SUGAR-CANE.
Kassib shalcar, . . ARAB. Nai, Nai-aluskar, Kan-ebe, . . Kumad, Ukh, „ Sliakkar, . . . . Pzam.
Ghanna, Ganda, . DERR. Animm.boo, . . TAAL Cons, Gundarl, Ow. Sherakoo, . . . TEL.
The sugar-cane, Saccharum officinarum, L., S. violaceum, Toss., and S. Sinense, Roxb., thrives from the equator to the 32d parallel of latitude. It is one of the largest of the grasses, from 8 to 12 feet in height, and acquiring a diameter of one to two inches ; tho suer being contained in the loose cellular juicy pith with which thestalk is filled. The sugar-cane of India was introduced into Arabia, Europe, Africa, W. Indies, and3fauritius. The men tion made of it in the Ilebrew Scriptures down to the Christian era, is simply that of a sweet cane, or of a fine kind of honey found in an Indian reed. Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great, was the first who made known the existhnce of the sugar-cane in the western world ; and from his thne it is mentioned by Theophrastua, Varro, Dioscorides, and others. Herodotus alludes to honey made by the hands of men.' Lucan speaks of the sweet juice expressed from reeds, which the people of India were fond of drinking, and which Pliny calls saccharine. Still later, Arrian, in his Periplus of the Red Sea, alludes to the honey from reeds called sacchar, as an article of trade between the Indian ports aud the countries of the Red Sea. Sugar-cano was found in the Crusades growing in the meadows about Tripoli in Syria ; and mention is made by a writer of that day of eleven camels loaded with sugar being taken by the Crusaders.
Will and Fresenius, of the Gressen laboratory, give the inorganic elements of Otalleite cane as— silica, 47.75 ; soluble mattem, 32.35 ; phosphate of perexide of iron, 4.45 ; phosphate of lime and magnesia, 3.95 ; carbonate of lime, 4-10 ; nuig-. nesia, 3-00 ; carbonaceous mattem and loss, 3'50. The 32 per cent. of soluble matters consisted of pota.sh, 10.05 ; sulphuric acid combined princi pally with potash, 8.40 ; chlorine in combination with soda as common salt, 4 ; soda, 2.65 ; gela tinous silica in combination with potash, 2'55 ; c.arbonic acid combined with potash and min, 1'10; phosphoric acid combined with potash, 0'85 ; loss, 2.40.
There are many varieties of it, some used only as fruit, others for the manufacture of sugar, an acre of cane yielding six tons of sugar ;. but in the little advanced countries, in the absence of machinery and of scientific appliances, where the rough sugar press or sugar mill is used, much of the juice of the cane is left in the refuse. At places the mill is dispensed with, the cane being cut into thin slices, and the saccluirine contents of its cells extracted by bringing the slices into contact with water at an elevated temperature. The water extracts only the soluble substances contained in the juice of the plant, while tnost of the impurities—which in the ordinary process pass into the juice, and must be subsequently re moved at great expense—are left in the unbroken cells of the cane, and do. not contaminate the juice. 13y this process, it is said, the extraction can be carried so far that 95 per cent. of all the sugar contained in the cane is passed into the clarifier, while the best roller mills at present in use do not extract more than 75 per cent of the sugar contained in the cane. The diffusion pro cess thus not only improves the quality of the sugar, but produces an increased out-turn of 20 per cent.
In Oudli, three presses are in use,—the Panjabi, the Bairam, and the Tantia. In the Panjabi mill, the canes are crushed whole, and the produce is greater ; it is costly, and difficult to keep in order. The Tantia mill is in common use, and consists of a mortar of hard wood, a pestle, a boom to which the cattle are yoked, and another boom connect ing the cattle beam and the pestle.
Mr. Bonnefin claims to extract the whole of the saccharine matter from the cane, to prevent fer mentation to thoroughly clear the syrup of all suspended' matters ready for filtration, to com pletely purify the juice by filtration, and to make direct from the cane only pure white, refined sugar.
Mr. Bonnefin does away with the cane mill, and substitutes for it what Ile calls a pulpefactor,' which consists of a series of vertical SAWS, which rapidly cut the bundles Of canes into slices. The eut cane falls into a disintegrator placed beneath tbe saw frame, and in which the cane is. quickly reduced to a fine pulp. It is afterwards passed between a pair of rollers, and the whole percentage of the juice extracted. The juice is then mixed, gallon by gallon, as it is produced, with a proper proportion of lime, and passed over a continuous preparator,' which consists of a long and broad table having a corrugated or furrowed surface, heat being applied tinderneath. There are a series of pockets at intervals in the corrugations, and as the juice flows along, the impurities held in suspension are deposited by gravity, and become collected in the pockets, or eatchpits, from whence they are cleared out at intervals. The juice travels backwards and forwards for a long distame through the corrugations, finally arrivmg at the outlet in a favourable condition, both as regards quality. and temperature, for filtration. This pro cess is effected in a filter specially devised by Mr. Bonnefin, and which consists of a series of metal rings covered with india-rubber, and placed hori zontally in a press. Over each alternate ring— the internal diameter of which is 12 inches—is hung a filter-cloth made of pure unspun cotton of the finest fibre. The rings and cloths, to the required number, which varies according to the rate of filtration desired, are closely pressed and held to gether by screws, and the syrup is pumped into the press. It passes through the whole series of rings and cloths, the solid impurities being inter cepted and retained by that portion of each filter cloth which covers the opening in the ring, while the syrup passes by capillary attraction through the surrounding portions of the cloths, and is delivered in a perfectly clear and pure condition at the outlet. The pure juice as it leaves the filter press is conducted either to the ordinary vacuum pan or to the more rapid and effective evaporator and concentrator dwigned by Mr. Bonnefin. In the evaporator the juice is rapidly deprived of such water as it may contain, while-in the con centrator it is as rapidly brought ifito the condi tion of sonud sugar. All these operations, from the time the cane is placed in the pulpefactor to the moment when it leaves the concentrator in the form of crystallized sugar, it is said, do not occupy more than one hour, as against some 6 to 12 hours with the ordioary process, and its at tendant drawbacks.
There are many varieties of sugar-caue in India, some used only as a fruit. For instance, in the N.W. Provinces and Oudh, the thun, paunda, and kala ghanna are edible ; and for making sug,ar are dhaunr, dikchan, matna, padara, and rakhri.
Other varieties mentioned in Benares and E. Oudli are barokha, katara, khusyar, kliiv.-ahi, munga, reora, rukra, saranti.
In the Lahore district is a purple cane, called kurnad kala ; a hard, thin cane, called kumad lahori, another called kata, and others, the plants of which were obtained from Jalandhar and Saharunpur. Gujranwalla are three kinds of cane, daula, treaa, and chinkha. Daula or white is tbe best, treda is yellowish, chinkha, which is reddish and small, produces good kand and chini.
A large variety in Canton has a bamboo-like appearance, but a smaller variety is cultivated largely for making sugar, and to be eaten as a fruit in Sze-chuen, Ho-nan, Foli-kien, and Canton. , Tahiti has eight varities.
Sugar-cane in IV. Oudli is planted in February aod March, irrigated from one to three times before the rains, and the cutting begins about tbe middle of November. The cuttings used for planting may be of all parts of the cane.
Ukh or generally applies only to the crop, the other names to the cane.—Cal. Cat. Ex., 1862 ; Mad. Ex. Jur. Rep.; Les Anylais et Uncle, p. 246 ; Faulkner, iii. p. 113 ; Powell.