18 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
is extensively used in the manufacture 
of wines and brandies, has no bearing on 
the present discussion for the reason 
that the value of potable liquors bears 
but little relation to the amounts of al- 
cohol which they contain, but is governed 
almost entirely by the qualities of their 
flavors and aromas. 
Molasses—Beet molasses, a refuse from 
the manufacture of beet sugar, is used on 
a very large scale abroad, and in several 
distilleries in the country, as a raw ma- 
terial for alcohol production. Usually, it 
contains about 50 per cent of sugar, and 
it generally needs only to be diluted and 
acidified to prepare it for fermentation. 
Sometimes a lot will not ferment readily, 
but generally it is worked without any 
difficulty. A ton should yield from 75 to 
80 gallons of alcohol. At $15 per ton, the 
raw material for a gallon of alcohol will 
cost 19 or 20 cents. 
Cane molasses contains usually about 
25 per cent of water, 20 per cent of non- 
saccharine solids, and 55 per cent of su- 
gars. The following figures show the 
composition of two samples of typical dis- 
tillery molasses of different origins, one 
being a Louisiana blackstrap and the 
other a Porto Rican molasses. 
Analyses of Two Typical Kinds of 
Molasses 
Porto 
Determination Louisiana Rican 
Per cent Per cent 
Water ooocic ccc. ccceeesnnceneunceeeneccus 23. 24.3 
SUCTOSE ooo eeeeecceceeeeeeeeneeeeeee 26.6 35.8 
Reducing sugars .............- 29.1 18.3 
NOMSUGATS ..-2.-.eneee weceeeeeeeenee 20.8 21.6 
0): 100.0 100.0 
Almost invariably cane molasses needs 
only to be diluted and yeasted to enter 
into vigorous fermentation. It is com- 
mon, however, for molasses distillers to 
add a certain amount of acid to the fer- 
menting solutions to prevent bacteria 
from invading them and setting up false 
fermentations. In some cases sulphuric 
acid is used for this purpose, as in the 
beet molasses distilleries, but it is 
equally common, and probably wiser, to 
use sour distillery slop to produce the 
desired acidity. A ton of molasses, hav- 
ing the composition of the Louisiana 
sample given in the table, will have a 
volume of about 173 gallons and yield ap- 
proximately 85 gallons of alcohol. At 
three cents per gallon, for which such 
molasses could be bought only a few years 
ago, the cost of the material for a gallon 
of alcohol would be little over six cents. 
The increasing utilization of molasses as 
a feeding stuff has advanced its price to 
from 6 to 10 cents, but at some planta- 
tions it is probably still cheap enough 
to retain its old position as a most ad- 
vantageous raw material for the distiller. 
Sorghum—A. large number of analyses 
made in the Bureau of Chemistry* indi- 
cates that the juice of saccharine sorg- 
hum has the following average composi- 
tion: 
Per cent 
Water oo... . . . 81.4 
SUCYOSC@ ooo .eeceeceee ceeeeceecceneeee cesses cease eeee 12.7 
Reducing sugars ... .... 2...) CoD 
Undetermined solid matters.... .... 4.8 
0): . 100.0 
With a light horse-driven mill, about 
60 per cent of the weight of the topped 
and cleaned cane can be obtained in the 
form of juice. With a heavy mill, such 
as is used in cane-sugar manufacture, 
an extraction of at least 75 per cent 
should be obtained. An extraction cor- 
responding to 65 per cent of the weight 
of the cleaned stalks may, therefore, be 
considered a fair average. On this basis 
a yield of about 14 gallons of 180-degree 
alcohol per ton of cleaned stocks would 
be obtained. If the laiter could be de- 
livered at the distillery at a cost of 
$3 per ton, the material for a gallon of 
alcohol would represent a value of about 
21 cents. A relatively slight improve- 
ment in the quality of the juice and in 
the extraction would lower the cost of 
material per unit of production very much. 
Thus, 1,000 pounds of the juice of the 
Colman sorghum, containing 14.42 per 
cent of sucrose and 1.10 per cent of re- 
ducing sugars, should yield about 1214 
gallons of 180-degree alcohol. The yields 
of alcohol to be expected from a ton of 
cleaned Colman stalks, and the cost of 
*T. S. Department Agriculture, Division of 
Chemistry, Bulletin 34, pp. 23 et seq. 
