132 EEPOKT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGKICULTURE. 



The cxliaustioii of tlie euiie, therefore, is practically perfect and much 

 superior to all expectation. With unfrozen cane I do not think it would 

 be so perfect. 



After October 13 the cliaracter of the cane made any fori her experi- 

 ments useless, and the work for this season was thej-elbre discoutinued. 

 The juice from the second run was all carbonated, but the process was so 

 slow and the juice had to stand so long- in contact with the lime that the 

 product was of a much darker color than the hrst. The total weight oi 

 masse ciiite obtained, 89 jier cent, being solid matter, was 5,510 pou)uls. 

 For the 23 tons of cane carbonated this gives a yield of 20 gallons per 

 ton. 



Much loss, however, was occasioned by the frequent transfer of the 

 juice in order to secure its entire carbonatsitiou and at the same time to 

 keep it out of the way of the other products in the factory. This ntassc 

 cnite was of so poor a quality that at the date of writing (October IG) no 

 attempt has been made to swing it out. 



CARBONATATION. 



As pointed out in the experiments in carbonatation described in IJul- 

 lerin No. 3, it is evident that the process fe;o long and su snccessfnlly 

 practiced with beet juice is also capable of giving good results witJi 

 cane juices. The process is a very simple one, and consists \n a<iding 

 to the dilfusion or expressed juice a large excess of liuje an<l alterwards 

 precipitating the greater part of it with carbonic, acid. The whole is 

 then sent to the filter press, where the precipitated carbonate of limo 

 and impurities are separated from the juice. 



1 had not expected to make a trial of this process on account of the 

 fact that I feared the appropi iation would not be sufficient to carry out 

 both cxp.erimeuts. On arriving at Ottawa, I learned that the sugar 

 company had two filter i^resses, an air-pump, and two pans, which could 

 be arranged so as to give the process a trial on a large scale. Accord- 

 ingly I had a furnace constructed for furnishing carbonic acid, and the 

 rest of the a])paratus put into shape for the experiments. The furnace 

 was designed by Mr. G. L. Spencer, who also had a general supervision 

 of the entire work. 



Our former ex])eriments had shown that the process had to be carried 

 on somewhat differently from that of the beet juices, owing to the pres- 

 ence in sorghum juice of a large percentage of glucose. 



Our first esperimeuts were matle with the dilfusion juices obtained 

 Thursday, October 8. At that time the effects of the freeze had not 

 shown themselves to any great extent. It was found that about 1^ i>er 

 cent of CaO (lime) was suiiicieut to produce a perfect defecatiou of the 

 juice. On that day, as nearly as Me could estimate it, about 40,000 

 pounds of juice were carbonated, with the most giatifying results. The 

 juice came from the filter jiress perfectly limpid and of a delicate amber 

 color. After passing through a sidphur box this juice was sent to the 

 evaporators and reduced to a masne cuite^ which, in color, purity, and 

 taste was greatly superior to the best product obtained by the usual 

 method. Unfortunately our improvised air-pump broke down in the 

 middle of the work, which caused the loss of more than half of the dif- 

 fusion juice obtained which had already been limed for carbonatation. 



The carbonatation of sorghum juice, however, demands the greatest 

 care. If too little lime is added the i)recipitate does not settle readily 

 and filtration is slow and imperfect. The carbonatation must be contin- 

 ued until all but 0.2 per cent, of the lime has been removed. If more 

 than this remains the juice will darken up and become bitter on boil- 



