BLACKWELL FAMILY Henry B. Blackwell Financial PapersSorghum Bounty Law 1883 SUGAR BEETS [Apr. Commonwealth of Massachusetts In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-three. AN ACT Granting a Bounty for the Production of Sugar Beets or Sorghum Cane for the purpose of manufacturing Sugar. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1 SECTION 1. The sum of one dollar per ton of 2 two thousand pounds shall be paid from the 3 treasury of the Commonwealth to any person 4 who shall produce sugar beets or any variety of 5 sorghum or sugar-cane in this state, which shall 6 be used here in the manufacture of sugar. 1 SECT. 2. The sugar beets or sorghum cane 2 produced for this purpose shall be weighed at 3 the place of manufacture by a sworn weigher, 4 appointed by the selectmen of the town or the 5 mayor of the city where the manufactory is 6 located, and he shall be compensated for his 7 services by the company of individual purchasing1883.] HOUSE - No. 280. 3 8 the same, which company or individual shall keep 9 a correct record of the name and residence of 10 each person who delivers either of the above 11 named crops at its or his manufactory, together 12 with the time of delivery and the quantity in 13 tons. 1 SECT. 3. The weigher designated in section 2 two of this act shall, from time to time, and 3 before the first of January of each year, transmit 4 to the secretary of the board of agriculture 5 correct lists of the persons and their residences 6 who have produced and delivered at the factory 7 of which he is the weigher either or both of the 8 crops named in section one of this act, and the 9 number of tons produced and delivered by each; 10 and said secretary shall give to each person 11 named in the lists his certificate directed to the 12 auditor of the Commonwealth, certifying that the 13 bearer has produced the stated number of tons of 14 either or both of the named crops, for the purpose 15 of manufacturing sugar therefrom, and is 16 entitled to receive from the treasury the sum of 17 one dollar per ton for the same. 1 SECT. 4. The secretary of the board of agriculture 2 shall keep a correct record of the name 3 and residence of each person to whom he issues 4 said certificate, and the number of tons of either 5 of the said crops grown by him. 1 SECT. 5. This act shall take effect upon its 2 passage, and remain in force until January, 3 eighteen hundred and eighty-six.HOUSE . . . . . No. 280. Commonwealth of Massachusetts House of representatives, Feb. 27, 1883. The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred the petition of S. C. Damon and others, asking that a bounty be paid for the production of sugar beets and sorghum cane for the manufacture of sugar, report the accompanying bill. For the Committee, LEVI STOCKBRIDGE. House of Representatives, April 9, 1883. The Committee on Finance, to whom was referred the Bill granting a bounty for the production of sugar beets or sorghum cane for the purpose of manufacturing sugar, having considered the same, report that it ought not to pass. For the Committee, CHARLES C. BURR. Sorghum Sugar in Massachusetts. EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN CULTIVATOR: Allow me through your columns to call the attention of the farmers of New England to the fact that they can profitably manufacture sugar and syrup from Early Amber cane, in competition with the cane sugar of Cuba or the beet sugar of Germany. The following facts will show that there is no reason why Massachusetts should not raise her own sugar: On the 3d day of June, 1882, I planted sorghum of the Early Amber and White Liberian varieties on my place at Pope's Hill, Dorchester. The seed was obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture. It grew side by side with my corn, on similar soil, and yielded over fifteen tons of stripped stalks per acre. Returning from Nebraska, October 25, I found my cane still uninjured by frost and thoroughly ripe. The juice was polarized by S. P. Sharples, State Assayer, and contained crystallizable sugar, 18 per cent., inverted sugar, 2.10, ash, 0.89, gum, etc., 083, water, 78.18, in a total of 100 parts. This showed more than twenty per cent. of sugars in the juice. By the diffusion process, as used in the manufacture of beet sugar in Europe, I made from this cane, over the open fire, thirteen per cent. of crystallized sugar and six per cent. of molasses; in all, nineteen per cent. of sugar and syrup. I announced this result to the sorghum sugar manufactures, at their convention in St. Louis, and urged the adoption of the diffusion process, showing that the greater part of the sweetness of the cane is now wasted in the bagasse. My experiments in the Fall of 1882 fully verified my ideas of the value of the diffusion process. Last Spring I again planted, May 20, Early Amber cane from seed obtained at Rio Grande, N. J. In order to ascertain whether our Summer is sufficiently long to give us a working season, I secured the valuable aid of Mr S P. Sharples, State Assayer. At intervals of five days, from Aug. 19 to Dec. 3, he has analyzed the juice, with results given below. They show a singularly uniform percentage from first to last of about sixteen per cent. of sugars in the juice, varying in the respective percentages of crystallizable and inverted sugars. Polarizations of Early Amber cane, planted at Pope's Hill, Dorchester, May 20, 1883, by H. B. Blackwell; made by S. P. Sharples, State Assayer, Boston. Experiment No. 1, made Aug. 19, 1883, resulted in extracting 67 per cent. of juice without the use of water, of a specific gravity of 1.065. This sample gave 8 80 per cent. cane sugar and 7.18 per cent. inverted sugar and gum, or a total of 15.98 per cent. sugars. No. 2, Aug. 25, yielded 60 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1 070. Cane sugar, 9.83 per cent.; inverted sugar and gum, 5 63; a total of 15.46 per cent. sugars. No. 3, Aug 30, yielded 55 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1.072. Cane sugar, 10.16 per cent.; inverted sugar not ascertained. No. 4, Sept. 4, yielded 75.41 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity - 1.076. Cane sugar, 12.15 per cent.; inverted sugar not ascertained. No. 5, Sept. 10, yielded the equivalent of 91 per cent. of juice extracted by the diffusion process through the use of water. Specific gravity, 1.074. Cane sugar yield, 10.73 per cent.; inverted sugar not ascertained. No. 6, Sept. 15, yielded 68 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1.080. Percentage of cane sugar, 12.10; inverted sugar, 4.60 per cent.; showing total sugars, 16 70 per cent. No. 7, Sept. 21, yielded 75.63 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1.071. Percentage of cane sugar, 11.87; percentage of inverted sugar by copper test, 3.10. Total of sugars, 14 97 per cent. No 8, Sept. 26, yielded 77 85 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1.067. Percentage of cane sugar, 11.00; inverted sugar not ascertained. No. 9, Oct. 1, yielded 70 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1.077. Percentage of cane sugar, 13 10; percentage of inverted sugar by copper test, 2.82; showing a total of 15.72 per cent. sugars. No. 10, Oct. 6, yielded 66 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1.066. Percentage of cane sugar, 10.20; inverted sugar not ascertained. No 11, Oct. 12, yielded 77.7 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1.074. Percentage of cane sugar, 11.43; inverted sugar not ascertained. No. 12, Oct. 17, yielded 70 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1.073. Percentage of cane sugar, 11.50; inverted sugar not ascertained. Nov. 13 Oct. 22, yielded 75.2 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1.077. Percentage of cane sugar, 10.36, also of inverted sugar by copper test, 5.09, showing a total percentage of sugars of 15.45. No. 14, Oct. 27, yielded 71 per cent of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1 075. Cane sugar, per cent., 10.47; inverted sugar not ascertained. No. 15, Nov. 8, yielded 54 2 per cent. of juice extracted without the use of water. Specific gravity, 1 094. Percentage of cane sugar, 9.43; inverted sugar not ascertained. No. 16, Nov 25 yielded, 60 per cent. of juice extracted by the use of water. The canes were badly damaged, and had been repeatedly frozen. Specific gravity of the juice, 1.152. Percentage of cane sugar, 13.00; inverted sugar not ascertained. Three more experiments have have been made upon canes that were cut and housed Oct. 15, 1883. No. 17, Nov. 8 yielded 52 33 per cent. of juice extracted without water. Specific gravity, 1.094. Percentage of cane sugar, 12.33; inverted sugar not ascertained. No. 18, Dec. 3, yielded the equivalent of 68 per cent. of juice extracted with the use of water. Specific gravity, 11 26. Percentage of cane sugar, 9; inverted sugar by copper test, 10 44. Total, 19.44 per cent. sugars. No. 19, Dec. 31, yielded by the use of water 50 per cent. of the weight of the canes in syrup of 30 Beaume, or thirty-eight per cent. syrup 38 Beume. This cane had shrunk to half its original weight by evaporation since Oct. 15, but showed no material loss of sugars, as will be seen by comparison with experiment No. 12, dated Oct. 17. This shows that the working season might be profitably extended even to the end of the year if the cane were properly stored and kept dry. Crystallized sugar was made from the juice extracted Aug. 24 to Nov 25, both dates inclusive, a period of ninety-three days, and could probably have been made later. The above experiments show an average of 11 per cent. can sugar and 4 per cent. inverted sugar in juice from Aug. 19 to Nov. 25 inclusive. They also show at least 15 per cent. of syrup on weight of canes during a period of 4 1/2 months, i.e., from Aug. 19 to Dec 31. As the cane matures the inverted sugar diminishes as the cane sugar increases; as the cane deteriorates after maturity the inverted sugar increases as the cane sugar diminishes; the average percentage of both remaining about the same. The average for 100 days has been eleven per cent. of crystallizable sugar and four per cent. inverted sugar. By diffusion I have obtained the equivalent of over ninety pounds of juice from 100 pounds of cane. I have made from five to seven per cent. of sugar and from seven to nine per cent. fo syrup, from the weight of the cane, for a period of three months. Last year Mr. Sharples and myself found over twenty per cent. of sugar; this year only sixteen per cent. This difference in the quality of the cane is due to the season. The sugar crop of 1882 was exceptionally good all along the coast, from Massachusetts to Louisiana. That of 1883 has been unusually poor. We have had a cold, dry Summer followed by heavy frost the last of August, which greatly injured corn and checked the full development of sugar in the canes. Nevertheless, I raised this year fifteen tons of stalks to the acre, containing over 4500 pounds of sugar and syrup to the acre, all of which I was able to extract by the diffusion process. It has been said that cane must be worked as soon as cut, or become worthless. This is true in warm weather. It is true to some extent later in the season. But I have cane now stored in my wood-shed, cut Oct. 15, from which I yesterday made thirty-eight per cent. of excellent syrup equal to the Porto Rico or New Orleans article. By a law passed last Spring, Massachusetts farmers have a blunt of $1 per ton on sorghum cane raised for sugar-making. The cane is more easily raised than corn. Farmers can raise it for $3 per ton. At that price they will receive say: For fifteen tons of stalks at $3 per ton, $45; twenty-five bushels of seed at 75 cents per bushel, $18.75; total, $63.75, besides the leaves for fodder. For nearly three months, from Aug. 25 to Nov. 25 inclusive, I have, at intervals of five days, crystallized sugar from the juice. My statement of the sugar and syrup contained in my Early Amber cane is confirmed by Report No. 30 of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at New Brunswick, dated Nov. 16, 1883. This report state that the average yield of sixteen plots was 3950 pounds of sugar to the acre. Several plots exceeded 4500 pounds, and one plot exceeded 4800 pounds to the acre. The value of the diffusion process is shown in the same report as follows: "Even when a mill expresses from fifty to sixty per cent. of juice from the stripped and topped cane, it may yet leave more than one-half of the sugar in the bagasse. This can be best shown by an example. The cane on Plot 11 contained 4119 pounds of sugar per acre. Of this the mill expressed 1983 pounds, leaving in the bagasse fifty-two per cent. of the sugar which the cane contained. This result is the most favorable in the experiment. The other extreme is found in Plot 10, where nearly seventy per cent. of the sugar was wasted. In eleven other cases the loss exceeds sixty per cent." There is a first-class sugar factory at Franklin, Mass., which cost $132,800. It is perfectly adapted to the manufacture of sorghum sugar by the best process known in the world. If this factory is allowed to be sold and broken up it will be a national misfortune, for there is no other such factory in the United States. A small amount of active capital (say $25,000) would run that factory next year on Amber cane. Will not the capitalists and business men of the State give it a trial? HENRY B. BLACKWELL. Boston, Dec. 31, 1883.