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Bad fe 2 REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. 249 
, thaws with very little change, and at the time of the closing of the 
house it was still up to the average of the season in purity. 
CRY, The cane was worked after this date at intervals in the diffusion 
- battery until November 22. The cane brought in at this time was 
frozen solidly, but the juice was in good condition. Warm weather 
having intervened from the 22d to the 26th, the cane was sampled 
and tested on November 26 with the intention of making a run for 
sugar on December 1. Other matters having interfered this was not 
carried out. There is not the shghtest doubt that good sugar crys- 
tals could have been obtained until December 1. 
This cane has at last been weakened by the unusually severe 
weather during the past week. Itis falling down badly and is only 
fit for sirup on this date, December 7. . 
The sugar per acre could have been increased fully 23 per cent. on 
this geason’s work by good extraction. It must not be overlooked 
that the raw sugar made this season would have to be reduced from 
20 to 25 per cent. in order to make it chemically pure. 
Another source of loss to which I desire to call your attention is 
in the harvesting of the seed. The seed tops are cut off, spread on 
the fields to dry, stacked up, and afterwards thrashed. By this 
method we rarely obtain more than 14 bushels of seed from a ton of 
field cane. There is a constant lossin the field during the drying by 
the seed shelling out and the ravaging of birds. Field mice and rats © 
also attack the stacks. Samples of seed tops carefully saved from 
these same fields show an average yield, on well-developed canes, of 
3 bushels per ton. If this seed could be saved it would be of sufficient 
value to pay the coal bill for working up the crop in this place. 
In making the above statements I wish it to be distinctly under- 
stood that neither time nor expense was spared in order to make these 
records accurate, the house being frequently delayed in order that the 
records might be secured. 
I believe that a ton of field cane is too uncertain a factor to be used 
‘as a standard for calculation, as it varies considerably in wet and dry 
weather. Wagons containing 3,000 pounds of cane, as it comes from 
the field, will increase to 3,400 pounds and more by being rained on. 
There is a variation in the weight of the cane before and after frost; ~ 
also in the percentage of leaves of the large and small canes. For 
these reasons it is better # use clean chips prepared for the battery 
or an acre of ground. : 
It might be worth while to state that this sugar-house, with slight 
alteration, could be made to work 25 tons per day, having frequently 
worked at this rate from six to eight hours. 
‘Believing that sorghum-sugar manufacture is to be an established 
industry and that reports of this nature will have an attraction for 
the general public, | have written in this simple style and tried to 
__ avoid technicalities. Those who wish the details I refer to the re- 
, pone of your chemists, Messrs. Broadbent and Edson, who, I believe, 
ave faithfully recorded the workings of the house; also to the re- 
port of the experimental station of New Jersey, soon to be issued. 
Respectfully, 
H. A. HUGHES, 
Hon. Norman J. Cotman, Superintendent. 
Commissioner of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
Notr.—For further information concerning the sorghum-sugar industry in New 
Jersey see Dr. Neale’s Bulletin No. 44 of the New Jersey Experiment Station. 
