268 The Philippine Journal of Science mi 



in the manufacture of briquettes were the enterprise ever so 

 successful, and as coal dust 2 promises to be extensively used per 

 se for fuel purposes, no great quantities of molasses are likely 

 to be used for the manufacture of briquettes from coal dust. 



5. Molasses is valuable per se as a fertilizer, but in this use 

 too much sugar is wasted and the effects of the sugar on the 

 soil are not altogether beneficial. The bacteria s that fix nitrogen 

 in the soil independently of the host plant are stimulated by su- 

 gar, especially glucose. One should expect to be able so to 

 stimulate the bacteria by the u^e of molasses that the nitrogen 

 fixation from this source would become important. All attempts 

 to do this have been disappointing, since the sugar likewise 

 stimulates the class of bacteria that breaks down the stored-up 

 nitrogen compounds. 



6. If the molasses were first fermented, it would yield a profit 

 from the alcohol obtained and the lees would become a valuable 

 source of fertilizer, because of their nitrogen, potash, and phos- 

 phate content. The making of alcohol from molasses and the 

 recovery of the fertilizing ingredients is the most profitable of 

 the known uses for molasses. 



All the fertilizing ingredients ordinarily removed from the 

 soil by the cane are concentrated in the molasses, so that when 

 these are recovered and returned to the soil, together with the 

 ash from the fiber or bagasse, the soil has suffered no loss and 

 theoretically is as capable of producing a second crop as it was 

 of producing the preceding one. The sugar industry is unique 

 in that the sugar produced represents no constituent taken 

 from the soil that must be returned in the form of fertilizer. 

 Consequently, if the mineral ingredients found in the bagasse 

 and in the molasses are returned to the soil, the soil is no more 

 depleted than before the crop was harvested. Discard molasses 

 in the Philippine Islands sells for about 6 centavos 4 a gallon 

 (1.6 centaVos a liter), or about 10 pesos a ton. Peck and Noel 

 Deerr 5 have estimated the value of the fertilizer ingredients in 

 1 ton of Hawaiian molasses at 14 pesos and the cost of the re- 

 covery of these constituents at 6 pesos. 



* The Chicago & North Western Railway Co. is successfully using coal 

 dust in running one of its engines. It claims to obtain higher efficiency 

 from coal dust than from lump coal. 



3 These are a different group from those existing in the nodules of 

 legumes. 



* One peso Philippine currency equals 100 centavos, equals 50 cents 

 United States currency. 



'Bull. Hawaiian Exp. Station, 26, through Sugar (1914), 16, No. 7, 38. 



