Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
July,  1883.  j 
Sorgho  and  Imphy- Sugar. 
375 
performed  by  distilling  tlie  salt  with  dry  sodium  etliylate  in  a  current 
of  hydrogen  gas.    The  reaction 
CO(O.C6H5)2  h  EtO.Na  =  OH.QH^.COONa  +  QH^.OEt 
takes  place.  When  distilled  with  sodium  hydroxide,  the  diphenyl 
carbonate  yields  sodium  salicylate  and  phenol.  The  reaction  proceeds 
so  readily  that  the  author  suggests  the  possibility  of  a  commercial 
process  being  made  out  of  it. — Jour.  Chem.  Soc,  1883,  p.  588  ;  J.  pr. 
Chem.  27,  39-45. 
MANUFACTURE  OF  SOKGHO  AND  IMPHY-SUGAR  IN 
THE  UNITED  STATES. 
By  F.  Bockmann. 
True  sorgho  from  Chinese  seed  was  imported  into  the  United 
States  in  1855  ;  imphy,  the  variety  from  African  seed,  in  1857.  The 
cultivation  of  sorgho  for  sugar  making  has  not  hitherto  taken  root  in 
Europe,  but  in  the  States  of  Ohio,  Iowa,  Illinois,  Missouri,  etc.,  con- 
siderable progress  has  been  made,  tlie  production  of  sorgho  sugar  in 
America  reaching  640,000  lbs.  in  1875.  For  the  same  year  the  total 
production  of  sugar-cane  sugar  is  estimated  at  63,000,000  lbs.,  and  of 
beet-sugar  20,000,000  lbs.  There  are  certain  difficulties  attending  the 
growth  of  sorgho,  but  it  presents  the  advantage  of  flourishing  in  a 
climate  too  cold  for  the  sugar-cane  and  too  warm  for  the  sugar-beet. 
The  quantity  of  cane-sugar  contained  in  the  plant  is  at  its  maximum 
when  the  seed  begins  to  ripen ;  the  color  of  the  plant  then  changes 
from  apple-green  touched  with  red  to  citron-yellow.  When  this  point 
is  reached,  the  plants  are  deprived  of  their  leaves,  the  stems  cut  off  a 
few  inches  above  the  ground,  and  immediately  crushed  between  large 
vertical  or  horizontal  rollers.  If  this  operation  is  delayed,  a  portion 
of  the  cane-sugar  reverts  to  glucose ;  e.g.,  a  sample  of  sorgho  contain- 
ing 15'47  per  cent,  cane-sugar  and  1'71  per  cent,  glucose  the  day  it 
was  cut,  contained  45  days  later  6 '32  per  cent,  cane-sugar  and  15'73 
per  cent,  glucose.  The  proportions  of  the  two  varieties  of  sugar  con- 
tained in  the  plant  at  different  stages  of  growth  were,  in  the  crops  of 
1863,  1865,  and  1866,  as  follows  :— 
