UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1882 [PAGE 78]

Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1882
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72 statement is made with due consideration of the many attacks which the glucose industry has of late received. Glucose, as anarticle of food, is equal to if not superior to cane sugar, and its artificial production from corn or other amylaceous substances, is a perfectly legitimate business. It is true, that in the decolorization of the glucose injurious substances may be employed, and if the products sent to market are not perfectly free from them, great injury may be done to the consumers. The same thing may be said for the refining of cane sugar. But in either case the employment of injurious substances is not a necessity, and should be condemned by every one who is interested in public welfare. Glucose, when made as it should be, is perfectly harmless, and no valid objection can be made to it in a sanitary point of view, when employed for any legitimate purpose to which it is adapted. The sorghum industry must regard the manufacture of glucose as a fair competitor, and the latter will never lose in importance by any unjustifiable attacks or criticisms. From these considerations it seems, evident that the production of syrup alone can no longer maintain the cultivation of sorghum on a scale which would suffice to give it the name of an industry. To accomplish this, sorghum growers should turn all their attent on and energy to the production of crystallizable sugar, which glucose, on account of its inherent properties, can never replace, and which will always find a ready market free from all competition. These circumstances led to the investigations about to be described, and the results obtained have exceeded our most sanguine expectations. Our experiments, both scientific and practical, have shown beyond a doubt, not only that the manufacture of sugar from sorghum in our own State is practicable, but also that it will be highly remunerative, when undertaken on a large scale. Up to the present time sorghum seed has never found a proper utilization. Although in its general composition it resembles other grain as corn, the amount of tannin contained in it, as our analysis given farther on shows, will no doubt prevent its liberal use as food for animals. Knowing that immense quantities of seed will necessarily be produced as soon as the sorgum sugar industry is introduced, we have given this matter careful study, and have found that the seed is eminently adapted for the production of glucose. We have prepared the glucose directly from the ground seed, without the tedious and expensive process of first separating the starch. The great advantage of this industry to the sorghum industry will appear from the fact, that as the seed is practically ripe when the cane is cut it can be stored up till the sugar season is over, and can afterwards be manufactured into glucose with the same machinery now used in making sugar from the cane, thus giving employment for the balance of the year to the works, which otherwise would have to lie idle for eight or ten months annually.