EXPERIMENTS AT DES LIGNES SUGAR EXPERIMENT STATION, 



BALDWIN, LA. 



The grindiog season of 1888 was commenced at Des Lignes planta- 

 tion on October 8, and finished November 30. I had expected to be at 

 the station by the middle of October, but was detained in Kansas, 

 partly by the work on sorghum at the Sterling Experiment Station, 

 and partly by work in connection with an exhibit illustrative of the 

 sorghum-sugar industry to be sent to the Paris Exposition as a part of 

 the Department's exhibit there. In consequence of this delay I did not 

 arrive at Des Lignes until the 1st of November. The chemical control 

 of the mill was begun November 5, and continued until the close of the 

 season, extending over a period of four weeks, or just one-half the man- 

 ufacturing season. In addition to the careful control of the operation 

 of the sugar-house during this period, several lines of experiment were 

 carried on, and while the limited time for observation and the stress of 

 work necessarily prevented my giving these experiments anything like 

 the amount of care and attention I could have wished, yet some results 

 were obtained that may be worth recording, if for no other purpose 

 than to call more general attention to the necessity of more extended 

 work in the same directions. 



The lack of sufficient time will serve as an apology, I hope, for the 

 scantiness of the data in the experimental work, and for the unsolved 

 problems in connection with some of the sources of loss. 



Every facility possible was extended me by Messrs. Shattuck & Hoff- 

 man, the proprietors of the plantation, in furtherance of experiments 

 likely to prove of benefit to the industry at large, and my thanks are 

 due to them, and also to Mr. O. P. Binnings, their manager, to whom I 

 am under great obligations for his intelligent aid, to say nothing of per- 

 sonal courtesies. 



EQUIPMENT OF THE FACTORY. 



The extraction was performed by a six-roller mill, composed of two 

 three-roller mills set tandem. Each mill was driven by separate en- 

 gines. The diameter of the rolls was 27 inches, length, 4 feet. The 

 second mill was provided with an hydraulic regulator. Maceration was 

 practiced all through the season, the water being added from a rose 

 placed above the intermediate carrier. The juice was sulphured and 



7 



