514 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Mr. Bucldand further experimented with a jar of the syrup containing 

 about one gallon. After it had stood for some months, he boiled the syrup 

 as before until it stood the proper test. He then poured it into soup-plates. 

 A week having elapsed without any sigu of crystallization, he poured it 

 from the plates into live glass salt jars. In a few days he found it had all 

 crystallized, but when he went to treat it further, he found that the con- 

 tents of two of the jars had reverted to syrup. He then treated the three 

 that were in order so as to extract the sugar. 



On pouring out the contents of one of the jars, which had reverted to syrup, 

 it at once crystallized, and he extracted the sugar. The remaining jar has 

 since crystallized, but has not been further treated. He thinks that these two 

 obstinate jars got more of the thin top of the syrup than the others in pour- 

 ing it from the soup-plates. He obtained from this second experiment about 

 1-|- lbs. of the sugar you see in those two glass jars, Nos. 2 and 3. 



Of course these somewhat roughly-made experiments give no data for esti- 

 mating the proportion of sugar which can be extracted from the syrup. In 

 dealing with these small quantities there is a constant loss, as every time the 

 material is poured from one vessel to another, a considerable portion sticks 

 to the vessel. What is proved, is, that in the syrup there is a large amount 

 of good sugar crystallizable and extractable even by the roughest processes. 

 If vacuum pans were used for concentrating with certainty the syrup to 

 crystallizing point without risk of burning, and centrifugal machines used 

 for extracting the sugar, as is now successfully practised in America, then, 

 alone, could the exact proportion of sugar to syrup be determined. A 

 much better quality of sugar is also thus prepared, fetching 8 cents, per lb. 

 in the market in America, whilst that prepared in open pans fetches only 

 4^-5 cents. 



The following results I claim to have established : — 1st. That the Early 

 Amber Sorghum is well suited for our soil and climate, from the Bay of 

 Plenty northwards. 2nd. That on average soils, from 12-16 tons per 

 acre of cane may be grown at an expenditure not greater than for a crop of 

 maize. 3rd. That 40-50 per cent, of weight of cane, equal to 90 gallons 

 per ton, may be expressed as juice. 4th. That the juice properly treated 

 will produce one-sixth of its bulk, or 15 gallons of a rich syrup, far superior 

 to ordinary molasses, which will keep unaltered by fermentation for many 

 months. 



What I expect to see in the future is this : that our northern farmers' 

 will grow Sorghum, crush, and concentrate the juice to syrup, not attempt- 

 ing to make sugar themselves, but sending their syrup to the sugar-refining 

 works now in course of erection near Auckland, where it will be properly 

 treated, and the sugar produced by the most approved processes. As the 



