BOLL MILLS. 277 



LOSS OF SrCAR IX THE BAGASSE. 



The most important point established by these analyses, is the very consider- 

 able loss of sugar, owing to the impossibility of a mill to express all the juice. 

 ^"e otieu hear of bagasse as coming from the mill " perfectly dry ;" but it will 

 he seen that although the juice obtained from these canes was much greater in 

 amount (57.61 per cent i than is usually obtained in practice, still the average 

 amount of water remaining in the bagasse was 56.26 per cent, and if to this we 

 add the alcohol and water extracts of the bagasse, which would naturally con- 

 stitute the juice, we should have remaining in the bagasse (20.754-1. 48)X 

 .4576=10.17+56.26=66.43 percent of juice still remaining in the bagasse; 

 that is, 64.41 per cent of the weight of the bagasse as it came from the mill. 



Surprising as this may appear to those who have not considered it, there can 

 be no doubt but that the above is even short of the truth. 



The average amount of juice obtained was 57.01 per cent, and the total su- 

 gars in the juices averaged 14.21 per cent, or 8.19 per cent of the weight of 

 stripped cane. The average of the dry bagasses gave 13.78 per cent of total 

 sugars, or 6.31 per cent of total sugars in the fresh bagasses; it follows, there- 

 fore, that the bagasses, as they came from the mill, contained 77.05 per cent aa 

 much sugar as was expressed by the mill from the fresh canes. 



Since there was 6.31 per cent of total sugars in the fresh bagasses, it lollows 

 that the amount of sugars in the bagasse equaled 2.67 per cent of the weight 

 of the stripped cane ; also as the total sugars in the expressed juice was 14.21 

 per cent, it follows that the amount of sugars in the juices equaled 8.19 per 

 cent of the weight of the stripped cane, and, therefore, the total sugars in the 

 stripped cane was equal to 10 S6 per cent of the weight of the cane; and there 

 was lost in the bagasse 24.62 per cent of the total sugar present in the cane. 



That this estimate falls short of the truth is obvious, when we consider that 

 the juices were analyzed the day they were expressed, while the bagasses in 

 drying had lost much of their sugar through fermentation, as was seen to be 

 true in the analyses of fresh juices aa compared with the analyses of the same 

 juices when dried. 



Since the water contained In the plant is far more than sufficient to hold in 

 solution all the susars present, there appears no good reason to doubt that the 

 juice left in the bagasse is identical in its composition with that expressed ; 

 but if we examine the average results of the analyses of juices and bagasses in 

 the table, we find that the per cent of sucrose in the total sugars of the juices 

 was 90 92, while in the bagasses it was 72.13; while, if we examine certain of 

 the ai.alyses, we find a discrepancy still greater. For example, analysis, 

 (page 223) of the juice of Link's Hybrid, gives us in the juice 95.39 per 

 cent of sucrose and 4.61 percent of glucose in the total sugars; while the 

 analysis of the bagasse from this cane shows the two sugars to be in this ra- 

 tio: G'.ucose, 4S.74 per cent; sucrose, 51.23 per cent. 



Such a result is, beyond question, due to the fact that, during the process of 

 drying the badasses, there had been an inversion of much of the sucrose, and 

 in all probability a lo£S of glucose by fermentation. 



Prof". Geo. H. Cook, director of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, at New Brunswick, in the report on his work, alludes to the waste in the 



