71 



SUMMARY OF CHEMICAL WORK AT RIO GRANDE. 



(Abstract of report of Hubert Edson.] 



The manufacturing season at Rio Grande commenced September 5 and closed No- 

 vember 8. The analyses of juices were begun Septembers and continued throughout 

 the season. 



On October 15 there fell a heavy frost, one of the earliest known in Rio Grande, 

 which completely killed all the leaves on the cane and stopped the growth of all 

 the unripe fields. The late orange was the only variety which was not seriously in- 

 jured by the frost and the cold weather following it. This hardy cane, although the 

 frost touched it before it was matured, held its sucrose to the end of the season, even 

 notwishstaudiug two slight freezes. 



It will be noticed from Table III that the extraction of sugar by the battery was 

 very poor. This arose from improper management of the battery by the men em- 

 ployed in the diffusion room, much sugar being thrown out with the exhausted chips 

 from this cause. 



EXPERIMENTS IN CRYSTALLIZING SUGARS. 



All the sugars as first run from the centrifugal were full of " smear," and after the 

 regular season had closed experiments were made as to the advisability of re-crystal- 

 lizing the sugar, but it was found that the loss in weight was too great to make it 

 profitable, only 8,329 pounds of re-crystallized sugars being obtained from nearly 

 double that amount of smear sugar. 



In Table VIII are found the analyses of the re-crystallized sugars. 



On November 19 and 22 experiments were made with the diffusion battery to see if 

 it was possible to obtain a better extraction than the season's work had given. 



An extra cell was made and placed outside the battery. Then instead of emptying 

 one cell of diffusion juice at a time the two heaviest juices were drawn into the out- 

 side cell. By drawing off two cells at a time two baskets of fresh chips could be im- 

 mersed each time in the outside cell, and the diffusion juice be brought up within 1 

 Brix of the mill juice, and at the same time an excellent extraction obtained. Both 

 the days in which these experiments were made were very cold. This, of course, 

 made it difficult to keep the battery at a sufficiently high temperature for a proper 

 diffusion. 



In the appended table the degree Brix is all that is given, as the juices were not 

 used : 



These experiments were conducted by Mr. Hughes and Dr. Neale, chemist of the 

 New Jersey experimental station. The degrees Brix were taken by Dr. Neale and 

 myself. 



A sample of chip juice was polarized and found to contain 8.98 per cent. sucrosOf 

 with a purity of 59.27. 



