IX)SS OF SUGAR ry THE BAGASSE. 385 



from this cane shows the two sugars to be iu this ratio : glucose, 48.74 

 per cent; sucrose, 51.26 per cent. 



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

 process of drying the bagasses, there had been an inversion of much 

 of the sucrose, and, in all iDrobability, a loss of glucose by fermenta- 

 tion. 



Prof George H. Cook, director of the Xew Jersey Agricultural Ex- 

 perimental Station, at Xew Brunswick, in the report ou his work, al- 

 ludes to the waste in the use of the ordinary mills for extracting the 

 juice, and estimates the loss as being equal to 40 per cent of the sugar 

 present in the cane. 



When we consider the magnitude of this industry, this estimated 

 loss assumes immense proportions. Fully 3300,000,000 worth of sugar 

 is now annually produced from cane by practically the same methods 

 used in the production of sorghum sugar. According to the estimate 

 of Professor Cook, then, it appears that there is annually lost in the 

 bagasse two-thirds as much, or 8200.000,000 worth of sugar. It would 

 appear most desirable that some method be devised by which this enor- 

 mous waste may be prevented. 



Mr. S. Bringier, in a report upon the sugar production of Louisiana, 

 says : 



These considerations give some idea of the enormous losses inflicted upon 

 the sugar interest, and upon the country, bj unthrifty methods of production. 

 It is a starthng thought, that probably a hundred million pounds of sugar are 

 annually burned up in the bagasse of imperfectly treated canes. 



In Ure's Dictionary of Arts, etc.. Vol. II. page 758, it says, in ref- 

 erence to this same matter: 



The average quantity of grained sugar obtained from cane juice in our colo- 

 nial (English) plantations, is probably not more than one-third of the quantity 

 of crystallizable sugar in the juice which they boil. 



And the mills do not probably average over 60 per cent of the weight 

 of the cane iu juice, or two-thirds of the amount actually present, 

 which would show that but two-ninths of the sugar ji resent in the cane 

 was placed upon the market as sugar. 



Another eminent authority states the loss in sugar making as 

 follows : 



Eighteen per cent of sugar in the cane yields not more than 8 per cent of 

 crystallized sugar. The loss is thus accounted for : 90 per cent of juice actually 

 present yields to the mill only 50 to GO; then, in the refining, there is a loss 

 of one-fifth, and of the remainder only two-thirds is saved in boiling, one-third 



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