236 EDITORIAL. 



cultivation and appropriate fertilization, a yield of from 4 to 7 or perhaps 8 

 tons per acre may be reasonably expected."'' At present there are no reliable 

 figures on l;lie amount that can be produced on a given area of land in the 

 Philippines. E. F. Bacon,'= thinks that it is perfectly safe to figure on a produc- 

 tion of 22J metric tons per hectare (10 tons per acre). "With this yield," he 

 says, "there is only one other substance which seems able to compete with it as 

 a source of alcohol, namely, the molasses residue from the crystallization of cane 

 sugar." E. B. Copeland," estimates that when starch made from cassava sells at 

 its present local price (15 centavos per kilo), alcohol from the same source 

 would be worth about 17i centavos per liter or 2. GO pesos per 15 liters. 



At present prices, it would be more profitable to produce starch than 

 alcohol at a price below the latter figure. If at an}' time the production 

 of cassava becomes more abundant and the utilization for other purposes 

 less remunerative, alcohol from this source ma}' be placed on the market 

 very cheaply. 



Some experiments with alcohol were carried out in Manila a few 

 months ago with the 25-horsepower motor road roller purchased h\ the 

 city of Manila. In all cases the machine was operated on a level road 

 and at a standard speed. A crude alcohol such as is shipped to Manila 

 by provincial distillers was used. The motor was first heated to a 

 slight extent by being run for about ten minutes with gasoline; it ran 

 for twelve minutes on the alcohol and then stopped. An examination 

 showed that the explosions of the alcohol did not furnish enough heat 

 to evaporate all of the water present and that a quantity had collected 

 • in the combustion chamber. When 90 and 94.5 per cent alcohol were 

 emijloyed the motor ran sm.oothly, with a consumption of 1.8 and 

 1.6 times, respectively, the quantity of gasoline used for ihe same time. 

 Lucke and Woodward^* say that a small engine required 1.8 times as 

 much alcohol (probably 8.5 per cent) as gasoline per horsepower hour. 



The utilization of alcohol as a fuel is an established fact. The econ- 

 omy is the only open question. Gasoline (73°) is now sold in Manila 

 at 2.38 pesos per 15 liters (about 16 centavos per liter). On the basis 

 of an engine consuming 1.5 times as much 95 per cent alcohol as gasoline 

 the former would need to be sold at 1.60 pesos pei- 15 liters in order to 

 compete with the latter. In localities where alcohol can be j^roduced 

 cheaply and which are remote from gasoline supplj-, alcohol may inune- 

 diately compete with gasoline as a power fuel, otherwise it is not probable 

 that it will be as economfcal a fuel as gasoline in these Islands for some 

 time to come and I do not anticipate an immediate change in our motor 

 fuel. 



Alvin^ J. Cox. 



^^Bull. V. S. Dcpt. Agr. Dii: Chem. (1900), 58, 3G, 42. 

 '=This Journ. Sec. A. (1907), 2, 93. 

 "P7wZ. Agr. Rev. (1908), 1, 145. 

 '"Loc. cit., 39. 



