SORGHUM SUGAR. More than fifteen years ago the writer stated the opinion that the time was not far off when sugar from sorghum, in paying quantities, would be a fixed fact, and also, the probability was, the Western States' would compete successfully with European countries manufacturing beet sugar, as an article for use at home and for export. This was founded upon the fact, first, that the saccharine elements were amply present in sorghmato fully as great a degree as in the beet; and, second, only time andimproved methods were necessary to discover tire proper method of eliminating and manufacturing it at a profit. The experi ments of the last few years, and particularly the work of the last two years, have prktically demonstrated this. There is plenty of sucrose (true sugar), as well as glucose (grape sugar), in the plant. During the autumn and winter of 1877-78, this was demonstrated both in Kansas and in New Jersey. In Louisiana, the process was successfully established in the treatment of the juice of the true sugar cane of the tropics. When we reflect that it required a generat,ion of our race to fully establish the successful cultiva tion and working of the beet for sugar in Europe, and further, that now the beet furnishes more than two-thirds of the entire sugar product of the world, the sorghum growers of the United States may well be congratulated on the measure of success, so far. The sugar is in the cane, and the last year has demonstrated that it can be suc cessfully and profitably Ten or fifteen years more 'Say, in all probabiliy, work as great results in sorghum sugar for the United States as has beet sugar for 'Europe. At this time it seems the Western and Northwestern States, west of the Mississippi, are destined to become one of the great regions of the world in the production of sugar. The record of expert ments as carried out by the Department of Agri culture of the United States, under the direction of Commissioner Colman, who for many years previously had given his best endeavors in the direction of sorghum and sorghum sugar, is interesting. Commissioner of Agriculture, Le Duc, extended a strong helping hand to the sorg hum-sugar industry while in office. His succes sor in office, Commissioner Loring, while being skeptical as to results, had the work continued during his term of office.. The present commis sioner, Norman J. Colman, has extended all the aid at his command, and, assisted by liberal appro priations from Congress, he has every reason to feel gratified at the great success attained the present year. The history of experimental sugar making in Kansas—which may he called the central region in the West for the cultivation of sorghum cane—is as follows: From 1878 to 1882, much attention was given to the study of sorghum juices from canes cultivated in the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, under the direc tion of Dr. Peter Collier, Chief Chemist of the Department. The records of the Department show that, stimulated by the analytical results published by Dr. Collier, interested parties erected large sugar factories and provided them with costly appliances. Hon. John Bennyworth erected one of these at Larned, in Kansal. S. A. Liebold & Co. subsequently erected one at Great Bend. Both of these factories made some sugar, both lost money, and hoth quit the busi ness. Sterling and Hutchinson followed with factories which made considerable amounts of merchantable sugar at no profit. The factory at Sterling was erected by R. M. Sandys & Co., of New Orleans, who sought, by combining Mr. Sandys' thorough knowledge of sugar with the best practical skill of the South, to establish the sorghum-sugar industry on a prdper basis. For two seasons this combination worked faithfully, and while the syrup produced paid the expenses of the factory, not a crystal was made. The factory then, in 1883, changed hands, and passed under the superintendency' bf Prof. M. A. Scovell, then of Champaigif, Ill., who, with Professor Weber, had worked out, in the labor atories of the Illinois Industrial University, a practical method for obtaining sugar, from sorg hum in quantities which, at prices then pre valent, would pay a profit on the business. But prices declined, and after making sugar for two years in succession, the Sterling factory succumbed. The Hutchinson factory at first made no sugar, but subsequently passed under the management of Prof. M. Swenson, who had successfully managed sugar in the laboratory of the University of Wisconsin. Large amounts of sugar were made at a loss, and the Hutchin son factory closed its doors. In 18b4, Hon. W. L. Parkinson fitted up a complete sugar factory at Ottawa, Kansas, and for two years made sugar at a loss. Mr. Parkinson was assisted during the first year by Dr. Wilcox, and during the second year by Professor Swenson. In 1885 and 1886, Congress made futher appropriations. It had been previously show7n that by the pro cess of diffusion and carbonization, crystallized sugar could be produced, and that 95 per cent. of the sugar in the cane could be marketed, either as syrup or dry sugar. In 1887, sugar in paying quantities was produced by a company of which Hon. W. L. Parkinson was manager, at Fort Scott, Kansas. The success has been due, first, to the almost complete extraction of the sugars from the cane by the diffusion process; second, the prompt and proper treatment of the juice in defecating and evaporating; third, the efficient manner in which the sugar was boiled to grain in the strike-pan. The total product and status at the end of the season of 1887, is given below from notes in the report of M. Parkinson, as follows: It will be interesting to follow the production of saccharine matter, and its inversion in the cane. The chemist produces glucose, or grape sugar, from either starch or sugar by treatment with acid, but all attempts have failed to pro duce cane sugar from either starch or grape sugar. The farmer, then, or perhaps more accur ately the power which impels the plant to select and combine in proper form and proportions the three elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxy gen, is the real sugar-maker. All after processes are merely devices for separating the sugar from the other substances with which it grows. The process of the formation of sugar in the cane is not fully determined; but analyses made of canes at different stages of growth show that the sap of growing cane contains a soluble sub stance having a composition and giving reactions similar to starch. As maturity approaches, grape sugar is also found in the juice. A fur ther advance towards maturity discloses cane sugar with other substances, and at full maturity perfect canes contain much cane sugar and little grape sugar and starchy matter. In sweet fruits the change from grape sugar to cane sugar does not take place, or takes place but sparingly. The grape sugar is very sweet, how ever. Cane sugar, called also sucrose or crys tallizable sugar, when in dilute solution is changed very readily into grape sugar or glu cose, a substance which is much more difficult than cane sugar to crystallize. This change, called inversion, takes place in overripe canes; it sets in very soon after cutting in any cane during warm weather; it occurs in cane which has been injured by blowing down or by insects or by frost, and it probably occurs in cane which takes a second growth after nearly or quite reaching maturity. Since sugar is pro duced only by nature's'processes of growth and is easily lost through inversion, it is evident ,that the er's part in the process of sugar making is first and most important of all. It is a subject invites most careful, scientific, and practical attention, and will be further con sidered under the subject "Improving the cane."
It is apparent rent from what has already been said, that to insure a successful outcome from the operations of the factory, the cane must be so planted, cultivated, and matured as to make the sugar in its juice, that it must be delivered to the factory very soon after cutting; and that it must be taken care of before the season of heavy frosts. As to what is diffusion and how it operates in the cells, the record of experiments shows as follows- The condition in which the sugar and other soluble substances exist in the cane is that of solution in water. This sweetish liquid is contained, like the juices of plants gener ally, in cells. The walls of these cells are porous, It has long been known that if a solution of sugar in water be placed in a porous or membranous sack and the sack placed in water, an action called osmose takes place, whewby the water from the outside and the sugar solution from the inside of the sack each pass through until the liquids on the two sides of the membrane are equally sweet. Other substances soluble in water behave simi larly, but sugar and other readily crystallizable substances pass through much more readily than uncrystallizable or difficultly crystallizable bodies. To apply this property to the extrac tion of sugar, the cane is first cut into fine chips, and put into the diffusion cells, where water is applied and the sugar is displaced. For the purpose of illustration, let us assume that, when a cell has been filled with chips, just as much water is passed into the cell as there was juice in the chips. The proCess of osmose or diffusion sets in, and in a few minutes there is as much sugar in the liquid outside of the cane cells as in the juice in these cane cells; in other words, the water and the juice have divided the sugar, each taking half. Again, assume that as much liquid can be drawn from one as there was water added. It is plain that if the osmotic action is complete the liquid drawn off will be half as sweet as cane juice. It has now reached fresh chips in two, and again equalization takes place. Half of the sugar from one was brought into two, so that it now contains 1-1- portions of sugar, dissolved in two portions of liquid, or the liquid has risen to of the strength' of cane juice. This liquid having strength passes to three, and we have in three 19 portions of liquid, or after the action has taken place the liquid in three is strength. One portion of this liquid passes to four, and we have 1F, por tions of sugar in two, portions of liquid, or the liquid becomes IS strength. One of this liquid passes to five, and we have in five 118 portions of sugar in two portions of liquid, or the liquid is strength. It is now called juice, and is drawn off and subjected to the processes of the subsequent operations of the factory. From this time forward, a cell is drawn for every one filled. The following table will illustrate the working of the saccharine matters of the stalks cut up in fine chips in the cell. The process will be readily understood from the diagram, in which the columns represent the cells ^of the battery, the numbers at the left the num ber of diffusions; so, water ; 1, liquid in the cells, or passing through them, and j, juice to be drawn. Throughout the operation the temperature is kept as near the boiling point as can be done conveniently without danger of filling some of the battbry, cells with steam. Diffusion takes place more rapidly' t high than at low temperature, and the danger of ferment ation, with the consequent loss of sugar, is avoided. To round out the subject, we quote from the report of the Commissioner, in which it is stated that the grape-sugar content of sorg hum is very large. When freed from such of the " not sugar" products as have an unpleasant taste, this constitutes an elegant syrup constitu ent. 4 It is composed chiefly of two sugars, called, respectively, dextrose and levulose. The last is sweeter than cane sugar. This grape sugar is that to which most sweet fruits owe their sweet ness. The large amount of it—over fifty-three pounds to the ton of cane—is likely to be recog nized in the near future as one of the most valu able contents of sorghum cane. At present we are able to separate only a portion of the cane sugar from the other constituents of the juice. It is believed to be impossible by methods at present used to separate more than the difference between the cane sugar and the grape sugar. Thus the sorghum of 1883 could have yielded not more than pounds per ton, while that of 1884 should, by the same computation, have yielded 264.9-22.32=242.58 pounds per ton. The available sugar in the sorg hum crop of 1887, by the same method, was 171.8-60=111.8 pounds, and the average avail able sugar in the sorghum for the five years was 193.1-53.55=139.55 pounds. This is supposing that the juice is all obtained from the cane, and that there is no waste in the subsequent pro - cesses. At Fort Scott, however, only a little more than 92 per cent. of the sugar was obtained from the cane, 'so that the above figures should be multiplied by .92, making the mean available sugar with this extraction 128.38 pounds, and the available sugar of 1887, 102.8 pounds per ton of cleaned cane. The actual yield obtained at Fort Scott was 234,607 pounds of first sugar, from 2,501 cells. If, now, the cell be taken as a tone the yield of first sugar was 234,607+2,501- 93.8 pounds. Enough of the molasses was reboiled for a second crop of crystals, and the sugar separated to ascertain that fifteen to twenty pounds, per ton of cane represented, could be obtained. Calling it fifteen, we have for the entire yield 93.8+15=108.8 pounds per ton of cleaned cane. This is a larger yield than is obtainable according to the heretofore accepted theory. There is some uncertainty about the weight of a cell, which may Account for the dis crepancy between the theoretical and the actual results. It is possible, however, that the theory may need reconstruction. In any case, the yield actually obtained is most gratifying. I have made no mention in the above of the exception ally large yields of some special strikes made during the season. One strike gave 109 pounds of merchantable sugar for each cellful (ton) of chips. The seconds from this would doubtless have brought the yield up to 130 pounds. But the general reader and the prospective manufac turer are more interested in average' than in special results. It seems safe to assume that a mean of 100 pounds of sugar and twelve gallons of molasses can be made if rom each ton of cleaned sorghum cane of average richness. The price paid for cane delivered at the sugar factory has heretofore been $2 per ton. It needs only to be stated that long 1Pauls by wagon would cost too much to leave any profit to the farmer at this price. It is doubtful whether the farmer who lives more than three miles from the factory, can afford to raise cane unless he can transport it most of the way by rail. Again, the factory will easily obtain all it can work from farmers whose distance does not exceed two miles, and will prefer to patronize these on account of the greater regularity with which they can deliver their crops, as well as the greater facility with which the supervision of the factory may be extended. Farmers living on a line of railitoad may be able to ship their cane on such favorable terms as to avail themselves of the market at the factory. In Cuba and in some parts of Louisiana, light railroads are constructed where the distance is too great for hauling on ordinary roads. On these a team hauls about thirteen tons at a load. The system of central and aux iliary factories seems, however, to offer the best solution for the problem of distance.