SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 
221 
The relative value of the juice of any sugar-producing 
plant depends upon the ratio of crystallizable sugar or sucrose 
to the other sugars or solids which it contains. The great in¬ 
feriority of sorghum, as a sucrose-producing plant, as com¬ 
pared with the sugar beet, is in the fact that it contains sugars 
which are not sucrose. These sugars are not crystallizable 
in the ordinary way. The general term glucose has been ap¬ 
plied to them. 
The chief one of these “other sugars” present does not 
affect the plane of polarized light. Dr. Wiley proposes to call 
it anoptose, a term which signifies a sugar without influence 
on the polarized ray. 1 
In normal ripe sorghum cane, sucrose and anoptose are 
probably the only sugars present. If the cane is abnormal or 
exposed for a time after cutting, or frost-bitten, the sucrose 
undergoes a transformation. It is converted into invert sugar, 
which is non-crystallizable. 2 
The expression of available sugar means “the proportion 
of sugar which can be obtained in a dry crystallized form 
from the canes. Its amount depends on the percentage of 
juice extracted from the canes, and the ratio of sucrose to 
the other bodies in the juice.” 3 
The “ coefficient of purity” 4 is the ratio per cent, of the total 
sucrose in a juice to the total solids. Juices having an average 
“purity coefficient” less than sixty will scarcely prove profit¬ 
able for sugar manufacture. They will, however, make good 
syrup. 
Sorghum has proved to be the most capricious of crops. 
In the late experiments at Fort Scott, analyses of different 
canes presented the widest differences, and with such raw 
material it was found to be impossible, successfully, to manu¬ 
facture sugar. 
However, it must not be inferred, from these discouraging 
analyses, that sorghum is not capable of becoming a good 
sugar-producing plant. Many samples of cane brought fresh 
1 Bui. No. 3, Chem. Div. Dept, oj Agr., p. 15. 
2 Ibid., p. 15. 3 Ibid., p. 20. 
4 Ibid., p. 21. 
