A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



NEW YOk 

 BOTANICAL 

 QAKDBN. 



Vol. YIII. Xo. 191. 



BARBADOS, AUCIUST 21, 1909. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

 Absoifjtiiin of Salts l.>v 



Soils '. ... 265' 



Agiicultunil Schools, 



Examination of 2.59 



Agrieiiltural Toaching in 



St. Lucia 2(55 



American Sugar JIaiket... 271 

 BroomCorn. Preparation of 270 

 Cacao, 'Pink Disease' of 260 



Cacao, Varieties of 2G0 



Cntfee in .Java, A Xew ... 261 ' 

 Cotton Growing in Ceylon 264 

 Cotton Notes :— 



Cotton in Egypt 202 



Sea Island Cotton in the j 



United States 2621 



West Indian Cotton ... 262 

 Cidtivation and Increa.sed l 



Yields 2(;5 



Fungus Notes 2()7 



Gleanings 268 



Insect Notes : — 



MoscjuitosandSanitation 270 

 Leguminous Plants, New 271 

 Manure, Weed Seeds in 263 



Page. 



Market Reports 272 



Molasses, ItiFormati u 



and Siorage 



Notes ar.d Conunents 

 Pine-ap]jles in India ... 

 Rice in Brit'.sh Guiana ... 

 Ripening of Cacao, Time 



of 



Rubber Trees, Injury Ijy 



Tapping 



School (lardens in the 



Pliilip])ines 



Shijiping Rings 



Students' Corner 



Sugar in St. Lucia 

 Sugar Industry: — 

 Interuatic inal Congress 



of Applied Chemistry 

 Seedling Canes iu liarba- 



dos.'The First 



United States Weather 



Foreca.sts 



Value of Plant Collections 2(i!» 

 Weathering, Rate of ... 265 

 Wild Ipecacuanha 261 



-'07 

 2(54 

 260 



271 



2(5n 

 L'l;;'. 



265 

 264 

 26'.i 

 264 



266 

 26(i 



267 



The Foimation and Storago of 

 Molasses. 



URIXG the past sugar season the musco- 

 vado molasses of Antigua and Barbados, 

 and to a lesser e.xtcnt, that of other West 

 Indian Islands has obtained a remarkably higli market 

 price, the value of sucrose in muscovado molasses 

 having been, during the greater part of the season, 

 nearly one and a half times as great as its value in 

 muscovado sugar. This occurrence forms a good instance 



of a point which has often been illustrated in other 

 industries, namely the attainment on the part of 

 a by-product of a value considerably in excess of that 

 of the substance which it was the original purpose of the 

 industry to produce. That such a state of affairs should 

 arise is, of course, mainly a question of supply and 

 demand, and in this instance it has arisen mainly from 

 the wants of fishermen and lumbermen on the North 

 American continent. For a number of years past the 

 price of this article has been good, though it has not 

 attained so high a value as during the past season, and 

 therefore it appears that there is a fair amount of 

 stability in the demand : moreover, the hi;h price of 

 the muscovado product has served to raise ihe market 

 value of tiie exhausted vacuum-pan mola^^es of the 

 Antigua Central Factory for which ordinarily little or no 

 demand exists : on this account the conditions govern- 

 ing the formation, composition and keeping power of 

 molasses assume considerable importance. 



Molasses may be defined as the viscous solution 

 containing sugar and various impurities left after sugar 

 has been crystallized from evaporated juice or from 

 a sugar solution. It is possible to obtain further sugar 

 from this product, which is known as first molasses, by 

 re-builing, but eventually a syrupy liquid remains which 

 will not give any more sugar on being evaporated. 

 This is termed exhausted molasses ; it always contains 

 sugar that cannot be recovered, by reason of the pre- 

 sence of other constituents, which render the remaining 

 sugar uncrystallizabie. In any process of sugar-making, 

 unless everything but cane-sugar and water co\ild be 

 removed from the juice, molasses must always be formed. 



Having defined molasses, and considered it in 

 relation to the possibility of the extraction of sucrose^ 

 it will be convenient to deal with the question of the 



