CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE JUICE. 239 
obtained have occurred in those experiments in which I feared to 
have used too much lime.” 
Subjoined is an extract of another letter from M. Madinier, of 
Paris, on the same subject : 
“ Up to the present time, the making of sugar from the sorgho has 
received but little attention, in France, owing to the present state of 
commerce, which makes it much more advantageous to convert the 
cane into alcohol than into sugar. Aside from this fact, it is certain, 
that from this plant crystallizable sugar can be extracted similar in 
every respect to that made from the cane of the tropics. Of this, I 
entertain the highest conviction, which is supported by authentic, 
though not very numerous, facts. * * * * * The stalks of the 
sorgho contain crystallizable sugar, without furnishing a greater 
quantity of molasses than the cane. An experiment made at Ver- 
riéres, with Clerget’s apparatus, showed the juice to contain 16 per 
cent. of sugar, of which there are only 103 per cent. crystallizable, 
and 5% per cent. uncrystallizable ; yet we can by no means depend 
upon aresult gained from plants grown in the Department of the 
Seine and Oise, in a climate altogether beyond the range adapted to 
the sorgho.” 
Thus it will be seen that the making of sugar has been much aided 
by science. It was a philosophical chemist who first introduced the 
vacuum-pan method into use, by which such facility was given, with a 
remarkable reduction of the price of the article, to the refining of 
sugar. It has been by the application of chemical science in France 
that the sugar from the beet root, the produce of that country, has 
been able to compete with cane sugar, affording a remarkable instance 
of the conquest, and it may be said, the triumph, effected by science, 
as the proportion of saccharine juice of that root is only about half 
as much as that of the cane, and is mixed with substances more diffi- 
cult of separation, and more injurious in their reaction. Let the 
same skill, directed by science, be applied to the making of sugar 
from the Sorgho sucré, and we may reasonably expect the happiest- 
results. 
