The Ottawa free trader., 1878-08-24
CORN STALK SUGAR.
Process by which Sugar Can he made From
Corn Stalks at l." cts per Pound.

= correspondence of the st. Louis Republic,ta o
y Aug 18th:
e SUGAR FROM CORN STALKS
The department of agriculture is taking con
t siderable interest in scientific experiments now
making looking to the manufacture of sugar
from the ordinary corn stalks. The produc
ton OF sugar from sugarCanc grown IN tho
United states has been liable 10 climate re
IstrCtiOns, and we have been compelled TO send
IabrOad for nearly Sl000OO,0OO worth OF crys.
Italized saccharnc matter, per annum. The
Sugar.Canc has both decreased and detcriorated
IN quality, and every year this tribute to SUI
!, gal-prOduCing countries has been increasing
Within the past year it has been demonstrated
satisfactorily that the ordinary cornstalk
grown in every part of the United States, is a
sugar plant only slightly inferior to the sugar
cane Of Louisiana, and contains 20 per cent.
more SaCcharinc juices than the beet root from
which so large Il part of Europe Is supplied
lwth sugar. This knowledge is not exactly
new, but il has hitherto been believed that it
was impossible to crystaliZe the Juice of the
corn stalk, and until 1877 chemistry presented
no solution Of the difficulty.
MIR. sTEwART's EXPERIMENTS.
In 1913 Mr. f. S. Stewart of Westmoreland
county, Pennsylvania, a farmer and Il gentle
man ot scientific attainments, being Il graduate
of Jefferson college, had been making some
experiments with sorghum. He had a patch
OF evergreen corn, and going through it one
morning i'll October, cutting some STEMS he
noticed that the cuttings were quite juicy.
Taking some of the stalks to his sugar.miil,
they yielded to what seemed be as much
| juice, in proportion to weight us sugar.cane
itself. His interest was excited and he treated
the extracted juice in the regular cane process
In consequence of the stalks having been bad
ly irost-bittcn no proper crystaization of the
l. Juice took place But the result was such rs
to cause him to believe that if il cheap process
could be invented, the obstacles in the way of
making sugar from corn-stalks would not be
great. Becoming engaged in business, Mr.
Stewart thought no more of the matter until
in 1876 at the Centennial exposition, he had
his attention called to the French process of
making sugar from the beet root. This re-
vivcd his interest in the corn sugar question,
and he determined to make further expert
mcnts. During that year he tested half IL
dozen varieties of corn, in different conditions
Chemical tests indicated the value to be as be-
fore estimated, and it only remained to find Il
process Of crystalzauon. This Mr. Stewart
did not find until late last year, but during the
! time which has since elapsed he has by repeat
ed experiment demonstrated its thorough prac
| ticability.
THE NEW PROCESS DESCRIBED
The process does away with the use of va.
cuum apparatus and the very expensive ma
chinely necessary in the manufacture of beet
root sugar Simply described, Mr.. Stewards
process is as follows:
/ The stalks are cut after the ear has arrived
at an are suitable for drying or canning--thc
full value OF the corn crop being thus obtained
! entirely independents Of the sugar growth-and
/ S1ut - an frili |,
placed IN pans, after beng heated to $50 de-
grcCs, is then heavily lined, 50 as to make it
exceedingly alkaline. After being decanted
and the preciptalcd impurities removed,
| liquid dioNide Of sulphur is then introduced
in sufficient quantities to make the syrup high
| ly aCidulOus. As impurities are precpitated,
! they continue TO be removed, and more diOX-
ide OF sulphur added to keep the syrup in its
acdulous condition, until the syrup is reduced
to the density necessary to form sugar. 1t is
then thrown into a cooler and allowed to crys.
talize the draining being performed by cen
trtugal machine or other modern process.
THE RESULTS.
The color of this sugar as it comes from the
draining machine is much better than that of
ordinary care sugar the syrup from which
cane sugar is made being red, while the corn
sugar is nearly white There are specimens
mont which illustrate their equality with, if
not superiority over the best cane sugar. Gen.
lie Due, the commissioner, says that he has
no longer any doubt as to the perfect ieasibili-
ty of manufacturing sugar from corn at Il price
not to exceed two and onc-half cents per pound
He says that within the next six years he hopes
to see the entire import trade in sugars disap-
pear and the demand supplied by our home
production from the COrn-stalk. Not only this,
but he expects to see large export trade es-
tabished in this very article Of sugar with
European markets. The evidence of Mr.. Stew
arts successes are so convincing that it is i'm
possible to doubt We can only speculate up
on the prosperity which must be caused by the
addition within a few years of one hundred
millions of dollars to our home products, and
the decrease of our imports by a correspond
ing sum. Looking at it this day, in the early
dawn of its introduction as one of the great in
dustricS, it is difficult to predict all the bene-
fits likely to accrue from such an important
change in our internal economies A small
volume is now in press and will be Issued next
month, giving the results Of the latest expert
ments and full Instructions for the manuiac-
turc Of sugar from maize.