286 APPENDIX. 
Before submitting the canes to maceration, it is necessary to prepare 
them. They are readily broken and then submitted to the action of 
stalk-crushers, which increase their state of division, and tear apart the 
fibers containing the sweet juice. Then the latter is carried to the 
maceration vat. We recommend for this operation the employment 
of the dregs, that is to say, of the liquid remaining after the distillation 
of the juice previously treated. By this particular method, almost all 
the saline matters and the (?) immediate principles, fix themselves in 
the residue, which increase the elementary richness, at the same time 
that the acids contained in the dregs acting upon the bruised canes, 
facilitate the displacement of their sweet juice. Finally, an economy 
of water is made which is insignificant in consideration ; but what 
merits more attention is, that we have no longer to fear the influence 
of waters charged with sulphate of lime, so destructive to fermentation. 
The residues arising from the system of Champannois, (maceration 
with the use of dregs,) are most precious for agriculture,and much 
preferable to the bagasse of the mills, containing more of sugar, it is 
true, but less of salts and of fatty matters, and besides being more 
woody. With maceration, the fibers by the action of heat and acid, 
cause the commencement of a change which renders them more assimi- 
lable for cattle. The residues may be used by mixing them with dry 
forage and leaving them for a day, or a day and half, in a tub, until a 
slight fermentation is commenced, which flavors the mass. We have 
thus a very agreeable forage for cattle, and particularly excellent for 
fattening stock. To complete our remarks upon the extraction of the 
juice of the sorgho, we will say a few words concerning the process of 
F. Bourdais, an intelligent distiller from Algeria. He allows the pan- 
icles to remain upon the stalks, and causes the entire plants to pass 
under the cylinders of his mill, and then submits them all to maceration. 
The action of warm water then determining the transformation into 
sugar of the starch contained in the seed, he is enabled to make it of 
use for the production of alcohol, and by a single operation, at the 
same time that he economizes the cutting of the tufts, the stripping, 
moving, carting, and the trouble of the preparation of a certain quan- 
tity of malt to assist in fermentation. 
