16 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
distillery. In case the distiller intends 
to denature this product on the distillery 
premises, he is obliged also to furnish 
this room with the following apparatus: 
A weighing tank, which is to be used 
for gauging alcohol and for no other pur- 
pose; tanks for the storage of approved 
denaturants; sealed measures, for use 
with the denaturants;: a mixing tank, and, 
if desired, tanks for the storage of de- 
natured alcohol. The labor required in 
denaturing is furnished by the distiller 
and his employees, but is carried on un- 
der the supervision of a United States 
gauger assigned for this purpose and in 
his presence. 
Materials Which May Serve As Sources 
of Alcohol 
General Considerations 
The first essential in the character of 
a material which is to serve as a source 
of alcohol is that it shall contain either 
fermentable sugar or some component 
which can be transformed readily into a 
fermentable sugar. This is absolutely 
necessary, aS without sugar no alcohol 
can be produced. A second essential is 
that the proportion of sugar, or its equiv- 
alent, in the proposed raw material, shall 
be sufficient to pay for handling the latter. 
This is very important, for there are 
many saccharine materials, such as to- 
matoes and unripe watermelons, the juices 
of which contain so small a percentage 
of sugar that all the alcohol obtained 
would be insufficient to pay for the mere 
cost of handling. A third requisite is 
that there shall be an abundant, concen- 
trated, and stable supply of the mate- 
rial. Abundance is an essential, because 
even a small distillery will use a large 
amount of material daily. Thus, a plant 
having an approximate daily capacity of 
100 gallons, or two barrels of denatured 
alcohol, will consume the following 
amounts of raw material: Two hundred 
gallons of rich molasses; or one ton of 
shelled corn; or four tons of potatoes, 
containing about 15 per cent of starch; 
or seven to eight tons of sweet apples, 
containing about 12 per cent of sugar. 
A. concentrated supply of material is nec- 
essary for if it be scattered over a wide 
area and must be gathered by hand, the 
cost for labor becomes prohibitive. The 
supply must be constant, for it does not 
pay to build a factory that can be run 
only at intervals. For example, ripe 
peaches would undoubtedly be worth dis- 
tilling in localities where they are grown 
abundantly and where there are surplus 
erops, if it were not for the fact that 
there may not be a surplus more than 
two years out of five, and that the crop 
would have to be worked up within the 
short space of two or three weeks to keep 
it from spoiling. No distillery could earn 
the interest on its investment running 
two months out of five years. 
In addition to the points enumerated, 
other considerations present themselves: 
Whether the material in question will 
stand transportation and storage: whether 
it can be worked with appliances which 
are to be obtained readily in this coun- 
try; whether it can be handled by the 
machinery which is adapted to the bulk 
of the available material in any given re- 
gion, or must have special machinery in- 
stalled to fit it for fermentation, 
whether it possibly may yield a greater 
profit if used for some other purpose than 
distilling, and so on. 
Chemical Composition of Fermentable 
Materials 
Knowledge of the chemical composition 
of a proposed raw material is always es- 
sential in determining its availability 
as a source of alcohol. The proportion of 
sugar or other fermentable substance 
which may be present has been men- 
tioned already as being of prime impor- 
tance. In addition thereto the percen- 
tages of water, ash, crude fiber, and ni- 
trogenous compounds or proteids will al- 
ways be of interest since the proportions 
of these components will determine the 
manner in which a material must be 
worked. The fat percentage has little in- 
terest for a distiller, save perhaps as it 
may affect the feeding value of the dis- 
tillery refuse; but it will be stated when- 
ever possible, for the sake of complete- 
ness, in such analyses as are given. It 
may be said in this connection that the 
five components just mentioned—water, 
ash, fiber, proteids, and fat—are always 
determined and reported as such, but, un- 
