116 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1388 



widely and deeply into the tissues, causing tlie 

 collapse of the aerial part of the plant. 



The disease caused by these bacteria is very 

 prevalent in and about the District of Colum- 

 bia. In the fields examined, 80-90 per cent. 

 of the plants were affected but in the majority 

 of these cases not so severely as to noticeably 

 arrest the development and bloom of the plant. 



Plants with the same disease have been 

 received from Illinois with the information 

 that it has caused loss to the growers. Some 

 Oladioli from California apparently had the 

 same disease but the case was not completely 

 proved. 



Lucia MoCulloch, 



Bureau op Plant Industry, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 



(Continued) 



section of sugar chemistry and technology 



C. A. Browne, chuirman 

 Prederick Bates, secretary 



A rotary digester for use in 'bagasse analysis: 

 Or. L. Spencer. A rotary digester is described for 

 the digestion and extraction of bagasse for pur- 

 poses of analysis. 100 gram^ of chopped bagasse 

 are weighed in a tared cylinder: 1 liter of hot 

 water is added. If ammonia is used for preserving 

 the bagasse, no alkali is added to the digestion 

 water, otherwise sodium carbonate is added. The 

 cylinders are closed and revolved in the digester 

 for an hour while steam is turned into the casing. 

 The steam is then shut off, cold water is admitted 

 to the casing and the revolution continued until 

 the sample is cooled. The cylinders are then re- 

 moved, dried and weighed, the rest of the proce- 

 dure being the same as in the customary methods 

 of analysis. 



Determination of reducing sugars in lead pre- 

 served cane juices: J. B. Harris. Samples of 

 raw cane juices for purposes of factory control 

 are composited and preserved with dry lead sub- 

 acetat«. In the determination of reducing sugars, 

 the preserved juice gives results about 10 per cent. 

 too low where sodium oxalate or other normal 

 salts are used to delead. Experiments with various 

 deleading agents show it to be necessary to change 

 reaction of preserved juice to acid in order to re- 

 cover the reducing sugars combined with tk« 



lead. Best results are obtained with oxalic acid 

 as a deleading agent, as it always gives the same 

 results on the preserved juice as are obtained on 

 the same juice without the use of lead or any de- 

 leading agent. 



Dry substances in molasses, syrups and juices 

 by the Spencer electric oven: George P. Meade. 

 The Spencer electric oven is an apparatus originally 

 devised for rapidly drying granular and fibrous 

 substances, such as sugar, bagasse, etc., by draw- 

 ing a large amount of heated air through the ma- 

 terial to be dried. On suggestion of the inventor, 

 Dr. G. L. Spencer, a method has been worked out 

 for liquid sugar products by absorbing the liquid 

 on asbestos as in the Babcock method for drying 

 milk. With a ten minute heating period, known 

 solutions of sugar, and of invert sugar and salt, 

 are dried quantitatively to one part in 300 or 

 better. Thick solutions, such as molasses and 

 honey, must be diluted with water, on© to one by 

 weight. Duplicate tests on many different kinds 

 of molasses, and on honey and cane juice, show 

 close agreement. 



Two simple tests for the control of the crystal- 

 User and centrifugal machine work: M. J. Prof- 



¥ITT. 



A comparison of the results in the process of 

 desugarization with the Steffen lime process, the 

 barium process and the strontium process: M. 

 PoTVLiET. The desugarization appears to be in 

 favor of the barium process. The real purity of 

 the juices after deduction for rafSnose is highest in 

 the barium process. No raffinose is eliminated either 

 in the Steffen lime process or in the strontium proc- 

 ess, whereas in the barium process approximately 

 50 per cent, of the rafSnose is removed into the 

 waste water. The removal of the raf&nose is im- 

 portant in view of the discarding of molasses. Of 

 the 48.5 per cent, real sugar in the worked mo- 

 lasses, there was obtained: in the lime process 

 35.45 per cent, as granulated, 8.05 per cent, in 

 molasses and 5.00 per cent, in waste water; in 

 the barium process 43.97 per cent, as granulated, 

 2.91 per cent, in molasses and 1.62 per cent, in 

 waste water; in the strontium process 43.18 per 

 cent, as granulated, 4.32 per cent, in molasses and 

 1.00 per cent, in waste water. The rather heavy 

 waste water of the barium and strontium processes 

 can easily be concentrated to 42° B6, whereas 

 the very diluted Steffen waste water with large 

 amounts of soluble lime compounds causes many 

 difficulties. "Waste water with 42" B6 contains 

 about 12 per cent. K^O and 4 per cent. N. 



