CHINESE AND AFRICAN SUGAR CANE. 
367 
This is the celebrated Hamas’ prepared Plantain juice, and 
has been very extensively used in the West India Islands, es¬ 
pecially in Trinidad. It must contain free alkalies, lime and 
potash, and be injurious to the sugar. 
The French government in giving encouragement to the 
manufacture of sugar from sugar beets, has employed the best 
chemists of the nation in experiments to overcome the difficul¬ 
ties which the sugar manufacturers experienced in their labor. 
In their reports they have given to the world a vast amount of 
information and learning. We shall not be true to the Amer¬ 
ican character, if we do not appropriate this knowledge to our 
own use in the manufacture of sugar from Sorghum. From 
them, and especially from M. Melsens, what follows will be 
drawn. 
This chemist started with the well known fact, that all the 
saccharine matter contained in healthy sugar cane and healthy 
beets, could be extracted and crystalized. He also knew that 
this matter could be easily extracted by means of weak alcohol, 
which could be afterwards driven off by evaporation, and leave 
the sugar in pure and colorless crystals. He knew that this 
effect was entirely different when water was used in place of al¬ 
cohol. He knew too, that in the sugar cane and beet there 
existed certain fermenting matters, capable of transforming 
sugar into other substances ; but that in order to do this, it 
was necessary that they should be placed in contact with the 
cane sugar by means of water, and the free action of the air.— 
This fermentation and change is so rapid in the tropics where 
the sugar cane is produced, that in thirty minutes after the juice 
is expressed, its character is completely changed, and its crys- 
talizable qualities destroyed. Therefore the manufacturer 
could lose no time in bringing the juice to a boiling heat, which 
in part removes the fermenting materials. Although this fer¬ 
mentation and change is less rapid in France and in Wisconsin, 
in the cool weather when the juice of the beet and the Sorghum 
would be expressed, still it is sufficient to create difficulty and 
loss of sugar. Hence men have resorted to great hurry, and 
