48 



profitably, central factories would spring up in every direction and this 

 crop would supplant cotton in part, if not entirely. 



With these possibilities in view the Director has persistently planted 

 sorghum for three years upon the Sugar Experiment Station and at- 

 tempted every year to make successfully sugar from it by the milling 

 process. Chemical analyses have shown that our juices were rich in 

 sucrose and low in glucose, but our sugar-house experiments have failed 

 to extract it successfully. We have made the masse cuite full of grains, 

 but our centrifugals failed to purge. All this was due to the starch 

 present in the juice (extracted by pressure with the mill), which, during 

 the subsequent process of concentration, was converted into dextrine, 

 and this substance, our Mte noir, prevented the elimination of the sugar. 

 Our past experiments have demonstrated the inapplicability of the 

 crushing mill to sorghum. They have also shown that high tempera- 

 ture must be avoided. Therefore new methods of extracting the juice 

 and processes of cooking in vacuo must be resorted to before we can 

 successfully extract sugar from sorghum. 



Fort Scott, Kans., and Rio Grande, N. J., have both demonstrated 

 that diffusion was applicable to the extraction of juice and goodly quan- 

 tities of sugar had thus been obtained. After planting the above crops 

 the State bureau of agriculture, which has immediate control of the 

 stations, received a petition in the form of a series of resolutions from 

 the Ascension Branch of the Sugar Planters' Association, asking that 

 it make an appropriation for the purpose of erecting a diffusion bat- 

 tery for sorghum and to continue the experiments so auspiciously begun 

 at Fort Scott and Eio Grande. The planters were anxious to know if 

 the flattering results obtained in Kansas could not be realized here. 

 The bureau having received at one time the deferred half of the annual 

 Hatch appropriation, decided to grant the request so far as the limited 

 means at their disposal would permit. Accordingly it passed a series 

 of resolutions appropriating money for the enterprise and authorizing 

 the Director to proceed at once to obtain the necessary machinery. 



As soon as these resolutions were passed increased areas were planted 

 in sorghum at each station, using seed received from Kansas at Ken- 

 ner, and Early Amber and Orange at the other two. 



Acting under these resolutions, bids were invited for building first 

 a " diffusion battery of 14 cells, capacity of battery 1 J to 2 tons per 

 hour; second, a double effect of 400 square feet of heating surface. 

 Messrs. Edwards & Haubtman, of New Orleans, making the best prop- 

 osition for the erection of above machinery, were accorded the contract. 



Mr. J. P. Baldwin, of St. Mary's Parish, who had formerly been an 

 attache of the station, and who has great mechanical ingenuity, was em- 

 ployed in May to superintend the erection of the machinery, and after 

 full and free conference with him and Mr. E. W. Deming, late engineer 

 in charge of the Fort Scott sugar works and now supervising engineer of 

 theCouwa^ Sorings sugar works, Kansas, the following machinery was 



