44 



in purity by 5.6 degrees. The farmers 7 explanations for this are: first, 

 late planting ; second, early frosts. In some cases the seed were 

 dropped after June 1st, and in all cases the leaves were killed by the 

 frosts which occurred this year on the 4th of October, or ten days 

 earlier than usual. Late orange sorghum, in particular, seems to have 

 suffered by these conditions, for while the cane was very large and ap- 

 parently well developed, its juice averaged less than 6.5 per cent, of 

 sugar. Its seed crop was practically worthless, for a very small propor- 

 tion of tops had matured. In 1887 this variety was well developed when 

 the first frost killed the cane leaves. Its juice then contained, approxi- 

 mately, 10 per cent, of sugar. 



A comparison of the analyses credited to the cane and to the diffusion 

 juices leads to the following calculations: One hundred pounds of solid 

 matter, i. <?., sugar, etc., existed on the average in 715 pounds of cane 

 juice, or in 920 pounds of diffusion juice; that is, cane juice was diluted 

 28.6 per cent, by the diffusion process. If a similar calculation is made 

 from the records for the season of 1887, the dilution will be fixed at 25.4 

 per cent. The decreased purity of the diffusion juice was, each year, 

 identical ; it amounted to 2.1 degrees. 



The exhausted chips, or diffusion bagasse, which represented 1 ton 

 of field sorghum, contained on the average, in 1887, 40^ - pounds of 

 sugar, or 35 per cent, of the total amount present in the cane. In 1888 

 the losses of sugar in exhausted chips amounted to 22-^- pounds, or 21 

 per cent, of the total amount present in the average cane for that year. 



In 1887 the diffusion juice was concentrated in an open evaporator 

 with the aid of steam ; it was reduced by this treatment to a fraction 

 more than one-third of its original volume, at an expense of 4.3 degrees 

 of purity, which was probably due to inversion of its sugar by heat. 

 In 1888 the flame from burning fuel oil came in contact with the bottom 

 of the evaporator; the diffusion juice passed in an unbroken stream 

 over this heated surface, and was thereby reduced to less than one-half 

 of its original volume. Its purity was decreased on the average by less 

 than 1 degree. 



The following will serve as a summary : In 1887, 65 per cent., in 1888, 

 79 per cent., of the total sugar in the cane was extracted. In this re- 

 spect, therefore, the improvement has been very great. The diffusion 

 process, in 1887, diluted cane juice by 25.4 percent.; in 1888 this dilu- 

 tion amounted to 28.6 per cent. 



The purity of the cane juice was influenced each year iu the same 

 manner and to the same extent, viz: decreased by 2.1 degrees. The 

 concentration of the diffusion juice was accomplished in 1888 with con- 

 siderable less than the usual losses by inversion. 



