VoL. L 
AUGUSTA, Ga., march 22, 1843. 
No. 3. 
REMARKS ON TFIE MANUFACTURE OF CORN- 
STALK SUGAR. 
BY WILLIAM WEBB, OP WILMINGTON, DELAWARE. 
The most profitable application of labor is a 
de.siueratum too frequent!}' overlooked or disre- 
garded .'iy those who attempt the introduction of 
new manufactures into a countrjn All calcula- 
tions of advantage which is to result from the 
production of any article must be made with 
due regard to this point, or practice will prove 
them to be erroneous. 
I. Fully impressed with this truth, the mo.st rigid 
examination i? invited into every thing now of- 
lered; so that, as far a.s po.ssihle, we may arrive 
at a correct deci..don respecting the real value of 
the proposed manulacture. In common with 
many others, I have felt considerable interest in 
the plan for extending the cultivation of sugar in 
temperate climates, and fiave made many expe- 
riments, first upon the leet, and lecently upon 
maize or Indian corn, in the hope of discovering 
some mode by which tlm de.sirod end miglu be 
attained. 
The re.'iults from the latter plant iiave been 
extremely encouraging. The manulacture of 
sugar from it, compared with that from beet, 
offers many advantages. It is more simple, and 
less liable to failure. The machinery ii less 
expensive, and the r mount of fuel required is 
less by one-half. The quantity of sugar jirodu- 
ced oil a given .space ot ground is greater, be- 
sides being of better qualit}'. An examination 
into the nature and productive powers of these 
two plants will show that no other results could 
have been reasonably expected. It is a ivell-es- 
tablished fact, that every variety of production 
found in plants is derived from the sap. It is 
also ascertained that the principal substance 
found in the sap or juice of man}^ vegetables is 
sugar. Therelbre, the amount of saccharine 
matter produced by any plant of this descrip- 
tion may be e.stimated from an anal3Lsis of the 
fruit, seed, &c , of such plant when ripe. The 
grain yielded by corn, and the seed from beet, 
in the second summer of its growth, are nothing 
more than this sapor juice elaborated by the 
’iroccss of vegetation, and pre.sent.ed to our view 
ill another form. 
Now, as it is contrary to the economy of na- 
ture to suppose that there should be any loss of 
nutritive matter in this change of sap into seed 
or grain, does it not follow that there must be the 
same difference in the quantity of sugar produ- 
ced by the two plants as there is between the nu- 
tritive properties of beet seed and corn? 
The juice of maize contains sugar, acid and 
a gumui}'- mucilaginous matter, which forms the 
scum. From the experiments of Gay Lussac, 
Theiiard, Kirchoff and others, [it is proved,] 
that starch, sugar and gum, are eoffremely simi- 
lar ill composition, and may be as readily con- 
verted into each other, by chemical process, as 
they are by the operation of nature. For ex- 
ample; starch boiled in diluted sulphuric acid, 
for thirty-six hours, is converted into sugar of 
.greater weight than the starch made use of. 
This result goes to show that every pound of 
starch found in the seed of a plant has required 
for its production at least one pound of sugar, in 
the lorrn of sap. If it be objected that this de- 
duction is too theoretical to be admitted, it may 
be answered that experiment, so far as it has 
gone, has fal[v attested its correctness. 
The raw juice of maize, when cultivated for 
sugar, marks 10'^ on the saccharometer; while 
the average of cane juice (as i am infuinied) is 
not higher than 8''’, and beet juice not over 3''". 
From 9 t quarts (dr}' measure) of the lornier. 
I have obtaiiied-l pounds 6' ounces of syrup, con- 
centrated to the point suitable for crystallization. 
The proportion of ciystallizable sugar appears 
to be larger than is obtained from cr.ne juice in 
Louisiana. This is accounted for b}' the fact, 
that our climate ripens corn perfectly, while ii 
butrarel}' if ever happens that cane is fully nia,- 
tiired. In some cases the .s}'rup has crystalized 
so completelv', that ie.ss than one-sixtli part of 
molasses remained. Tliis, however, only hap- 
pened alter it had stood from one to two months. 
There is reason to believe, that it the plant were 
fully ripe, and the process of manufacture per- 
fectly performed, the .syrup might be entirely 
cry.sfalized v'ithout forming any molas.se.s. 
This pe. fection in the manufacture cannot, 
however, be attained with the ordinary appara- 
tus. Without any other means for pressing out 
the juice than a small hand-mill, it is impos.«i- 
ble to say how great a quantity of sugar may be 
produced on an acre. 
The experiments have been di’ccted more to 
ascertain the sacchaiine qualiU' of corn-stalk 
than the amount a given quantity of ground will 
produce; but the calculations made from trials cn 
a small scale leave no room to doubt that the 
qnantit}' of sugar will be from 800 to 1000 lbs. 
'This a'noimt will not appear unreasonable, 
when it is considered that the juice of com is as 
rich as that of cane, and the weight of green pro- 
duce at least equal, 
IMr. Ellsworth, in one of his publications, 
states, as the result of actual weighing and 
measuring, that corn, sown broadcast, yielded 
five pounds of green stalks per square foot; this 
is at the rate of 108^ tons to the acre. 
Alv attention was first directed to maize as a 
material for sugar, by ol serving that, in some 
stalks, the juice vms extremely sweet, while in 
others it was weak and watery. On examina- 
tion, it appeared that the latter had borne large 
and perfect ears and grain, wliile, on the former, 
these were either small in size or eniirely want- 
ing. The natural conclusion from this ob.serva- 
tion was, that if the ears were taken off in their 
embryo state, the w'hole quantity of saccharine 
matter produced b}'- tlie process of vegetation 
Avonld be preserved in the stalk, from which it 
might be extracted v'lien the plant was matured. 
But the idea occurred too late in the .season to 
test it by experiment. A few stalks, howe'ver, 
were found, which, from some cause, had borne 
no grain; these were bruised with a mallet, and 
the juice extracted by a lever pre.ss. Some lime 
was then added, and the desiccation, evapora- 
tion, &c., began and fmi.-hed in a single vessel. 
By these simple means, .sugar of a fair quality 
Avas produced, which was sent to the horticul- 
tural exhibition of our society in 1810. 
I have since been informed, through Mr. Ells- 
worth, that Mr. Hallas, of France, had discov- 
ered, in 1839, that the saccharine properties of 
maize were increased by merely taking off the 
ear iir its embryo state. An experiment, horv- 
ever, Avhich I institiited, to determine the value 
of this plan, re.sulted in disappointment; the 
quantity of sugar produced was not large enough 
to render it an object. The reasons of this fail- 
ure will be sufficiently obvious on stating the 
circumstances. It Avas found that taking the 
car oft' a large stalk, such as is produced by the 
common mode of cuhiA'ation, intiicted a consid- 
erable Avound upon the plant, Avhich injuied its 
health, and of course lessened its productive 
power. It Avas also found that the naturtd. dis- 
position to form grain Avas so strong, thai seA'e- 
ral .successiA'e ears Avere throAvn out, by AA'hich 
labor Avas increased, and llie injuries of the 
plant multiplied. Lastly, it appeared that the 
juice yielded from those plants contained con- 
siderable portion of foreign substance, not favo- 
rable to the object in vicAV. Yet, under all these 
disadvantages, from one hundred to tAvo hundred 
pounds of sugar per acre may be obtaineu. 
'The manilest objections detailed above sug- 
gested anotiicr mode of cultivatic n, to be em- 
ployed in combination Avith the one first propos- 
ed; it consists simply in raising a greater num- 
ber of plants on the same space of ground. By 
this plan, all the unfavorable results aboee men- 
tioned Avere obviated, a much larger qucn'i'.y of 
sugar Avas produced, and of better quality The 
juice produced by this mode of culttyatiun is 
remarkably' pure and agreeable to the taste. — 
Samples of the sugar yielded by it ate noAv in 
the Patent Office, Avith a small hand-nu'll by 
Avlu'ch the .stalks Averc eru.shed. Some of the 
same kind Avas exhibited to our agricultural so- 
ciety in October, 1841, accompanied by an an- 
swer to an iiiA'itation from its president. Dr. J. 
W. Thompson, to explain the mode of culture 
and process of manufacturing the sugar. The 
mola.sses, after standing as before mentioned, 
from one to tAAm months, became filled Avith siiiall 
crystals, Avkich, on being drained, exhibited a 
peculiar kind of sugar; the grain is small, and 
someAvhat inferior in appearance, but still is as 
SAveet and agieeable to the taste as can be cie,sir- 
ed. 2 \ small sample of this sugar I have brought 
for your in.spection. This product, from Avliat 
was thought to be moIas.se.s, is a neAv and un- 
expected discovery, and discloses an important 
fact in the iuA'estigation of this subject. It 
shows the superior degree of perfection attain- 
ed by the corn plant, compared with the cane, 
in any part of the Union. It is generally un- 
derstood that the latter cannot be fully matured 
in any except a tropical climate, and the pro- 
portion of molasses obtained from any plant is 
greater or less according to the immaturity or 
perfection of its groAvth. The sweetne.ss of the 
corn-stalk is a matter of uni\'ersal ob.serA'ation. 
Our forefathers, in the revolutionary struggle, 
resorted to it as a means to furnish a substitute 
for West India sugar. They expres.sed the 
juice, and exerted tlieir ingenuity in eflorts to 
bring it to a ciystalized state, but AvehaA'e no ac- 
count of any successful operation of the kind. 
In fact, the bitter and nauseous properties con- 
tained in the joints of large stalks render the 
AAffiole amount of juice from them fit only to pre- 
duce an inferior kind of molasses. I found, on 
experiment, that by cutting out the joints, and 
cru.shing the remaining part of the stalk, sugar 
might he made, but still of an inferior quality. 
The molasses, of Avhich there Avas a large pro- 
portion, was bitter and disagreeable. 
From one to two leet of the lower part of 
these stalks was full of juice, but the balance, 
as it approached the top, became dryer, and al- 
forded but little. From the foregoing experi- 
ments we see that, in order to obtain the purest 
juice, and in the greatest quantit}q we must 
adopt a mode ol cultivation Avhich will preA'ent 
