Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1891 — A SUGAR SCHOOL; [ARTICLE]

A SUGAR SCHOOL;

Will Tarn Ont Expert Sagar Maker or Whom There is Great Need. New Orleans Special to New York Sun. Under the auspices of the State and the Louisiana Agricultural and Scientific Association a sugar school has been established in this city and will go into operation next month, for the purpose of educating all who desire to take a course in the culture of cane and the manufacture of sugar from it. The school, is equipped with agriculture, sugar chemistry, analytical chemistry, sugar mechanics and sugar making respectively. It has a plantation attached with a small sugar house on it, but one thoroughly equipped with the latest and most impreved taining all the books and journals on sugar and everything necessary ffo teach this industry. The course will be one or two years, at the end of which the student will be turned out a thorough sugar maker, a chemist prepared to carry on a sugar plantation in the most scientific .manner. There is and always has been a demand for this class of experts, for the supply is far too small. The pay is very good, for a skilled sugar maker can readily command between S3OO and SI,OOO per month. The planters compete for the better ones, and some of them even receive a percentage on the crop raised, on the theory that this will encourage them to greater efforts, tor how much sugar ten tons of cane will produce and what quality of sugar is made from it depend upon the sugar maker who has eliarge-of- the plaHtatien.— —r. —- The necessity of having a skilled man in charge, of the business is now greater than ever, since the bonus, paid under the McKinley bill is graded on the quality of sugar produced. Much of the-open kettle sugar falls below the 80 per cent, saccharine limit and will under the Taw receive no bonus whatever unless an expert is in charge of its manufacture and turns out a higher grade awcle. A difference of oue per cent, in the amount of saccharine in his sugar may make a difference of $30,000 in bonus to the planter whose place produces 2,000,000 pounds. It is believed that this will cause the sugar makers to be more in demand than ever, and there are not enough to go around now as it is. Moreover, a targe increase in the industry and in the number of sugar houses in operation is expected in the nextrfew years in consequence o" the stimulus given it by the McKinly bill. The sugar industry as now conducted requires experts, men skill not in agriculture alone, like the old-style overseers, but with a thorough knowledge or qnalyitical chemistry and mechanics in the various branches, and who keeps abreast of the times and all the latest discoveries and inventions. The Louisiana Agricultural and Scientific Association, recognizing the- necessity of suefcrexperts, and knowing that they are to be obtained in no other way, as there are no institutions in the United States in which they can get the specific instruction they need, has aided in establishing this sugar school here, believing that the largo pay guranteed to sugar experts will assure a good attendance. The school is of some interest outside of Louisiana, for it promises to be the principal factor in enabling that State to largely increase the production of sugar and supply the demand of the country.