so bad that the sirup only polarized about 

 42 per cent. Boiled some for sugar, but finding it very gummy abandoned the idea 

 and made only sirup. Thus ends the chapter for 1880. In 1881 the spring was so 

 backward our cane hardly matured, and the sirup from it polarized about the same 

 as the previous year (42^ per cent). Having such bad luck the past two years at 

 Crystal Lake, 111., where the above experiments were tried at the works of F. A. 

 Waidner & Co., we have concluded to abandon any further work at yio above place. 

 I should here state that Crystal Lake is the most elevated sevtion in the State of 

 Illinois which makes raising a crop there rather uncertain; although the old resi- 

 dents of the place say they never experienced two such years with sorghuui as 1880 

 and 1881 ; indeed, that is the general verdict throughout the country. Crystal Lake 

 is situated about 44 miles north of Chicago. I am interested in a large works at 

 Hoopeston, 111., which is attached to a corn-canning establishment erected for the 

 purpose of utilizing corn-stalks. That we found was no go, as the stalks had but 

 little juice; could not produce enough sirup to pay expenses. I consider the corn- 

 stalks had a thorough test. We found only about a foot or a foot and a half of the 

 stalk to contain juice ; the rest was a dry pith. At the time the corn was in the roast - 

 i ii g-oar. The corn-stalks were tested in 1880. In 1881 we cultivated 500 acres of sorgo, 

 and the drought was so severe we only got about 2J tons to the acre, instead of from 

 10 to 20. Cane was very thin and in some instances not over 2 or 3 feet long, sirup 

 only polarizing 40; did not attempt to make sugar. This year we are putting under 

 cultivation at Hoopeston 1,000 acres. We sold all of our product last year by the car- 

 load in this city at 50 cents per gallon. 



Notwithstanding I have been here three seasons I have not had a single day's fair 

 trial of sorgo juice. With the plant of machinery we have at Hoopeston now to work 

 up juice such as I had in 1879, I am sure the results I could produce would astonish 

 the country. 



I am satisfied of one thing, that th cultivation of the cane is not thoroughly un- 

 derstood. One great drawback heiv has been the want of proper machinery ami :i 

 knowledge how to treat, the juice. They imn.gino all that is necessary is to l>oil out 

 the water and let nature do t he rest. 



1 n, t . ,.;/., pp. 119,120. 



