13 



taut fact developed by a, study of the data obtained at Conuay Springs 

 is the persistence of the sugar content in the, juice after the ca-.ie was 

 fully ripened. In localities where considerable moisture may be ex- 

 pected in the soil as a result of frequent rains during the manufactur- 

 ing season it has been noticed that there is a rapid deterioration of the 

 juices, beginning a short time after complete maturation. This has been 

 especially noticed in the experience at the Rio Grande station. It has 

 also been noticed by all careful observers of sorghum grown in ordinary 

 localities. The inspissatiou of the juices by the natural causes of an 

 extremely dry climate appears to protect the sugar from this destruc- 

 tion. This is a point of the greatest interest to sorghum-growers, to 

 whom the preservation of the sugar in the juice for a reasonable length 

 of time is a matter of the greatest consideration. In the process of dif- 

 fusion this thickening of the juice entails no loss, although if milling 

 were used for expressing the juice the loss would be a most serious one. 

 The above explanation of the character of the juice at Conway Springs 

 is offered with some degree of hesitation, since I am fully aware of the 

 danger of drawing conclusions in sorghum work from a too limited num- 

 ber of observations. 



The manufacturing operations at Conway Springs were greatly hin- 

 dered by faults in the machinery, which could scarcely be avoided when 

 the short time allowed for the manufacture and erection of the same is 

 considered. Instead of taking three months for the erection of a sugar 

 factory, a whole year is none too long a time, and disaster, for at least 

 one year, is certain to attend attempts to erect such machinery in the 

 time allowed at Conway Springs. 



What is needed now in the sorghum-sugar industry is the manufact- 

 ure of sugar at a rate which will enable the manufacturer to compete 

 with sugar from other parts of the world. A great step in this direc- 

 tion will be secured when the kind of machinery which has been pointed 

 out by the investigations of the Department as necessary to success 

 shall be constructed by skilled machinists and erected by skilled engi- 

 neers, with time enough at their disposal to finish their work before the 

 manufacturing season begins. Some further remarks on this subject 

 will be made in another place. 



From a commercial point of view, the results of the work at Couway 

 Springs are wholly disappointing. To the person, however, who will 

 take pains to inform himself in regard to the conditions which tin-re 

 obtained, many points of encouragement will be found in spite of the 

 financial failure of the first season's work. 



EXPERIMENTS AT DOUGLASS, KANS. 



The practical experiments carried on at Douglass consisted in a 

 thorough trial of the open system of diffusion (the Hughes system) to 

 test its fitness for working on a large scale. For the details of the con- 



