\roL. X. No. 230. 



THE AGKICULTURAL NKWS. 



51 



not had upon the local piodtiction of forage alone. 

 There are added to this the advantages that accrue from 

 the careful intermixture of new blood with that which 

 is already present in the country, or district. 



It is fully understood by the author that these 

 ideas do not receive universal acceptance, and he quotes 

 two examples on which objections are sometimes based. 

 These refer to the introduction of merino and mutton- 

 producing sheep into Australia and Xew Zealantl, and 

 the absence of deterioration in them since this 

 took place. The objections are answered by the 

 author by reference to the fact that the wool-pro- 

 ducing power of the merino is an innate character, and 

 that the special quality of sheep producing mutton has 

 been obtained by constant selection over a very long 

 period, so that these particular properties are not likely 

 to disappear quickly under a change of surroundings. 



In fine, the broad conclusions that are brought 

 forward in the consideration of the matter are: that 

 success in acclimatization depends on the provision of 

 a sufficient quantity of food, and the introduction of 

 animals that are not too highly specialized; that it is 

 likewise bound up with the extent t<i which means are 

 found for combating disease; and lastly, that the lueteor- 

 ological conditions of a country, except in special 

 instances, have less to do with success or failure in 

 acclimatization than the problem of providing sufficient 

 nourishment suitable to the introduced animals. 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



WAX FROM THE SUGAR-CANE. 



A short note on work that has been done in con- 

 nexion with the extraction of wax from the sugar-cane 

 was given in the Agricultural Neu:'< for November 13. 

 1909, p. 360. Further particulars of the investigations 

 are given in the Keiv Eulletiv, No. 9, 1910, p. 355, and 

 the article in which they appear is rei)roduced here: — 



SUGAR-CANE WAX. — We are indebted to Professor 

 G. Barger, Professor of Chemistry at the I'la.^.t London College, 

 for the following review of Mr. A. Wijnberg's book in Dutch 

 on ' The Wax of the Sugar-cane, and the Possibility of its 

 Technical Production', which has been presented to Kew by 

 Professor G. van Itersen, of Delft. 



The book under review is a dissertation from the newly 

 founded botanical laboratory (Prof. O. van Itersen) of the 

 Technical High School at Delft, and deal^ in an exhaustive 

 manner with the possibility of commercially utilizing the v.-ax 

 coating of the sugar-cane. In addition, there is an account 

 of the chemistry and biological significance of vegetable 

 waxes in general. 



The botanical part of the investigation completely con- 



firmed the results of de Bary's investigations: the origin and 

 structure of the wax coating is illustrated by drawings of 

 microscopical preparations. 



Chemically, the wax of the sugar-cane was examined as 

 long ago as 1840 by Avequin {Ann. Chim. Phi/s. (ii), Vol. 75, 

 p. 28), and an analy.sis of it was made by the celebrated 

 chemist Dumas. The material for this examination was 

 obtained by carefully scraping the outside of the cane, 

 a process which is of course not applicable on a large 

 scale. The author of the present treatise has therefore used 

 another method, starting from the so-called 'filter dirt', 

 a waste product of the Java sugar industry. When the 

 cane is crushed, and sul )secpiently extracted with hot water, 

 nearly all the epidermal wax passes into the crude juice, 

 where it remains suspended, until the juice is purified by the 

 addition of lime and subsequent boiling, when the wax is 

 carried down in the precipitate formed. Thus on filtration 

 the wax is found in the so-called 'filter dirt' which remains 

 in the filter press, and wdiich may contain 10 per cent, or 

 more of wax. 



By extracting fresh filter dirt with ligroine (light petrol- 

 eum) a complicated mixture is obtained, consisting mostly of 

 fats (glycerides of oleic and linolic acids), and about .30 per 

 cent, of wax. If the filter dirt has fermented for some time, 

 the fats have disappeared and the ligroine extract consists 

 mostly of the wax, which is more resistant to bacterial action. 

 The wax may be separated from fats l;iy crystallization from 

 ligroine, in which it is less .soluble; it then consists chiefly of 

 myricyl alcohol and a substance of the formula Cg gH,. ^0. 



The crude cane wax, thus obtained, melts above 80° and 

 is still dark-coloured. It may be bleached by means of chlor- 

 ine, when it is, however, attacked to .some extent. The col- 

 ouring matter may also lie removed by adding fuller's earth 

 or a .similar substance to the melted or dissolved wax, and 

 allowing to settle The product, refined by this mechanical 

 process, closely resembles the valuable Carnauba wax, ob- 

 tained from the Brazilian palm Copernicia cerifera. It would 

 appear that the latter wax can be replaced in most cases by 

 cane wax, so that there ought to be a market for the latter 

 article. The author advises sugar works to keep their filter 

 dirt and let it ferment, with a view to ultimate extraction. 

 The extraction of the crude material is being started in Java, 

 where, it is calculated, more than 4,000 tons of wax should 

 annually be obtainable. At present, it is impossible to estim- 

 ate the commercial value of cane wax with an}- degree of 

 accuracy. Smce it is much harder than beeswax, and closely 

 resembles Carnaulia wax, it is thought that it might be almost 

 as valuable as the latter article, which is worth at least \\d. 

 per tti. The author estimates the cost of producing refined 

 cane wax on the large scale at Id. to 'id. per lb. 



In the development of a chemical industry the utilization 

 of waste products is often of great importance; whether the 

 wax of the sugar-cane can be utilized technically remains to 

 be seen; but in any case, Mr. Wijnberg's book is a most im- 

 portant contribution towards the .solution of the problem. 



The A'/ricultural Gazette of Neir South Wales, 1910 

 p. 219, gives the results of the examination of bare patches 

 of land on which attempts had been made to grow grass for 

 five years. It was found that the soil in these patches con- 

 tained more than '25 per cent, of manganese, while where 

 the grass grew well there was none. The opinion is e.xpressed 

 that manganese compounds in the soil become poisonous to 

 plants on account of oxidation. 



