EXPERIMENTS WITH SUGAR-CANE. 



On the 1st of October I received instructions from you to purchase a 

 few tons of sugar-cane in Louisiana and make some experiments with 

 it at Fort Scott, 



The managers of the Daily City Item newspaper of New Orleans, 

 having learned of your intention, made arrangements with the Texas 

 Pacific Railroad to transport this cane from Louisiana to Fort Scott for 

 * t per ton. The general freight agent of the Mississippi Valley Rail- 

 road offered to deliver the cane on the same terms. 



I requested Hon. Edward J. Gay to purchase the cane, which he 

 kindly consented to do. 



The cane was cut early in the season, viz, October 25 to 30, and was 

 brought as quickly as possible to the factory. 



PRELIMINARY TRIAL. 



On November 2, three car-loads of cane having arrived, a preliminary 

 trial was made. 

 The weight of cane used in this trial was 63.75 tons. 



CUTTING-MACHINE. 



The cutters which worked so poorly with sorghum did well with sugar 

 cane, and no trouble whatever was experienced in producing chips suita- 

 ble to diffusion and at the rate of six tons per hour. 



CHIP ELEVATOR. 



The same trouble was experienced with the elevator that we had had 

 to contend with so long with sorghum, and to an increased extent. The 

 chips being heavier than sorghum, easily overweighted the elevator and 

 caused it to clog. Considerable delay was caused by these annoyances. 



THE DIFFUSION. 



It was found at once that the temperature used for the diffusion of 

 sorghum, viz, 70 C., was entiiely too low to effect the extraction of 

 sugar from sugar-cane. 



The temperature was gradually raised to 90 centigrade before a sat- 

 isfactory extraction was obtained. The chips lying closer together in 

 the cell caused the circulation of the liquid in the battery to take place 



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