886 SORGHUM. 



being lost in molasses; in the bagasse, 6 per cent; in molasses, 3 per cent; in 

 skimmings, 2 J per cent; raw sugar, 6^ per cent. 



A De La Coruilliere, in his work on the " Culture of the Sugar-cane 

 and Sugar Manufacture in Louigiaua," says : 



It is a well-known fact that the cane, after several pressures, even as many 

 as eight or ten, still j^elds juice, and that a complete exhaustion can only be 

 obtained by dissolving the saccharine substances inclosed in the cellular 

 tissues. 



In commenting upon these statements, Mr. Bouchereau, in his report 

 on sugar, says : 



The startling facts, so well attested, that 40 per cent of the sugar products of 

 Louisiana, through all her great past, secured in the culture, have been lost 

 through the inadequacy of the machinery employed in manufacture; that 

 nearly one-half the product has been cast awaj^ from countless thousands of 

 fields of cane, exiending back through so many years, indeed generations; is 

 certainly calculated to arouse the interest, not only of sugar planters, but of so- 

 ciety at large, in all its classes and conditions, in the question of sugar produc- 

 tion for the future, not here onh', but every-where. 



A writer in the Rami New Yorker says: 



From some careful chemical analyses of, and practical experiments with, sor- 

 ghum-cane growing on the University farm it appears, that, from the proximate 

 analj^sis of the cane, one acre of sorghum produces 2,559 pounds of cane 

 sugar. Of this amount we obtained 710 pounds, on the farm, of good brown 

 sugar, and 502 pounds were left in the 7;!7 pounds of molasses drained from 

 the sugar. Hence, 62 per cent of the total amount of sugar was lost during 

 the process of manufacture. This shows that the method of manufacture in 

 general use is very imperfect. The 710 pounds of sugar, at 8 cents per pound, 

 would bring $50.80. The molasses is worth, at 25 cents per gallon, $17.7."), or 

 the products of an acre of sorghum would bring $75.55. There is no question 

 that, with proper care and apparatus, the above yield can be readily doubled. 



In the above it will be observed that there is no allowance made for 

 seed and forage. And he concludes : 



Nearly two-thirds of the sugar, as has been said, is left in the bagasse. This 

 could, in great part, be removed by percolation with water, as is done sometimes 

 in the manufacture of beet sugar. 



Analyses of Bagasses from Sugar-cane. 

 The following analyses of bagasses from sugar-cane will show the 

 extent of this loss in sugar: 



