EEPORT OF THE CHEMIST. 



35 



ishes. Chagrined, and disaj)pointed he left for the West. Two years 

 later, in 1871. a Mr. Wessely, from New York, came here on the same 

 errand and with the same authority from Mr. Robert's general agent, 

 Mr. Adler, in Vienna. He had no better success than Dr. Canisius, 

 and in a much shorter time he became convinced of the fruitlessness of 

 his efforts. 



If, so far, no progress had been made towards the introduction of the 

 diffusion process in Louisiana, these efforts were yet destined to bear 

 fruit. Parties in New Orleans took the pains to investigate closely all 

 the results obtained by this new process, and its adaptability to this 

 country. Mr. R. Sieg brought all his capacity and influence to bear on 

 this subject, and by German perseverance has this day the satisfaction 

 of having succeeded. It cannot be omitted here to state that he was 

 principally actuated by the motive of benefiting the State of Louisiana 

 and his adopted country, the United States, as the success of this 

 enterprise would make them independent of the sugar of any other 

 country, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, and Texas being fully capable 

 of producing all the saccharine matter needed for the whole country. 

 In Louisiana alone there are 1,000,000 of acres of the best sugar land 

 thrown out of cultivation, which, with a yield of 1,000 pounds to the 

 acre, would increase the production by 1,000,000 hogsheads. It is cer- 

 tain that the moment the cultivation of these lands with cane becomes 

 profitable to such a degree as the working of this new process has de- 

 monstrated, the enterprise and capital of the whole Union will not be 

 wanting. 



Late in the season apparatus and engineers arrived in New Orleans, 

 and with all exertions it was not possible to begin the test before the 

 18th of December, 1873. Ten enormous vessels, 8 feet high and 6 feet 

 in diameter, had to be carried through the breadth of Europe, shipped 

 on a steamer in Bremerhaven, landed in New Orleans, reshipped on 

 steamboat, landed at Donaldsville, reshipped on a raft or flat on the 

 Bayou La Fourche, landed at Belle Alliance (Kock's plantation), and 

 erected in their places near the sugar-house. It was necessary to 

 construct a building four stories high for a diffusion house, on whose 

 first floor were the diffusion vessels ; on the second story, the diffusion 

 room; on the third story, the cane-cutters and movable carriage to fill 

 the vessels; and on the fourth story the cutters were fed by taking the 

 cane from the old carrier and throwing it by hand into the cane-cutters 

 on the story below. Only the most dogged perseverance surmounted 

 the obstacles of the unskilled labor not only, but also of the adversity 

 of the season ; but a whole year was at stake, and the trial had to be 

 made that year, and was made. 



This process consists in a peculiar mode of extracting the sugar from 

 the vegetable matter in the cane without mechanical power. 



If sugar-cane is cut into thin slices and covered with water for some 

 time, an exchange of the liquid contents of the cane and the surround- 

 ing water will take place. After a certain time the water will contain 

 the same percentage of dissolved sugar as the cane itself. By the usual 

 method of crushing the cane the cellular structure of the membrane is 

 destroyed, aud the albumen and other mucilaginous impurities are 

 thereby permitted to enter into the cane juice. 



Again, the greater quantity of cells containing saccharine matter 

 being in the center of the cane, by pressure the free exit of the saccha- 

 rine matter is prevented, it having to pass through the surrounding 

 thick fibrous cells. 



