134 THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 
organic matters, such as wax and chlorophyl,* which 
impart a disagreable taste to the syrup. 
TRON ROLLERS BETTER THAN WOODEN ROLLERS. 
An idea may be had of the imperfection of Colonel 
Peters’ mill, when we reflect that whilst with it he ob- 
tained but fifty per cent. of juice, Dr. Robert Battey, by 
pressing and subsequent evaporation, got 84} per cent. of 
sap and only 153 of woody fiber. It is found by numerous 
experiments, that with proper machinery, seventy per 
cent. should be obtained as an average product, and 
when we consider that with only fifty per cent. Mr. Peters 
actually worked up an average crop of 407 gallons of 
syrup per acre, my reader will doubtless agree with me 
that the difference on a single acre between the syrup 
from thirty or forty and seventy per cent. of sap would 
more than warrant the substitution of an iron rollerfor a 
wooden roller mill. 
AMOUNT OF SACCHARINE MATTERS VARY IN DIFFERENT CASES. 
The different writers on the sorgho, who have experi- 
mented with the sap, give various accounts of its richness. 
* This chlorophyl (green coloring matter) injures the quality of the 
juice expressed from the sorgho in the large processes of manufacture, 
and therefore as, both in the West Indian Cane and the Chinese Sugar 
Cane, the greater saccharine richness lies in the lower parts of the 
stalk, these nearest the butt, it is advisable to cut off about two 
and a half or three feet of stalk, when the seed heads are removed; 
and all the leaves of stalks intended for sugar or syrup making should 
be removed. 
