CHINESE AND AFRICAN SUGAR CANE. 
I 
357 
The loss arises from defects in the crushing mill, and the im¬ 
possibility of extracting all the sugar by compression. Criti¬ 
cal experiments have proved this loss to amount to at least 33 
per cent., and may easily reach 50 percent., or an absolute 
loss of 1-3 or 1-2 the sugar contained in the reeds. It is pro¬ 
duced by three main causes. 
First. The sugar is held in the Cane in a crystalized form, 
and not dissolved in the water of the reed, and it takes some 
little time for the water to make the solution after the Cane is 
crushed. 
Second. The juice of the Cane when crushed out, with all 
its other impurities, contains about as large a proportion of su¬ 
gar as it can hold in solution without the aid of artificial heat 
and air. It must therefore leave the crushed canes saturated 
with itself after grinding in the common rolling mills. 
Third . The juice in that portion of the reeds in immediate 
contact with the external surface, or most woody portion of 
Cane, contains at least twice as many crystals as is contained 
in the juice of the central or pithy portion. From this, it 
must be plain that a large amount of sugar must be left be¬ 
hind in the crushed Cane. 
Considerable has been done to obviate this loss, in the con¬ 
struction of the various mills which have been invented. 
But still the loss of sugar has been very great. 
The experience of the farmers of Wisconsin will sustain me 
in all these statements concerning the amounts produced. If we 
can but crystalize the sugar in the juice of the Sorghum and 
Imphee, as cheaply as the planter of Louisiana does the juice of 
his Sugar Cane, then we mustjnake sugar here for the same price 
that he can there. The idea is certainly worthy the trial. 
Extensive 2 nd critical experiments have shown that crude 
juice of Sorghum or Imphee, and of Sugar Cane is so nearly 
identical in all particulars that a description and analysis of the 
one wfill answer for the other without material error : at least, 
there is not a greater disparity in the qualities of the juice of 
