14 CHAPTER II 



Distribution of Sugar in the Cane. By far the most detailed analyses 

 of the cane, joint by joint, are those that have been made by Went 6 in Java. 

 One series of his analyses of ripe twelve-months old plant cane is given 

 below : 



COMPOSITION OF THE CANE JOINT BY JOINT (WENT). 



The variation in composition of the juice in the nodes and internodes 

 is shown in the following analyses due to Boname 7 : 



Nodes . . 

 Internodes 



Sugar, per cent. . . . . 13* 34 I2 74 l6 * 73 



Reducing Sugars, per cent. .. 0*29 0-28 0*31 



Sugar, per cent. .. .. 16-51 16-80 19-72 



Reducing Sugars, per cent. .. 0-60 0-84 0*48 



Stubbs 8 gives the following as the result of analyses of twenty stalks of 

 purple cane : 



Nodes 

 Internodes 



Brix. 



15-94 

 17-40 



The great variation in composition of the juice at nodes and internodes is 

 well shown in the examples quoted above, whereby an explanation is given 

 of the decreased sugar content of the juice afforded by the later mills in a 

 train, the more woody parts only yielding their juice at higher pressures. 

 The matter is further discussed in Chapter XI. 



The Proportion of Sugar to Solids in the Cane. The juice extracted in 

 hand mills from selected individual canes sometimes shows a purity as high 

 as 97. This juice conies, however, almost entirely from the pith cells and 

 does not represent an average. In the case of crop averages, the purity 

 of the " mixed juice " in the Hawaiian mills for the years 1911 to 1914 

 was 84-9, with an extraction of 96-4 per cent, of the sugar in the cane. The 

 highest recorded figures for these years were over 90, and came from irrigated 

 Lahaina cane. In Java, for the years 1906 to 1911, with an extraction of 

 90*9, the purity averaged 83-9 in the mixed juice, with many examples 



