310 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



JUICE FROM CHIPS PASSED THROUGH EXPERIMENTAL MILL. 



From tlie analyses of tlie juices it is seen tliat the chips entering 

 tlie battery from October 15 to the close of the season contained — 



Per cent. 



Sucrose 6. 48 



Glucose 3. 31 



Glucose per hundred of sucrose 51. 07 



Leaving otit of the computation the analyses of the chips in closed 

 bottles, the following average character of the cane for the entire sea- 

 son is obtained: 



Mean pm-ity, 53.9; mean glucose per 100 sucrose, 43.84. 



AvaOable su^ar, calculated by taking difference between sucrose and all other solids, viz, 1.15 per 

 cent. = 33 pounds per ton. 



It will be interesting to compare these numbers with those obtained 

 at Magnolia Station, Louisiana, in 1885, and recorded in Bulletin No. 

 11, pp. 11, 12. 



Per cent. 



Total solids iii cane 14. 22 



Total sucrose in cane 10. 90 



Total glucose in cane 92 



Mean purity 76. 6 



Mean glucose per 100 sucrose 8. 44 



Available sugar calculated as before, viz, 7,58 per cent.=151.6 pounds per ton. 



It thus clearly appears from a careful study of the analytical data 

 that the sorghum canes entering the battery at Fort Scott were totally 

 unfit for sugar-making. 



No known process, save an act of creation, could ha^e made sugar 

 successfully out of such material. 



If nothing better than this can be obtained,' then it is time to de- 

 clare the belief in an indigenous sorghum-sugar industry a delusion. 

 This subject will be mentioned again in the summary. 



A general review of the data connected with this interesting problem 

 shows that with fresh chips of fine quality the natural acidity is capa- 

 ble of producing no ax)preciable inversion during treatment'in an ex- 

 traction flask or while under pressure in the battery. With the dete- 

 rioration of the cane, however, and consequent increasing acidity, this 

 inversion becomes very great. In other Avords, the natural acids of 

 the cane, such as malic and acouitic, are incapable of pr(.)(lucing any 

 appreciable inversion ; but the accidental acid (acetic) which comes 

 from deterioration may cause an inversion of the sucrose in a most 

 marked degree. The most practical method of avoiding this danger 

 appears to me to be a mechanical contrivance which will sprinkle 

 evenly over the entering chips 2 or 3 pounds of fine slaked lime or 

 double that quantity of fine calcium carbonate to each cell of chips. 



As has already been noted, every other attempt to neutralize the 

 dangerous acids of the cane in a practical way has failed. 



