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904 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER“ OF poet ee aoe) 
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as shown by the analyses, led many to believe that the reactions | 
were largely due to some other substance than cane sugar. 
‘ 
EARLY INVESTIGATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF - 
AGRICULTURE, : 
1 
During the years 1878 to 1882, inclusive, while Dr. Peter Collier . 
_ was chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture, much attention — 
_-was given to the study of sorghum juices from canes cultivated in> 
the gardens of the Department, at Washington. Dr. Collier became | 
an enthusiastic believer in the future greatness of sorghum as a 
sugar-producing plant, and the extensive series of analyses s published 
by him attracted much attention from sugar-makers in the South 
and students of the chemistry of sugar throughout the COUDENT 
SUGAR FACTORIES ERECTED IN KANSAS. » 
Stimulated by the analytical results publ — by Dr. Collier, in- 
terested parties erected large sugar factories and provided them with 
costly appliances. Bee John Benny worth erected one of these at 
Larned, in this State. S. A. Liebold & Co. subsequently erected one * 
at Great Bend. Both of these factories made some sugar, both lost 
money, and both quit the business. 
Sterling and Hutchinson followed with factories which made con- 
siderable amounts of merchantable sugar at no profit. 
5 
INFORMATION GAINED. 
Much valuable information was developed by the experience in 
these several factories, but the most important of all was the fact 
that, with the best crushers, the average extraction did not exceed 
half of the sugar contained in the cane. 
FURTHER WORK OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRI- 
CULTURE. 
In 1883, Prof. H. W. Wiley, chief chemist of the Department of 
Agriculture, made an exhaustive series of practical experiments in 
the laboratories of the Department on the extraction of the sugars 
from sorghum by the diffusion process. His report sums up the re- 
sults of his experiments as follows: : 
(1) The extraction of at least 85 per cent. of the total sugars present was secured. 
In many of the experiments, as will be seen by consulting the table, scarcely a 
trace of sugar could be detected in the exhausted chips. 
2) The production of a quantity of melada represented by from 10.9 to 12.28 per 
cent. of the weight of the cane diffused. 
This was secured with a cane in which the total sugars did not excede 11.68 per 
cent. The percentage of melada by this process will be found just about eau to_ 
the per cent. of total sugars in the cane. 
It ought to be greater with a more perfect extraction, but I am speaking only of 
results actually obtained. 
This yield is just about double that obtained by the large factories at Rio Grande, 
ean, and other places. 
(3) The production of a juice of great purity, which lends itself easily to pro-- 
cesses of depuration. 
I consider the experiments, however, to have the’r chief value in the fact that they 
will call the attention of cane-growers to the advantages which a rational system > 
of diffusion will have over pressure in the extraction of the saccharine matter. ~~’ 
I hope to be able at the end of another season to report further progress in this 
interesting problem. 
