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NORTHERN SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



The sorghum sugar iudustrj^ in this country is yet in its infancy, and 

 it is not strange that its methods are still crude and unsatisfactory. It 

 seems that the advocates of the industry have often had more zeal 

 than knovvledge, and I have noticed that with increasing experience 

 the prophecies of experts have grown less extravagant. If the suc- 

 cess of small mills has been almost none, it does not follow that that of 

 large ones has been great. But one thing the large factories have 

 shown, i. e., that sugar can be made ; how i>rofitably or unprofitably 

 cannot yet be said. 



The factories at Rio Grande, N. J., Champaign, 111., Sterling and 

 Hutchinson, Kans., have made sugar this year, in all nearly 1,000,000 

 pounds. But 1,000,000 })ounds is a smaU contribution to the sugar con- ^ 

 sumption of the country, and the time appears still distant when the 

 United States will make its own sugar. 



i^ear large factories farmers may make their own sugar by raising a 

 few acres of cane and exchanging it at the factory for sugar. Cane that 

 will produce 60 pounds sugar to the ton ought to yield the farme 35 

 pounds of sugar. The other 25 pounds and the molasses would pay for 

 working, and yield, I think, a fair i^rofit. Under these most favorable 

 conditions the farmer would get 350 pounds sugar per acre. I do not 

 know of any other way in which he can get that much sugar out of an 

 acre of sorghum cane. I do not write in this manner to discourage 

 efforts to make sugar profitably in a small way, either at present or in 

 the future. The small sorghum factories, with their crude sheds and 

 mills and often cruder methods of concentration, will continue to dot 

 the landscape of the central and northern belt of States, and the prod- 

 ucts of these establishments, when made by intelligent direction, will 

 continue for many years to be sources of profit to the industrious farmer 

 and manufacturer. 



If a method for making sugar profitably on a small scale could be de- 

 vised, it would certainly be a great advantage to our farmers. The cost 

 of the sugar for a farmer's family is one of the chief expenses of the 

 household, and often takes so much of his available cash that he finds 

 it dif&cult to raise money to pay his taxes. If large factories are started 

 throughout the country, the farmer may find it profitable to cultivate 

 cane and sell it to the manufacturer. What price should be paid for 

 canes, and how their value should be determined, are questions which 

 the ordinary experience of commerce will answer. 



LARGE FACTORIES. 



Only the large establishment can with economy employ the chemist 

 and the skilled laborer. It requires as much chemical science and as 

 much skilled labor, to work one ton of cane into sugar as it does a thou- 

 sand. Moreover, sugar machinery is expensive. The boilers and engines 

 must be large and of tlie best quality. The mills and diffusers are heavy 

 and costly. Then come the open evaporators, the double and ti ii)le effect 



