1^3 



-of exactly the same age, and therefore variable in composition. 



Even individual canes have not the same composition throughout 

 their length. It is well known to every planter that the butt of a cane 

 is the sweetest part of the stalk, and that its sweetness decreases as 

 you ascend, until finally the extreme upper part is almost devoid of 

 sugar. 



So apparent is this fact to the taste, that chemical analysis is not 

 needed to convince even the "small boy" who chews the cane. Yet 

 time and again has the chemist verified this fact by analysis. He has 

 shown that the sucrose is most, abundant in the lower portion of the 

 cane with a minimum of glucose. That the former decreases and the 

 latter increases as you ascend the stalk, until finally in the upper white 

 joints the glucose absolutely predo ainates. This suggests the wisdom, 

 when only sugar is desired, of lowering the knives in the field and re- 

 moving the immature upper joints, which from their composition are 

 bound to be melasegenic in the sugar house and perhaps restrain from 

 crystalization otherwise available sug.ir. Again the nodes and inter- 

 nodes of a stalk of cane vary in composition even when taken from the 

 same part of the stalk. The f olio win analysis of the nodes and inter- 

 nod"s of twenty stalks of purple canes with normal eyes, will show the 

 variation : 



■^^ 



o . 



<x> « a b 



o o J2 &0 <o 



a S g J3 g 



PQ 02 C5 ZD 



Nodes 15.94 12.6 0.13 3.21 16.5 



Internodes 17.4 15.5 0.94 .96 8.00 



The nodes vary from th ; internodes, not only in the total nitrogen 

 content, but also in the form of nitrogen present. The nodes contain- 

 ing . !S29 per cent, of total nitrog -n, of which . 1778 is albuminoids, 

 and .005 amides; while the internodes have only .0817 per cent, of 

 total nitrogen, of which .0559 are albuminoids, and 0258 amides. It 

 will thus be seen that the nodes carry much larger amounts of solids 

 not sugar, fibre and nitrogenous matters, while the internodes are 

 richer in sucrose and glucose. This explains why the juices from the 

 different mills in our sugar houses vary in composition, and that the 

 juice from the first mill is purer a ad more easily worked than that 

 from the other miUs. The first mill extracts juice mainly from the 

 internodes, which are softer than tlie nodes. The second and third 

 mills crush the nodes and extract from them the impurities given 

 above, and the more powerful the expression, the more impure the 

 juices obtained. Attached to every node is an eye or a bud, destined 

 to become a future plaot. Around this eye is stored the food for its 

 future use, and in this respect the nodes resemble the seeds of flowering 

 plants with the sucrose and glucose of the internodes as a further food 

 reserve. 



The excess of gums, mucilages, albuminoids and fibre in the node, is 

 therefore intended as food material for the young plant until it shall 

 become large enough to obtain its own food, and these substances are 



