132 ANNUAL REPORT 



izable sugar, or rendering the non-crystalizable sugar, glucose or 

 syrup a black opaque molasses of rank flavor. Lastly the great cost 

 of the diffusion plant places it practically beyond the reach of the 

 average sorghum manufacturers. 



The report of the Port 8cott works for 1887 shows an average 

 product of 49 pounds of sugar and 10.6 gallons of molasses to the ton 

 of field cane, and an average of lOf tons per acre, an average product 

 of 523 pounds of sugar and 113 gallons of molasses. 



The total products from four hundred and fifty acres are reported at 

 235,826 pounds of sugar and 51,000 gallons of molasses. The average 

 for the season of the analysis of the diffused juice is two and ninety- 

 five one-hundredths of sugar to one of glucose, while the ratio in 

 product is one of sugar to two and one-half (nearly) of molasses. 



In this connection the inquiry may not be impertinent as to the loss 

 of sucrose which may be sustained by reason of inversion — a source 

 of loss ably endorsed by the state of degradation established in the 

 juice by the diffusion process, and which finds ample opportunity for 

 accentuation in the time consumed after diffusion and before the 

 grain is completed in Ihe vacuum pan. 



If we allow nine pounds of the above sugar to represent one gallon 

 of molasses, we have on this account 26,203 gallons, or a total of 

 77,203 gallons of molasses (or syrup). 



The fuel account for the amount of cane worked for sugar and syrup 

 averaged, on this basis, thirty-five and one-third pounds slack coal, 

 equivalent to nearly twenty-five pounds soft coal per gallon. 



Reports from factories employing the mill and open pan evapora- 

 tion instead of diffusion and evaporation in vacuum, show an average 

 of thirteen pounds of soft coal used as fuel to the gallon of syrup 

 made — a difference of nearly fifty percent on account of fuel in favor 

 of the niill and open pan evaporation. The highest coal bill reported 

 from these factories is sixteen pounds of coal to the gallon of syrup 

 made, or a difference of thirty-three and one-third per cent in the 

 same direction. 



Again, and from the same reports, the Fort Scott factory averaged 

 sixteen gallons of molasses to the ton of field cane, having a market 

 value of twenty cents per gallon, while the mill factories averaged 

 twelve and one-half gallons of syrup to the ton of field cane, and hav- 

 ing a market value of fo»'ty cents per gallon. 



These figures cannot be taken as conclusive regarding the relative 

 merits of the two methods under consideration, — milling and diffu- 

 sion, — but they may be taken as an approximate index of what the 

 method to be employed in the future will be. 



