17 



over from the first plant and worked in with this run. All this was of 

 course measured, analyzed, and deducted from the sugar present in the 

 juice, but what the effect was on crystallization, added as it was to all 

 the different grades of product, it would be impossible to state. 



One very serious accident occurred during this run which delayed 

 the work for three days. The shaft of the back or bagasse roll of the 

 front or three-roller mill was broken, but as the season was so near 

 the end the crop did not suffer from the delay. 



The cane worked, being from new, back, stiff, and inadequately drained 

 lands, was comparatively poor, the sucrose being much lower and the 

 glucose much higher than in the previous plant cane runs. A neutral 

 defecation was carried throughout this run, and a good deal of glucose 

 was destroyed, forming probably n compound with the lime, which was 

 broken up and dissolved by the juice. The amount of first sugar secured 

 was very large compared with the sucrose in the juice, and as a conse- 

 quence the lower grade sugars did not crystallize as well as in the other 

 runs, much of the grain in the seconds being so small that it passed 

 through the sieves of the centrifugals. The final molasses contained 

 26. G2 per cent of sucrose, 28.52 glucose, and a purity of 34.44. 



The last two runs made with the idea of comparing a neutral with 

 the ordinary Louisiana acid clarification both as to the effect on yield 

 yield and care of working, will be discussed further on. 



SPECIAL INQUIRIES. 



One of the things watched with especial interest was the effect upon 

 the juices from the use of sulphur dioxide as a depurator. 



No data on this subject have ever been collected in Louisiana in 

 practical sugar-house working. Laboratory practice has, of course, 

 made us familiar with the danger attendant upon the use of sulphur, if 

 not properly handled. 



The Louisiana experiment station, under the direction of Dr. Stubbs, 

 has strongly condemned its use, without suggesting anything to take 

 its place, and, judging from the published reports of the station, the loss 

 there was much greater than any sugar-house could afford. 



In endeavoring to find out how great the inversion was at Calumet, 

 analyses were inade three times daily of the raw, sulphured, and clari- 

 fied juices throughout the season. Samples were also taken from each 

 tank of sirup and from the different grades of sugars and the final 

 molasses, and in two runs of all the intermediate products. As all these 

 different products were carefully weighed o^ measured, any increase in 

 the glucose would be quickly noticed. The analyses of both raw and 

 sulphured juices are, I conclude from the season's work, unnecessary, 

 and either the one or the other should be dropped, thus reducing the 

 chemist's work a great deal and eliminating nothing essential. 



Of course where the sulphured juice is heated before being run into 

 the clarifiers both juices should be analyzed. Enough sugar would, 

 7083 Bull. 23 2 



