150 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ave., 1898, 
with certain precautions suggested by science, practically presents graye diffi- 
culties. For instance, everyone knows that it is impossible for a manufacturer 
who takes cane from his own fields, and who, at the same time, receives cart- 
loads of various varieties of cane from neighbouring growers, to make a 
standard sample of sugar without delaying to some extent the work of the 
mill, It is equally impossible for him to have recourse to a small laboratory 
mill to overcome his difficulty, for the small amount of juice obtained by this 
kind of apparatus gives no good average of the density of the different canes 
erushed by it. In the second place, once the density is taken (often a long 
and delicate operation), it is not possible to form a correct notion of the rich- 
ness of the cane thus manipulated. If the tables, so carefully calculated by 
Teery and Biard, were taken as a guide, a figure would be obtained, approxi- 
mate certainly, and sufficient for practical purposes, although we have proved 
a difference to exist between the tables and the saccharometer of over 0°50 per 
cent. in the saccharine richness of the juice, as calculated by Biard, according 
Density ‘oh 
Tichness “hie 
ceases to follow, in proportion, from the moment that the canes have been cut 
for several days. On very hot, dry days, we have seen canes from the same 
field increase in density by the next morning by 4 degree Beaume. Con- 
sider the increase of density and the benefit to the small planter, which must 
result from this, when the purchase of his cane was concluded two or three days 
after the cutting. 
This increase in density arises without any doubt from the evaporation of 
the water in the cane, and one might hence arrive at the conclusion that there 
would, in the long run, be more advantage in manipulating dry cane. But we 
must not forget that our means of extraction of the juice do not allow us to 
take advantage of a dry cane which resists crushing, and that our losses at the 
mill vary in direct proportion to the richness of the cane. 
Quite otherwise would be the position of the manufacturer if the juice 
were extracted by the diffusion process, which leaves a constant quantity of 
sugar in the results of extraction, whatever may be the richness of the raw 
material. The purchase of cane according to saccharine density established by 
means of the saccharometer is the only means of resting on a solid basis every 
transaction between grower and manufacturer. As a matter of fact, the 
difficulties arising from the purchase of cane by density, and which arise 
especially from the narrow relation which exists between the richness of a 
juice and its Beaumé degree of density, disappear entirely by the use of this 
instrument. 
As to other secondary difficulties arising from grading, we believe that 
they are less important than the former, and that it would not be impossible 
to establish a modus operandi only valuable in itself to form a medium sample 
with the help of a relatively restricted number of canes. 
But the saccharometer is an instrument still unknown to the greater number 
of our mills, and much time would be required to persuade all our manufacturers 
of its usefulness, which is as incontestable as that of the scales for the control 
of manufacturers. 
We have thought of a plan which wonld enable the planters to make more « 
advantageous bargains, and to induce those who supply them with cane, by 
degrees to cultivate rich varieties. his plan is the natural result of the 
saccharometer, for, we repeat, this instrument alone enables us to determine 
with exactitude the richness of the cane. he plan is: To prepare for each 
district, or rather for each division, a table representing the saccharine richness 
of canes of all varieties during different months in which the cutting occurs. 
This table would be divided into two series of figures, indicating the variations 
in saccharine richness during rainy and during dry years. We have remarked 
that the content of sugar varies little from one year to the other for a 
given locality, excepting when great differences in the climatic conditions occur 
which may advance or retard the maturing of the cane. You will probably think, 
to density. But the difficulty comes in, in the relation of 
