310 SORGHUM. 



ulatcd with as great economy as are th« juices of sugar-cane, if only 

 due care is exercised. 



• Of course, this loss of 10 per cent of the sugar is due to such portions • 

 as are lost in the scum and sediments of defecation, and in the skimming 

 necessary during the evaporation to syrup. As these experiments were 

 necessarily upon a very small scale, using rarely, for each experiment, 

 more than a quart of juice (since, as has been mentioned, our entire 

 plat of sorghum, of sixty-four varieties, only equaled two-ninths of an 

 acre), it is fair to presume that the losses sustained by working such 

 small amounts were much greater in proportion than would be neces- 

 sary when working with larger quantities. 



By reference to page 61 of the Annual Report for 1879, it was said, 

 as the result of certain experiments that year : 



We may hope, then, to secure in syrup 90 per cent of the crystallizable sugar 

 present in the juices operated upon. 



And in the Annual Report for 1881-82, page 500, it is said of the 

 experiments made in 1881 : 



The results show, that, in the fortj' experiments made, the amount cf 

 sucrose recovered in the syrups, was 87.5 per cent of the actual amount in 

 the juice. 



There remains only to speak of the character of the syrups produced 

 in the seventy-eight experiments following. In Table B, a column 

 is given, which describes the physical character of the several syrups 

 made, and, as will be seen, in neai'ly every case, crystals of sugar were 

 present, while, in a very large number, the syrup was a semi-solid 

 mass of sugar and molasses. 



In the fourteen experiments which were made quantitatively, eleven 

 of the syrups were a solid mass of crystals ; in tw'O of them, two-thirds 

 of the syrups Avas semi-solid with sugar; and in the remaining sample, 

 the syrup contained a few crystals of sugar, but the analysis showed that 

 this one had not been evaporated quite to the point of good crystalli- 

 zation. All of the seventy-eight experiments were made by open pan 

 evaporation. 



As evidence of the character of the juices used in these fourteen 

 experiments, it will be seen that their average analysis was : 



Specific gravity, 1 0786. 



Per cent. 



Sucrose 13 646 



tilucose 1696 



Solids not sugar 2 032 



Pohiriziition 13 048 



Available sugar 9 298 



And the per cent of syrup made from the juices averaged 20.85. 



