The National tribune., 1886-02-18
OUR RURAL TOPICS,
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers
SUCCESS IN SORGHUM.

!
be of interest to our readers, reporter of The
! NATIONAL TRIBUNE called on Commissioner
| Coleman, with the request that he would briefly
state the progress that has been made in this
method of sugar making.
q have long been known as faithful ally
of the sorghum growers" said Mr.. Coleman,
and while / was the editor of the Rural World
l devoted large part of the first page to their
| interests. This industry deserves the most cor
dial and active aid. We pay annually to for
| egn countries an even 800, ,000 600 for sugar, a
sum much larger than is paid for any other
article of import. What desire, and what is
the desire of all interested in this subject, is to
| keep this vast sum at home, and add it annually
| to our National wealth. If the Congress OF
| the United States were to spend $1,O00,OOO
| for this purpose, or even more than that. and
| we should succeed, it would be the most profit
| able investment ever made. To this end the
experiments in diffusion were instituted and
have been carried on under the direction of this
| Department"
Have these experiments been successful? "
"Sugar planters have long been aware that a
| large percentage of the sugar product was lost
either in milling or in the process of manufac-
! ture 1t is scarcely extravagant to say that
during the last decade fully half of the sugar
the soil has produced has been lost before the
manufactured article has entered commerce.
1t was with the purpose of checking this waste
| that the Department undertook the expert
| ments mentioned.
ITO avoid the loss in milling it was deter
| mined to try the process of diffusion. For this
| purpose apparatus was erected in Kansas for
,nt rl,t,r,,- into htpc md
| tracing the sugar therefrom in diffusion bat
! terry, consisting of 10 cells. The result of the
! experiment was highly gratifying. The degree
of extraction was fully 9S per cent of the total
! sugar present. Mechanical difficulties in the
! form of the apparatus, which could not have
been foreseen, interferred somewhat with the
! successful working of the process economically,
but these difficulties are readily overcome.
To avoid the loss incident to the usual pro-
cess of manu- facture, the process known in the
beet-sugar industry as carbonatatiOn was tried.
This experiment was conducted under the
supervision of Mr.. g. L. Spencer, and its re-
suits were entirely satisfactory.
"To the juice, as it comes from the mill or
the diffusion battery, large excess of lime is
added, and this is afterward precipitated by
blowing through the mixture current of
carbonic acid. The precipitate which falls
carries down witl0t nearly all the impurities
of the juice and leaves them in q state suitable
to easy separation by filtration. The use of
this process entirely suppres5es the losses from
scums, and affords a product in every way su-
periOr to that given by the old method.
3" 1t was the intention of the Department to
make similar experiments in Louisiana, and
preparations for them are nearly completed
But delay In getting part OF the apparatus, and
the improvements suggested by the expert
ments in Kansas, rendered it advisable to post
ponc the work for another year.
These experiments have been carried on at
Ottawa, Kan, and DR.. Wiley, the Chemist of
the Agricultural Department. was directed to
visit the works there and make thorough
inspection of the processes and report as to the
results attained. Though his official report
has not yet been made, it has been forecasted
in a bulletin already issued by the Department,
which shows the success of the experiments.
At a banquet given Dr. Wiley at Ottawa, on
the 10th inst, by citizens of that place, he
r.ade an address which reviewed the sugar in
dustry and its value to the country, and the
experiments made, both with the sugar beet
and the sorghum-cane during which lie said:
go For 25 years the processes which we have
tried here have been in most successful use
with the sugar-beet, and have helped to de-
velop that industry to one of the first of COM
mercial and agricultural Importance on the
Continent of Europe.
1.-The annual production of beet-sugar in Eu-
rope at the present time exceeds 100000 tons.
1--WE, therefore claim nothing new in sugar
making processes, and only wonder, when look
ing at the partial successes we have met, why
they have not been introduced long ago.
The juice of the sugar beet fortunately con-
| tains only one kind of sugar, viz: Sucrose,
while, unfortunately, the juice of sugar-cane
and sorghum contains both sucrose and glucose
in varying proportions. This fact, perhaps
more than any other, has deferred chemists
from experimenting with beet-sugar method
of purIfcation since it is well known that
lime forms dark and bitter products with glu-
cose, which 1 had supposed would injure the
quality of the sugar and sour the molasses.
But in spite of this difficulty we persisted in
our experiments, and finally had the satsfac-
tion of seeing them succeed and demonstrate
that new era in sugar making from cane is
about to begin.
1.-The process Of diffusion has likewise been
demonstrated as practicable, and it has been
shown that all the sugar in the cane, save in
insignificant amount, is readily extracted.
"'While the imperfections which necessarily
attach to machinery tried for the first time for
novel purpose, have tended to obscure the full
light which the experiments have thrown upon
the problems of sugar manufacture yet think
/ can safely say that the difficulties which now
surround the application of diffusion and car
bonataton to sorghum-c cane are of simple me-
chanlcal character, and can be soon readily
overcome.
"'This means large increase in the yield of
the cane and great improvement in the char
acter of the product
"These remarks from DR.. Wiley, who has
never been an enthusiast upon the subject of
the sorghum manufacture, were considered Us
having considerable weight, and it is now be-
Heved that with the success thus attained in
the recent experiments a new era is about to
be opened in the history of the production of
sugar in the United States"
1t is hoped that the experiments so ausp-
ciOusly begun this season will be continued
and carried on to perfection next year by the
aid of Congress and the Department of Agr-
culture.
CARE OF ANIMALS IN WINTER.
The American Humane Association offers the
following suggestions relative to fowls horses
and cattle TO persons having these in charge
in the northern latitudes during the Winter
months.
DO not compel domestic fowls to roost in trees.
Aside from danger Of being captured by owls
and other enemies the swaying of the branches
upon which they are sitting will prevent them
from getting rest; while i'll the severely cold
weather, thus exposed, feet and combs are froz-
en- and the bird is so benumbed as to make it
impossible for it to be of much profit on the
farm. Securely sheltered from wind and storm,
and allowed to sit on broad roost, feet are thus
kept warm, refreshing rest is obtained and the
fowl is much stronger, healthier and more prof
liable to its owner.
Do not clip horses during the Winter months
With the same propriety we might cut the hair
from a dog or shear a sheep at this season of the
~. Il