10 



This latter part of the apparatus was kindly loaned to the Depart- 

 ment by Mr. Hughes. 



The caues were first cut by a Belle City ensilage-cutter into pieces 

 about 2.25 inches in length. These pieces were run through a fanuiug- 

 inill and nearly all the blades and sheaths were thus removed. The 

 clean pieces of cane were next delivered to a slicer built on the princi- 

 ple of an ordinary board-planer. The cylinder was 6 inches in diameter 

 and 30 inches in length, and carried two knives projecting one-eighth to 

 one sixteenth inch beyond the surface. This was driven at a high rate 

 of speed, over 3,000 revolutions per minute. The canes were shredded 

 rather than sliced by this process, so that the extraction of the sugar 

 was rather a maceration than a diffusion. 



Even with this small machine it was found possible to prepare nearly 

 as much cane for the battery as with the three ponderous cutters de- 

 scribed. It was found, however, that the ensilage-cutter was not strong 

 enough to do the work, and hence this most promising system of cane- 

 cutting, practiced successfully at Eio Grande, was discontinued. The 

 experiment, however, led me to believe that the principle was the right 

 one; especially is this so because it permits of the easy cleaning of the 

 canes by first cutting- them into small pieces. This seems to be the only 

 practical way of accomplishing what is of prime necessity to diffusion, 

 viz, the removal of all deleterious substances from the chips. 



Having demonstrated the practicability of cleaning the cane in the 

 manner already described, my attention was next directed to the con- 

 sideration of the best method of cutting the short pieces of cane into 

 chips suitable for diffusion. For this purpose I had constructed by the 

 Fort Scott Foundry a centrifugal slicer. The theory of this apparatus 

 was that the knives, being carried in a revolving frustum of a cone, and 

 the short pieces of cane being fed from the inside of this cone, the chips, 

 as soon as cut, would fly off by centrifugal force. A trial of this appa- 

 ratus showed that the fiber of the cane would clog the knives and thus 

 stop the work. The close of the season prevented any modification of 

 the apparatus. I think the principle of the apparatus is promising 

 enough to warrant further trial. 



As a result of the experiments with cutters the following conclusions 

 can be drawn: 



(1) Whatever the form of the cutting-machine employed may be. it 

 is necessary that the cane be cleaned. This cleaning should not consist 

 of the removal of the blades alone, but also the sheaths. 



(2) The slicing of the canes obliquely by means of a vertical cutting- 

 machine with a forced feed is not an economical method of procedure. 



(3) The use of a cutting-machine with a horizontal disk and multiple 

 feed is impracticable for sorghum canes unless they are perfectly clean. 



(4) The preliminary cutting of the canes into short lengths promises 

 the easiest solution of the problem of cleaning the cane. 



(5) The subsequent slicing of these sections by some form of appara- 

 tus is a mechanical problem which can be solved. 



