18 REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



tained. While the experiments showed that the process of diffusion 

 ■would practically secure all the sugar in the cane, they also showed 

 that a good article of sirui^ could not he produced unless the canes 

 were moro thoroughly cleaned. This part of the work must he sub- 

 mitted to further experiments which the early close of the manufact- 

 uring season unfortunately prevented. 



Another difficulty of a chemical nature also presented itself during 

 the progress of the work, and so far no practical method of avoiding 

 it has been discovered. This is the inversion which the sucrose suf- 

 fers during the progress of diffusion, and which is caused hy the 

 acids of the cane. These acids existed in remarkably large quantities 

 in the cane used for experiments, and caused the conversion of a great 

 deal of the crystallizable into uncrystallizable sugar. This dimin- 

 ished the product of the sugar and correspondingly increased the 

 output of molasses. Experiments were made looking to the avoid- 

 ance of this difficulty by making the water of diffusion alkaline. 

 These, however, were not practically successful. Better results were 

 obtained by using the carbonate of lime freshly precipitated or in the 

 state of an impalpable powder, like powdered chalk. With the ex- 

 ception above mentioned the experiments were attended with encour- 

 aging results. 



(5) Experiments with sugar-cane from Louisiana. — These ex- 

 periments were undertaken as preliminary to the work which the 

 Department proposes to do in Louisiana next year. About 150 tons 

 of cane were sent by Hon. E. J. Gay, and the experiments were made 

 during the first half of November. The most brilliant success at- 

 tended these experiments, some 40 pounds per ton of sugar being 

 obtained above the results obtained in Louisiana by the average 

 milling. 



These experiments prove beyond a doubt the easy applicability of 

 diffusion and carbonatation or some similar process to the extraction 

 of sugar from sugar-cane. By the introduction of this procedure 

 into Louisiana the yield of sugar would be increased fullj^ one-third 

 over its present amount from a given weight of cane. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL DIVISION. 



The value of the work of this division was set forth in my last re- 

 port to you, and is so well known to the farming and industrial com- 

 munity as to call for no comment. The appreciation of the work, 

 however, is not confined to this country, and I observe with some 

 pride the favor with which the publications of this division are re- 

 ceived in other countries, as evidenced by letters of acknowledgment 

 sent to me and by honors conferred upon the Entomologist. A marked 

 evidence of the importance now attached to applied entomology abroad 

 is shown in the appointment of a government entomologist for Eng- 

 land, and in the holding on the Continent of an international exhi- 



