AND COLLEGE, PUSA, FOR 1914-15. 25 



treating the ashes with a limited amount of sulphuric acid. 

 A note has been submitted on this subject. 3 



VI. Saltpetre. 



The experiments on the improvement in methods for 

 refining saltpetre have progressed considerably during the 

 past year and there is now every reason to hope that by the 

 use of a filter press and other appliances the outturn of re- 

 fined saltpetre will be considerably greater than is usually 

 obtained by refiners. 



VII. Feeding Stuffs. 



A considerable number of specimens of cattle foods have 

 been analysed during the year more particularly on behalf 

 of the military authorities. It is intended to issue these 

 and other analyses shortly in the form of a bulletin. 



VIII. Sugar. 



Sugarcane. The nature of the sugar investigations 

 which have been in progress during the past three years at 

 Tarnab, Peshawar, was explained at length in my last 

 annual report. The only additional work which has been 

 done during the past year consisted in a test, on a large 

 scale, of the safety of " clamping " large quantities of 

 sugarcane. It will be recollected that from the manufac- 

 turing point of view the advantage of being possibly able 

 to preserve sugarcane over the months of February to April 

 was recognized and experiments with small lots of sugar- 

 cane were made during the cold weather of 1913-14. These 

 indicated that the local sugarcane could be so preserved 

 until at least sometime in March without suffering serious 

 depreciation. It had to be recognized, however, that in 

 order to draw a safe deduction the tests should be made 

 with large quantities of cane such as would probably occur 

 in practice, because the conditions in small heaps would be 

 different in some respects; the weight of cane in a large 

 heap would subject the cane at the bottom to a greater 



1 Indian Trade Jour. July 23rd, 1915. 



