18 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



is extensively used in the manufacture 

 of wines and brandies, lias no bearing on 

 the present discussion for the reason 

 that the value of potable liquors bears 

 but little relation to the amounts of al- 

 cohol which they contain, but is governed' 

 almost entirely by the qualities of their 

 flavors and aromas. 



Molasses — Beet molasses, a refuse from 

 the manufacture of beet sugar, is used on 

 a very large scale abroad, and in several 

 distilleries in the country, as a raw ma- 

 terial for alcohol production. Usually, it 

 contains about 50 per cent of sugar, and 

 it generally needs only to be diluted and 

 acidified to prepare it for fermentation. 

 Sometimes a lot will not ferment readily, 

 but generally it is worked without any 

 difficulty. A ton should yield from 7.5 to 

 80 gallons of alcohol. At $15 per ton, the 

 raw material for a gallon of alcohol will 

 cost 19 or 20 cents. 



Cane molasses contains usually about 

 25 per cent of water, 20 per cent of non- 

 saccharine solids, and 55 per cent of su- 

 gars. The following figures show the 

 composition of two samples of typical dis- 

 tillery molasses of different origins, one 

 being a Louisiana blackstrap and the 

 other a Porto Rican molasses. 



Analyses of Two Typical Kinds of 

 Molasses 



rnrto 

 Determination Louisiana Rican 



Per cent Per cent 



Water 23.5 24.3 



Sucrose 26. G 35.8 



Reducing sugars 29.1 18.3 



Nonsugars 20.8 21.6 



Total 100.0 100.0 



Almost invariably cane molasses needs 

 only to be diluted and yeasted to enter 

 Into vigorous fermentation. It is com- 

 mon, however, for molasses distillers to 

 add a certain amount of acid to the fer- 

 menting solutions to prevent bacteria 

 from invading them and setting up false 

 fermentations. In some cases sulphuric 

 acid is used for this purpose, as in the 

 beet molasses distilleries, but it is 

 equally common, and probably wiser, to 

 use sour distillery slop to produce the 

 desired acidity. A ton of molasses, hav- 

 ing the composition of the Louisiana 



sample given in the table, will have a 

 volume of about 173 gallons and yield ap- 

 proximately 85 gallons of alcohol. At 

 three cents per gallon, for which such 

 molasses could be bought only a few years 

 ago. the cost of the material for a gallon 

 of alcohol would be little over six cents. 

 The increasing utilization of molasses as 

 a feeding stuff has advanced its price to 

 from 6 to 10 cents, but at some planta- 

 tions it is probably still cheap enough 

 to retain its old position as a most ad- 

 vantageous raw material for the distiller. 



Sorghum — A large number of analyses 

 made in the Bureau oi Chemistry* indi- 

 cates that the juice of saccharine sorg- 

 hum has the following average composi- 

 tion: 



Per cent. 



Water 81.4 



Sucrose 12.7 



Reducing sugars 1.1 



Undetermined solid matters 4.8 



Total 100.0 



With a light horse-driven mill, about 

 60 per cent of the weight of the topped 

 and cleaned cane can be obtained in the 

 form of juice. With a heavy mill, such 

 as is used in cane-sugar manufacture, 

 an extraction of at least 75 per cent 

 should be obtained. An extraction cor- 

 responding to 65 per cent of the weight 

 of the cleaned stalks may, therefore, be 

 considered a fair average. On this basis 

 a yield of about 14 gallons of 180-degree 

 alcohol per ton of cleaned stocks would 

 be obtained. If the latter could be de- 

 livered at the distillery at a cost of 

 $3 per ton, the material for a gallon of 

 alcohol would represent a value of about 

 21 cents. A relatively slight improve- 

 ment in the quality of the juice and in 

 the extraction would lower the cost of 

 material per unit of production very much. 

 Thus, 1,000 pounds of the juice of the 

 Colman sorghum, containing 14.42 per 

 cent of sucrose and 1.10 per cent of re- 

 ducing sugars, should yield about 12% 

 gallons of 180-degree alcohol. The yields 

 of alcohol to be expected from a ton of 

 cleaned Colman stalks, and the cost of 



* X\ R. Denartment Agriculture. Division of 

 riiemlstry. Bulletin n4, pp. 2.'? ct seQ. 



