National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-02-13
SUGAR ON AMERICAN SOIL.
COMMISSIONER COLMAN's TALK ABOUT
ITS CULTIVATION.
The Process of Diffusion Described in
Detail for the National Sugar Growers
Association-The New Process and Its
Results.

The address of Hon. Norman j. Colman,
president Of the National Sugar Growers
Association, before that body at ST.
Louis, en- the 4th instant, was most inter
estlng one to farmers, being a brief history
Of the experiments that were conducted at
Ottawa, Kan, last autumn by the depart
ment of agriculture, which, although ac-
companied by repeated and serious obsta-
Giles, were finally crowned with the most
gratifying results.
"The fact" he said, "that the ordinary
processes Of pressure do not secure much
over half the sugar in the cane has long
been n source Of serious consideration with
those who have studied the sugar problem
from an economic point Of view. That so
large a percentage Of the raw material
should be lost is not only repugnant to the
economic sense, but Is also opposed TO all
the advances made In modern methods of
manufacture. The sugar industry, in order
to hold its place In the sharp competition
Of the times, must prevent, hereafter, In
some way, the terrible losses which II has
suffered In the past.
sin respect of sorghum these losses may
be classed under the following heads Loss
Of sugar due to imperfect extraction from
the cane; by publication of the Juice; by
waste In scums; loss Of seeds and blades;
and loss Of bagasse. In this connection
only the first aud second of these sources
Of loss will be considered, and the rest re-
served for discussion on some other occa-
sion.
at might at first appear that the loss
due to incomplete extraction might be
avoided by a more perfect construction OF
the rolls or by duplicating them. 1t is true
that much can be saved In this way. A
keavy mill with It's rolls set iron to iron and
driven by correspondingly heavier engines
will certainly increase the percentage OF ex-
traction. Still more is this the case when
the mill is duplicated, and IL is now in many
of the best sugar factories. BY the use OF
springs or elastic cushions, or by hydraulic
regulators adjusting the rolls to the thick
ness Of the feed, much has also been ac-
complished in increasing the amount of
juice obtained. Benefit has also been de-
rived from saturating the bagasse as It
passes from the first set Of rolls to the sec
ond with steam or hot water. Still further
advantage is found to follow preliminary
treatment of the cane by passing 1t through
n shredder before delivering II to the rolls.
This machine reduces the canes to kind
of pulp, in which state they can be fed
more evenly to the rolls aud give up more
readily their juice. With the best kind Of
shredder and the best duplicate
mills the degree of extraction is sunl-
GENTLY great to satisfy unreasonable expecta-
tions. But there are grave objections to
even this method of getting the juice. The
chief Of these is that, let the ponderous
machinery be as strong as you will, II is
liable to break, and leave the sugar grower
with the alternative of tedious and costly
reparation or a total loss Of his unworRed
crop. Again the power that is required to
lef,t ,,,tIl t9 hot, .l,.,S,
not less than $50 horsepower for plant
capable of working 200 tons Of cane per
day. In the case of the sugar beet like
experience has been suffered. The old
method OF rasping the beets and then sub
jecting the pulp to repeated hydraulic pres
sure with Intermediary treatment with hot
water, secured indeed a very satisfactory
extraction of the sugar, but 1t has had to
give way to another process more perfect
and requiring machinery which 1t Is almost
impossible to break or put out of order.
This is the process of diffusion. In the
case Of the beet the diffusion process has
not come into general use solely because of
the higher degree of extraction obtained by
1t. But the machinery required for II is so
much less ponderous, the power required
to work 1t is so much less, the liability to
accident so greatly diminished, and the
juice obtained so much purer, that, even II
no more complete extraction were possible
than by the old method, yet 1t would still
lie preferred.
"The process of diffusion is based upon
the physical phenomena known as osmose.
When n crystallizable asd amorphous body
are In solution and separated by thin
membrane from pure water or less dense
solution Of the same substance it is found
that the cIystalloid body passes rapidly
through the membrane until the two liquids
are practically equally saturated by II. The
COlloid body, on the other hand, tends to
form an equilibrium much more slowly, so
much SO indeed that by the time the crys-
tHllotd has distributed itself evenly on the
two liquids the colloid is still nearly all In
the original solution. BY n repetition of
this process it was possible to effect an al
most complete separation of the two bodies
In sugar-producing plant the cell walls,
within which the sugar Is contained, are
membranes, through which this osmose
goes on. By bringing the ilnely-slced sub
stance OF such plant into contact with
successive portions of warm water almost
every trace Of the sugar passes out, and the
water passes in to take its place. 1t is thus
seen that the diffusion is quite different
from maceTaton. In the latter process the
material from which the extraction is to be
made is first reduced to a pulp and the cell
walls ruptured. The extraction is just as
perfect in maceration as In diffusion, but
soluble crystalloids and colloids are alike
removed.
"Five years ago, during the time that DR..
Collier was making his valuable researches
In sorghum, the department of agriculture
made experiments looking to the extraction
Of the sugar remaining in the bagasse by
successive treatment with charges of warm
water. 1t will be seen at once, however,
that these were experiments In maceration
rather than in diffusion, and yet they were
al nj uctn In hn inlt
at was not, however, until the fall OF
| 1883 that any further attempts were made
| During the preceding summer the depart
ment had constructed an experimental diff
fusion battery and cane sliccr for the pur-
| pose OF trying the process on small scale.
At the same time an investigation was made
Of the attempt to introduce diffusion on
| large scale into Louisiana ten years before,
| and much valuable information was secured
on this subject from Mr. Il. Sieg, of New
| Orleans, who had been an enthusiastic and
| persistent advocate Of the feasibility of APP
| plying diffusion to sugar cane.
at was found that the partial failure of
the trial was due rather to crude and I'M
wieldly forms of machinery than to any
other fault inherent in the process. 1t was
| true that the process had been condemned
IN that IL had not gained any permanent
foOthold among the sugar makers, but this
failure appeared to be due rather to the
| lack of funds for continuing the experiment
than to any unsuitabeness OF the process it.
self.
sin fact, the department was fully salts
fed, from careful study of the data In the
| report Of the experiments made, that 1t was
worth while to recOmmence the invcstga-
tion on more scientific basis and with the
| hope that Congress would furnish means
| for lis successful prosecution.
"When the first experiments were tried
| with diffusion In 1888 the chemist of the
department was convinced that the Ordi-
nary methods OF detecting would give the
lest results with diffusion juices. At that
time an extensive series Of experiments was
conducted looking to the application TO
cane juices of the process known as carbona-
tution by beet sugar makers. The results
Of these experiments were fully set forth In
lullrtin No. ., and the subject was again
] ,plttf,nal In IulIntiu NJ,