88 TIMEHRI. 
by an increase of pressure contained distinétly less sucrose 
than did the juice first expressed, and explains this 
on practically the same grounds as those on which Dr. 
MAYCOCK had in 1852. Inthe early eighties, Dr. WILEY, 
Chief Chemist of the Department of Agriculture of the 
United States, again noticed and drew attention to this 
fa&t. But in the face of these repeatedly published 
results, the normal composition of the sugar cane re- 
mained in the text books at 18 per cent. of sucrose with 
occasional wanderings of from 16 to 24 per cent. It was 
‘reserved for the able chemist who was my predecessor 
in my present post to first appreciate the bearing of these 
fa&ts on the true saccharine contents of the sugar cane, 
to be, in his Annual Report for the year 1883, the first to 
publish accurate analyses of sugar canes, and to supply 
in his paper read before this society on June 11th, 1885, 
unimpeachable data showing that the sugar cane does not 
contain anything like the proportions of sucrose it had 
usually been credited with, and that, instead of containing 
from 18 to 21 per cent,, it seldoms contains 16 per cent., 
whilst thc average amount of total sugars present in 
canes grown in this colony is only 14 per cent. or even less, 
We now know that the Bourbon canes of this colony 
contain on an average about 13 per cent. of sucrose, that 
Bourbon canes grown in Barbados contain on an average 
14°5 per cent. of sucrose, and that the varieties White 
Transparent, Purple Transparent and Red Ribbon Canes 
may contain from half to one per cent. more than the 
Bourbon does when grown under similar conditions, and 
that there are no satisfaétory reasons, for considering that 
these results are widely departed from in excess in any 
part of the world. 
' 
a 
