Golden # 3 Sorghum Press - Doniphan, MO - Missouri Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

County of display: Ripley County
Location of display: Franklin St., S. side of Heritage Homestead, Doniphan
Donated by: Don Carson
Marker erected by: Doniphan Neighborhood Assistance Program

List of Golden's Cane Mills

Marker text:

GOLDEN #3 SORGHUM PRESS A horse or a mule walked in circles to power the mill which squeezed the juice from stalks of molasses cane. The cane was inserted large end first, the juice was run into a container and pressed stalks were discarded. The juice was then cooked in a large, flat pan and the result was sorghum molasses. During cooking, the froth was skimmed off the juice, giving the molasses a better taste and helping in its preservation. Early Ripley County settlers referred to the product as "long sweetening."

Web link: [Web Link] History of Mark: "Sweet sorghum is any of the many varieties of the sorghum grass whose stalks have a high sugar content. Sweet sorghum thrives better under drier and warmer conditions than many other crops and is grown primarily for forage, silage, and syrup production. Sweet sorghum syrup is sometimes called "molasses" or "sorghum molasses" in some regions of the U.S., but the term molasses more properly refers to a different sweet syrup, made as a byproduct of sugarcane or sugar beet sugar extraction "Sorghum syrup and hot biscuits are a traditional breakfast in the Southern United States. Sorghum syrup is also used on pancakes, cornmeal mush, grits and other hot cereals. It can be used as a cooking ingredient with a similar sweetening effect as molasses, despite the fact that blackstrap molasses still has a higher nutritional value than sorghum syrup in most regards. In the U.S. since the 1950s, sorghum has been raised primarily for forage and silage, with sorghum cultivation for cattle feed concentrated in the Great Plains (Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska are the leading producers) where insufficient rainfall and high temperature make corn production unprofitable. Grain sorghum has also been utilized by the ethanol industry for quite some time because it yields approximately the same amount of ethanol per bushel as corn. As new generation ethanol processes are studied and improved, sorghum's role may continue to expand. Texas A&M University is currently running trials to ascertain the best varieties for ethanol production from sorghum leaves and stalks in the USA. In India, and other places, sweet sorghum stalks are used for producing bio-fuel by squeezing the juice and then fermenting into ethanol. The crop is particularly suitable for growing in dryland conditions, as it only extracts one seventh of the water used by sugarcane. A study by researchers at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) found that growing sweet sorghum instead of grain sorghum could increase farmers incomes by US$40 per hectare per crop because it can provide food, feed and fuel. With grain sorghum currently grown on over 11 million hectares (ha) in Asia and on 23.4 million ha in Africa, a switch to sweet sorghum could have a considerable economic impact." ~ Wikipedia Additional point: Not Listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/01/2022 biscuitt bunch visited it