234 APPENDIX. 
CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE JUICE OF THE 
SORGHO SUCRE. 
BY D. JAY BROWNE. 
Tuer sugar of commerce, it is well known, is a crystalline substance 
principally obtained by evaporating the juice of a gigantic grass 
(gramen) called “ Sugar-cane,” which is extensively cultivated for 
this purpose in regions within and adjacent to the tropics, where the 
climate admits of advantageous cultivation to the plant; although 
sugar, nearly identical in character, is manufactured in considerable 
abundance from the beet-root and maple, in countries of the northern 
temperate zone; and there is a fair prospect of success in producing 
an article of equal, if not superior quality, in the same regions, from 
another gramineous plant, the Sorgho sucré, already introduced. As 
doubts have been entertained by some as to the susceptibility of 
crystallizing the latter, the following facts and principles are pre- 
sented, not only to throw light upon the subject, but to dispel the 
skepticism of those who are thus willfully or ignorantly groping in 
the dark. 
The manufacture of sugar from the sorgho, as well as from the 
tropical cane, is beset with difficulties arising not only from the 
extreme liability and rapid change of the juice from exposure to the 
atmosphere, as it runs from the crushing mill, but often from the 
unripe state of the plant itself. Hence, in order to insure success, it 
is necessary that the process be conducted under certain conditions of 
temperature, modes of neutralizing the free acids contained in the 
juice, and the removal of the albuminous matter previous to evapora- 
tion and crystallization. 
A fresh, thin, transverse section of ripe cane is diaphanous, resem- 
bling a similar slice of an apple or turnip, when seen by the naked 
eye. Under the microscope, it exhibits a cellular structure, the 
cells containing a transparent fluid, but presenting no appearance of 
crystals nor opaque matter. If the slice be dried, it becomes altered 
in its appearance, being no longer homogenous, as seen through a 
common magnifying glass or with the unaided eye; little dots of 
opaque, whitish matter are visible, protruding, apparently, from the 
