Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/649

The spirit of scientific investigation which has led the Department of Agriculture through its chemical and agronomic researches to results of such importance toward developing a new industry of national value has been liberally fostered by the General Government, and to some extent also by certain of the States. The fruits of this policy are already beginning to show themselves in the decided success which has attended the production of sugar from sorghum on a commercial scale in the few cases in which the rules of good practice, evolved especially by the researches made at the laboratory of the Department of Agriculture, have been intelligently followed. Sufficiently full returns from the crop of 1882 have already come to hand to convince us that the industry is probably destined to be a commercial success.

The opinions of men so conservative as are the members of this committee can not be lightly set aside or ridiculed as visionary. That their predictions have, in a measure, been realized, will appear from the returns from the crop of 1883. From a recent work upon sorghum, by Professor Peter Collier, we extract the following:

 

Sorghum-Sugar produced in 1883.

According to the statement of the President of the Mississippi Valley Cane-Growers' Association, there were produced at the Champaign (Illinois) Sorghum-Sugar Works, from 145 acres, 1,435 tons of cane; and from 2,400 tons of cane there were obtained 160,000 pounds of sugar and 40,000 gallons of molasses.

The season is described as being the most unfavorable for thirty years.

At Hutchinson, Kansas, some 200,000 pounds of sugar, besides a large quantity of molasses.

At Sterling, Kansas, some 200,000 pounds of sugar, besides the molasses.

At Dundee, Kansas, 10,000 pounds of sugar, though their product was mainly sirup, of which 50,000 gallons were made.

At Kinsley, Kansas, 10,000 pounds of sugar, and a large quantity of sirup.

At Lawrence, Kansas, some 10,000 pounds of sugar.

At Rio Grande, New Jersey, 282,711 pounds of sugar and 55,000 gallons of molasses—a large portion of their cane failing to ripen, owing to the unusual season.

The Secretary of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture reports the following summary of the year 1883 for Kansas:

Acres planted in sorghum	102,042
Acres manufactured into sirup	48,271
Acres planted for forage	53,771
Tons of cane manufactured	447,859
Gallons of sirup made	4,684,023
Value of sirup made	$2,058,127 60

The entire number of counties reporting was eighty-one, and of these—

32		grew from	50	to	500	acres.
20		"	500	to	1,000	"
10		"	1,000	to	2,000	"
10		"	2,000	to	3,000	"
5		"	3,000	to	4,000	"
4		"	4,000	to	8,000	"