12 



EXPERIMENTS AT CONWAY SPRINGS. 



Iii the reports of Messrs. Deming aud von Schweiuitz which follow, 

 together with the analytical tables, much interesting information may 

 be found in regard to the sorghum sugar industry in Kansas. The suc- 

 cessful continuation of the work at Fort Scott has encourged the be- 

 lief in the possibility of a speedy establishment of a sorghum sugar 

 industry in Kansas on a large scale. The unfortunate financial out- 

 come of the work at Con way Springs shows that much is yet to be 

 learned by those entering upon this industry before success can be con- 

 fidently predicted. A discussion of the chemical data collected at Con- 

 way Springs will be found in connection with the analytical tables. It 

 is proper to say here, however, that the sorghum juices of the crop 

 grown at Couway Springs show a higher content of sucrose than any 

 large crop which has ever before been produced in the United States. 

 This high content of sucrose which appeared in the crop after the mid- 

 dle of September, as indicated by the analysis of the juices, was con- 

 tinued until the close of the working season in November. The sam- 

 ples of chips taken from the cells of the battery showed in their juices 

 a high content of sucrose uniformly; much higher, in fact, than would 

 be indicated by the output of sugar. One reason, doubtless, lor this 

 was the exceptionally dry season diminishing the content of water in 

 the cane and thus increasing the percentage of sucrose in the juice. 

 This fact, though not established by the determination of the fiber in 

 the cane, is plainly indicated by two other facts developed by the analyt- 

 ical work, viz, the diminished extraction when using the small mill at 

 the same pressure as the season progressed and the high content of 

 total solids in the juices. The output of sugar was evidently dimin- 

 ished by the character of the water used in diffusion, but that would 

 be unable to account for the small yield of crystallizable sugar obtained 

 with juices of the richness of those worked. Experiments made by 

 boiling a solution of pure sugar with the water used in diffusion at 

 Con way Springs proved that the presence of a large amount of gypsum 

 did not tend to increase the inversion of sucrose; that it may, however, 

 have interfered with the crystallization of the sucrose is a fact which 

 can scarcely be denied. The actual output of sugar at Con way Springs, 

 in my opinion, would have been considerably larger had pure water been 

 employed in the diffusion battery; nevertheless, the important fact 

 remains that the yield of crystallizable sugar was wholly disproportioual 

 to the richness of the juices worked, showing that the high ratio of 

 sucrose was not obtained at the expense of the solids not sugar in the 

 juices. In other words,it appears that a cane whose juice is normal in 

 quantity, say about 90 per cent, of the total weight, and having a 

 content of sugar equal to 10 per cent., with total solids at 16 per cent., 

 will yield fully as much, if not more, sugar than a cane whose juice is 

 abnormal, say not more than 80 per cent, of the total weight, with 1'2 per 

 cent, of sucrose and 18 or 20 per cent, of total solids, Another impor- 



