2G 



The desiccations were to be made in flat dishes partly filled with loose 

 asbestos or clean sand. The purity co efficient of the juice as shown 

 by the spindles appeared too low to permit so large a yield of dry sugar. 

 As was expected, the total solids as determined by direct weighing 

 were found considerably less than were indicated by the spindles. The 

 ratio of each variation was not the same, but a largeuumber of deter- 

 minations established a mean rate of variation which will make it pos- 

 sible to approximately correct the reading of the common spindle. At 

 Magnolia last year similar experiments were made with the juices of 

 the sugar-cane, but these were not extensive enough to fix the rate of 

 variation for those juices. Following is a record of some of the work 

 done here: 



Comparison of total solids. 



The determinations in hydrogen were made in a specially constructed 

 apparatus, consisting of glass cylinder furnished with a glass stopper 

 carrying two tubes with stop-cocks for displacing the air with an at- 

 mosphere of hydrogen. The juice was absorbed by a dried paper coil 

 and supported in the cylinder on a disk of wire gauze resting on a lead 

 tripod. The cylinder contained 25 CC of strong sulphuric acid. The 

 cylinder carrying the coil was placed in a steam bath filled with dried 

 hydrogen at 100. The stop-cocks were then, closed and the whole ap- 

 paratus left at the temperature of the steam for five hours. The sul- 

 phuric acid absorbed all the*moisture, and after cooling and filling the 

 cylinder with dried air the coil was removed and weighed in a closed 

 holder. 



The determinations in flat dishes were made by drying 2.5 to 3 grams 

 of the juice at 102 for five hours. Scarcely any difference was noticed 

 between the results given by tlie plain dishes and those filled with 

 sand or asbestos, except in the work at Conway Springs. 



In the determinations made here in plain dishes the percentage 

 of total solids was 4.68 per cent, less than by the spindle. In the de. 

 terminations in hydrogen they were 6.94 per cent. less. The determina- 

 tions in hydrogen, therefore, will show 2.26 per cent, less total solids, 

 calculated on the number given by the spindle, than those obtained by 

 drying. 



At Douglass, Kans., the normal juice, calculated on the data furnished 



