SORGlifM. 



703 



ry firmly in place, and yet 

 with :d, thus admitting a thicker 



Adapting themselves to it, Mini e\p! 



ice more iinil'iirnily. The main roller 



should In.' twenty-tour inches in diameter, nnd 



iy within flanges on the ends of the 



smaller ones, ii prevent escape of the canes or 



juiri'. A common !*p.-cd <>f the rollers is from 



to thirty feet per minute; but fifteen, or 



n would 1)0 bettor, though to do tho 



Rime wrrk tin- construction must in such case 



. Mr. Clough estimates tho capacity 



of a horso, working without unnecessary wa*to 



.vrr ill friction, upon a mill in good order 



and with fresh cam*, at forty gallons of juico 



p. r hour; so that, a>-uming this aa the work 



<-t' one horse-power for the given time, and 



hundred gallons of juice per acre as tho 



o product of good fresh cane, it follows 

 that, generally, each horse-power employed 

 should grind at the rate of one-third of an acre 

 of cane per day of ten hours. In practice, how- 

 ever, to effect so much work, the team must bo 

 alternated every two or three hours. 



The Sorghum Juice and its Purification. Dr. 

 C. T. Jackson, of 13o:-ton, in tho year 1857 ex- 

 amined chemically tho juice of the sorgho and 

 iinpheo, from parts of Massachusetts and from 

 Washington, D. 0. Of two Massachusetts sam- 

 ple-;, Chinese, taken before and during flower- 

 ing, the specific gravities were 1.044 and 1.036 ; 

 and tho saccharine matter, 10.5 and 9.36 per 

 cent, of the weight, was decided to be glucose. 

 Of four Washington samples of African cane, 

 taken from the early milk up to quite ripe, the 

 specific gravities ranged from 1.048 to 1.065, 

 and the sugar from 12.6 to 15.9 per cent., this 

 being cane sugar in all the cases, save in that 

 matured; while, of the single sample of 

 Chinese cane, tho specific gravity was 1.062, 

 flnd the yield of cane sugar 16.6 per cent., near- 

 ly all crystallized. 



The quantity of juice usually obtained from 

 well-trimmed and good canes, is stated to be 

 about fifty per cent, of their weight. The pro- 

 portion of saccharine matter in the juice, vary- 

 ing, of course, with the sort of cane, soil, sea- 

 tun, etc., is such that from about six to twelve 

 gallons of the former are required to afford one 

 gallon t)f ordinarily thick syrup tho canes in 

 about the latitude of Virginia yielding a much 

 richer juice than those grown toward the limit 

 northward, (ic'ierally, with cane well matured 

 and from a warn and light soil, the juice should 

 afford from thirteen to sixteen per cent, of its 

 weight in dry saccharine matter, and of this, 

 under the be>t modes of manufacture, a large 

 proportion should be crystallizable cane sugar. 

 Mr. Cook recommends, for the making of sugar, 

 to trim the canes well and cut them at the mid- 

 dle also, u>ing only the lower half, tho upper 

 being reserved for syrup; but sugar is also 

 made from the juice of the stalk entire. 



'1 he raw or green sorghum juice, is, as al- 

 ready intimated, highly impure, containing, be- 

 sides some fructose, vegetable acid, and saline 



substances, also albiminous and coloring mat- 



at least partially in solution, with 

 incuts of the fibrous and cellular structure of 

 the plant, earthy particles, etc., in su-peiiMon. 

 Tin- tads indicate the both of neutral- 



ixing and defecating tho juice with care. The 

 practice in respect to neutrali/ing i.-> not very 

 uniform. For both purposes lime or equi . 

 materials are quite generally in use, hov> 

 though, for defecation proper, the reliance is 

 rather on the application of heat. The juice is 

 tested for acidity with litmus paper, the use of 

 which must be learned in practice. If tho blue 

 of the paper bo changed to scarlet, crimson, or 

 pink, tho juice taken in the quantity of a 

 charge, or in that required for an hour's run 

 should bo treated at brief intervals with por- 

 tions of fresh lime-water, stirred to the consist- 

 ency of milk, and (Mr. Clough advises) until 

 the color first imparted by the acid juice is 

 changed back from scarlet to crimson, crimson 

 to pink, or pink to purple. 



For arresting or preventing fermentation in 

 tho juice, as well as to aid in defecating it, the 

 bisulphite of lime in solution may be added 

 one or two pints to the one hundred gallons 

 to the juice as it flows from the mill ; quicklime, 

 in such case, to be further added during the 

 boiling, to neutralize the sulphuric acid formed. 

 The alkalies and their carbonai.es, of course, 

 also servo well for neutralizing acidity; but 

 while the carbonates produce effervescence, and 

 any of these substances imparts to the syrup a 

 flat alkaline taste, none of them promotes ccag- 

 ulation to the same extent as lime. Concen- 

 trating the juice directly, without neutralizing, 

 a lighter colored syrup is often secured ; but it 

 is both less pure and less sweet, and is liable to 

 ferment in warm weather. By many the litne 

 is added to the juice in the first evaporating 

 pan ; and in such case its action may bo aided 

 by the use at the same time of bullock's blood. 



At whatever stage lime is used, or if not so 

 at all, it appears to be generally admitted that 

 a proper defecation of the juice requires that it 

 be brought at the outset into speedy and active 

 ebullition ; a plentiful green scum is then thrown 

 up, which, to prevent its redisseminatiou in a 

 fine state through the syrup, should be removed 

 as completely as possible. The character of the 

 scum, indeed, successively changes, until at the 

 last a yellowish or whiti.-h crust, sometimes 

 termed "cane cum," appears (Mr, Cook says is 

 ''precipitated r j, this separating most thorough- 

 ly from syrup kept at tho boiling temperature 

 without active ebullition, and its removal being 

 by many considered indispensable to the fitting 

 of a syrup for granulation. To remove any 

 form of scum ell'ectually, and especially this, 

 there should be some cooler portion or portions 

 of the charge of juice or syrup in the pan, tho 

 surface of which is quiet, as can with long 

 shallow pans be effected in various ways; and 

 this consideration has influenced the construc- 

 tion of many of the sorghum-juice evaporators 

 in use. 



