KAIAPOI FARMERS' CLUB.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2251, 16 May 1881, Page 3

KAIAPOI FARMERS' CLUB.

The monthly meeting of the members was held at the Club Chambers on Thursday evening. Present—Messrs Pashby (chairman), Coup, Young, C. J. Young, E. Wilson, Kidd, Dudley and J. Wilson. A number of letters applying for the recipe to poison sparrows were read, and the secretary said replies had been sent, Mr E. Wilson advised those present to poison the wheat themselves, and spread it when fresh. He found with some which he had purohased and kept for a few days that out of £2 worth he only succeeded in picking up six sparrows and a sick seagull. [Laughter.] Mr P. Duncan, Loburn, read the following paper upon the growth of sorghum and the productio of sugar:—" Mr Chairman, —The question before you to-night is—'ls the Eaiapoi district adapted for growing sorghum and the manufacture of sugar therefrom ?' Do I overrate this district when I say that it is suited for the production of sugar that would equal the best Mauritius ? I think not. Were we engaged in the importation of this prime necessary of life into this country—to the mind such a thought would be insipid; but with so fine a district in which to make the attempt, it seems impossible to answer the question in any other way, and although tbe writer has never grown sorghum in New Zealand for syrup or sugar, he will try and maintain the assertion by the aid of past experience, comparative reasoning, and a few facts drawn from the press of the day, bearing on sugar culture. The increasing demand for this necessary condiment is so great, that apart from the profit derived from that giant speoies of the grass—Sacoharum officinarnm, or sugar cane, maple palm, or beet, and other vegetable substances, sorghum is now extensively cultivated for sugar and syrup, and of those two products the quantity consumed per head of the population is a good test of the elevation of the people in material comfort. Most of the sugar used in New Zealand is obtained from Mauritius. Much of the sugar required in this colony could be obtained here were portions of this district utilised for tbe cultivation of sorghum or sugar-producing plant of the temperate zone—of the two kinds known to the writer—the black sorghum and imphee or red. Both are very prolific, yielding from 15 to 25 bushels seed to the aore. The seed will sprout and grow vigorously when the soil is 40deg Fahrenheit. Some farmors adopt the system of placing the seed in a bag, dipping the bag with the seed in warm water, then burying it for a few days in a warm place. As the bran on the seed is very hard and thick, the germ sprouts quioker through being soaked and buried, and the danger of a hard seed in a dry soil is avoided. The soil is prepared the same as !for green crop, and from six to eight seeds are planted together thirty inches apart each way, and freely cultivated to eradicate weeds. The plant grows with a knotty stem, and at each knotty joint there springs a leaf. When the seed is ripe the cane can be cut and taken to the mill. The average yield in the writer's experience has been eighty gallons of syrup to the acre. That would sell readily at 2s 6d per gallon of 111 b, realising £lO, less the oost of expression and boiling, lOd per gallon, £3 6s 8d ; leaving a margin of £6 13s 4d, less the cost of preparing the land as for any other green crop. The yield of sorghum sugar and syrup during the past season in the Western States of America has been something enormous. lowa reports from 120 to 200 gallons per acre. The greatest evil the farmer has to contend with is hard frost, as the sap in the cane sours, and makes a bad 'sample. Dry weather does not affect it much ; nay, it is claimed that the juice is much [richer in a dry season. In a wet season the cane is heavier and more pithy. Stripping the leaves is the most tedious part of the labor connected with the crop, but where the foliage is nut fed to stock stripping has been abandoned, leaves and cane being passed through the mill. When crushed the refuse cane is sometimes used for boiling the sap. The cane mill is not a very elaborate piece of machinery, simply three cast iron rollers keyed together, either horizontal or vertical, with a sweep for the horses. Cane mills can be bought for £l2, and this price has reference to the required crushing power for a few farmers for family use. The sap oan be boiled in any sort of vessel, but a shallow pan or evaporator is the best, kept constantly stirred and skimmed. For stirring a broom is preferred, and when sufficiently boiled it is placed in ooolers or shallow open vessels, where it forms in grains or crystalises. To desoribo blow-up cisterns, bag filters, or charcoal filters, would be foreign to our subjeot at present, but by the improved methods used in the manufacture, the sorghum sugar made last year in Illinois and Minnesota sold readily at 5d per

lb., and was in every way equal to Louisiana or West Indian sugar. And reasoning that West Indian or Louisiana raw is equal to the Mauritius, we know that the soil and climate of this district is superior to any portion of Minnesota. Whilst suggesting that a trial should be made in this distriot to produoe sugar from sorghum, I do not advocate the abandonment of what is termed the never ending routine of potatoes and wheat; but this district would be enriched by the addition of sorghum as a part of the rotation. It might be urged that it is not necessary to attempt the growing and manufacture of sorghum for syrup and sugar in New Zealand, reasoning that Mauritius, Queensland, and the Eijis have unlimited resources for supplying this colony, and that the most enterprising of all nations, the United States of America, is also in the colonial market, coupled with the innate imagination that to produce sugar, tropical climate and coloured labor are necessary to insure suocess. All this may be very correct. On the other hand, what would militate against those sources from whence New Zealand derives her supplies. Epidemics, blookaded ports, or any unpleasantness cropping up, would raise the value of those condiments to famine prices. But if sorghum can be grown and manufactured in this district, and taking the current wholesale prico in the colony at 3s 2d per gallon, the consumer within the district would bo benefitted at least Is per gallon for syrup, and Id per lb for sugar, cholera and ironclads notwithstanding. Again, is the imported always a pure article. Listen to the testimony concerning the adulteration of food, &C, of experts, before the committee of the House of Representatives of the United States. Three professional chemists gave substantially the same testimony respecting sugar and syrup. The following extraot from the testimony of the experts is worth noting : —A Chioago chemist writes, at the request of a highly respectable citizen of Chicago: ' I have examined fourteen brands of sugar bought, as I understand, in this city; some granulated, some white, some colored, some ooarse and some fine. I -tested them thoroughly for impurities. In twelve of the

samples I found tin in the form of a chloride, an active poison. I have examined several syrups made essentially and entirely of glucose, and found in them chlorides of tin, calcium, iron and magnesia, and in quantities which made them very poisonous. In one case a whole neighborhood was poisoned, and I was told of one death.* This substance called glucose ia made from maize or Indian corn, and eminent physicians believe it dangerous, and productive of disease in the kidneys. Now with propriety might not this question be asked—ls any adulterated syrup or sugar to be found in the New Zealand imports ? If so, adulteration by importation should end and production begin, and in support of beginning I beg to quote the testimony of Mr O.H. Miller, of Dundas, Bice Co., Minnesota, of date February 18t,b, 1881. Writing to Mr John Dougall, New York, he says of sugar—' The business is as yet in its infancy. It being only about three years since the ' Minnesota early amber oano' was given to the public, since which it has produced in unskilled hands thousands of pounds of sugar. So great has been its crystalising properties that it has excited an interest among our capitalists, and some of our auger refiners are investing large amounts in machinery and apparatus, and expect to go into its culture and manufacture on an extensive scale. Beet culture has been tried east of the Rocky Mountains and has failed. Now there is an effort being put forth in California to resurrect the business there, but it is destined to have a sharp competitor in our early amber cane. California will be a home for this cane, as I know from reports ooming from those there, to whom I have sent the seed. I was through Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts, when I left with friends little packages of the seed for trial, and they write me that it grows there eleven and twelve feet high, as it does here. I have also sent seed to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick ; also to Canada, and in every instance words of the greatest cheer come regarding its prospective value to them in those high latitudes. These facts show that this variety of cane can be cultivated profitably within a very large range of territory, and will, as we know, be a Bonanza to this oountry hardly to be compared in dollars and cents. The syrups, which are a sure production every year, can be made beautiful in color and very fine to the taste. The cane can be raised as easily and as cheaply as a corn crop, with perhaps the exception of an extra hoeing when it is young. It will, in some instances, yield 200 gallons of rich heavy syrup to the acre, and 150 is no uncommon yield. This syrup sells wholesale for fortyfive cents (Is 10£d) per gallon, and it retails readily for sixty oents (2s fid). It is greatly preferred to the insipid, poisonous adulterations of our commerce. The seed of a canefield when ripe will yield from twenty to twenty-five bushels of a good grain to tbe aore, which weighs 501 b per bushel, and is good to feed all domestic animals. The foliage is a very valuable fodder for milk cows, horses, sheep, &c." With this testimony before us, what doth hinder the production of sugar in this district—nothing. We say begin —begin without asking Government to deplete the country's Treasury by granting a bonus. Begin, believing that varied productions are the planks necessary for the up-building of this country, for we believe that side by side with the countries of this world this district is capable of producing either a side of frozen beef or a hogshead of home-grown sugar if the farmers will only bring thought and energy into action; and room may yet be found in Eaiapoi for a sugar factory, and the syrups and sugars of this district be considered equal to the best Mauritius, sufficiently proving that the Eaiapoi district is adapted for growing sorghum and the manufacture of sugar therefrom."

An interesting disoussion followed. On the motion of Mr Wilson, seoonded by Mr Parnham, a hearty vote of thanks was passed to Mr Duncan. Mr J. Lowthian Wilson said he wished to have samples of hard wheats to forward to a friend of Mr E. O. Beardsley, of Chicago. Those present promised to provide the required samples. Mr Wilson was asked to undertake the proouring of a small quantity of sorghum seed. The meeting then adjourned.