76 



NORTHERN SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



in the month of October, and yet about one-half of the mass in each 

 barrel was well drained and fit for table use. From the three barrels 

 of imphee sirup not less than 300 pounds of sugar were obtained. But 

 while all the imphee manufactured by Mr. Lines grained freely, but one 

 barrel out of ten of the sorghum produced any considerable amount of 

 sugar. 



Mr. Lines, in his paper presented to the Agricultural Society, re- 

 ferred to the existence at that time of a State Sorgo Association in Ohio, 

 and stated that persons who had examined the more than fifty sami^les 

 of sugar collected from various parts of that State by that association, 

 testified that they did not see a single specimen that would begin to 

 compare with those exhibited by him at the Kansas meeting, and pro- 

 duced by him in Wabaunsee County, and he said : 



This state of facts can only be explained upon the supposition that our soil and 

 climate are better adapted to this culture ; for certainly the farmers of Ohio must 

 have possessed greater facilities than we have enjoyed. But, without reference to 

 soil, it is obvious that the more highly rarified condition of the autumn in Kansas is 

 pre-eminently adapted to the concentration of the saccharine element and the pro- 

 cess of granulation, which gives us greatly the advantage and satisfactorily ex- 

 plains the whole matter. Well, then, may we congratulate ourselves and the farm- 

 ers of our State that a new and broad field is open to our enterprise. Heretofore our 

 supplies of sugar and molasses have come to us chiefly from the plantations of Louisi- 

 ana, the fruit of the unrequited toil of the oppressed bondmen and women of that 

 region. 



And he concludes with this prophetic remark : 



Hereafter, if the auspicious omens now opening before us are justly regarded as 

 significant of successful results, a portion of our broad prairies will rapidly be con- 

 verted into sugar plantations, machinery for its manufacture propelled by steam be- 

 come common in all parts of our State, and this great staple will be manufactured 

 by the intelligent free labor of our people in quantities vastly beyond our need for 

 home consumption. 



But it is known to all how these accidental or phenomenal crys- 

 talizations in those early times excited hopes which were not realized, 

 and how experiment after experiment, kept up through many years, 

 failed to bring reliable and satisfactory results. It is known to all 

 that sorghum sirup failed to become established as a popular article lor 

 table use, and that until recently it may be said to have maintained a 

 place in manufacture, for use only as a substitute for something better 

 where necessity compelled it. Yet through all these years there have 

 been those who, patiently and with faith, labored to solve the problem 

 of sorghum sugar. And now all believe it is solved, l^ow the predic- 

 tions of the most sanguine of the early experimenters are beginning to 

 be realized, and w^e have a near future before us of seeing Kansas a 

 great sugar-growing State, the foremost State of all. The later facts 

 as to this industry and as to the recent developments in the manufact- 

 ure of sugar, and of better qualities of sorghum sirup, have been so 

 fully set forth in the admirable reports of .the Kansas State Board of 



