Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-12-16
SORGHUM SUGAR.
Could 1t Be PrOiitably Manufac-
tured in this Country!
Secretary Rusk Seems to Think
1t Could Be,


cultural Department as shown By the
Annual Report of DR.. Wiley, Chief of
the Chemical Division.
WASHINGTON. Dec. lG,-The annual
report of the chief Of the chemical di-
vision, department Of agriculture, con-
tains an account of the process recently
perfected as the result OF eXperim III III
the chemical laboratory OF the depart
ment, which must be of the greatest in
terest to sorghum growers and to the
people generally.
THE recent discoveries made with
reference to the manufacture Of
sorghum sugar by DR.. Wiley and his
assistants" Secretary Rusk says, seems
to practically solve the question Of the
feasibility of the profitable manufacture
of sorghum sugar in this country. The
department. chemists claim substantial
ly an increase in the yield of sugar per
thousand gallons of juice, of from an
average of about 10000 to an average of
over 81 1897, at an increase of cost of
of $S4 for the alcohol which
enters into the new process. According
to their figures, and estimating the
sugar at four cents per pound, we have
a gain in profit Of 1895, which is nearly
100 per cent increase per thousand gal
Ions of juice.
DR.. Wiley's report recites some of the
various difficulties which have been
found hitherto in an economic manu-
facture of sugar from sorghum, and in
dicates that the solution of the question
was to be found in "some process which
would separate as nearly as possible the
gummy amorphous bodies from the
juice without precipitating the sugar.
The known property of alcohol to
produce precipitation in the juice was
made use of in the further study of this
problem, and experiments We're under
taken and continued which have finally
secured the most satisfactory results
1.-The difficulties" says the report,
which have been encountered in man
sugar from sorghum juices
have been solely due to the presence of
these gums. Then removal. therefore,
if it can be accomplished on manu-
featuring basis, would at once place
sorghum in high rank as a sugar pro-
ducing plant.
1t seems from the report that not
only has this desideratum, the removal
of the guns, been effected by the process
evolved during these experiments, bnt
it has been shown that this can be ef-
fected at ia cost comparatively tritling by
with the results obtained.
The article used in precipitation can be
almost wholly recovered by subsequent
indeed, although in the
theoretical case presented in the report
for purposes OF comparison, the alcohol
recovered by subsequent distillation is
estimated at two-thirds Of the quantity
used, the experiments made at the de-
partment show that the total loss of
alcohol need not exceed or, at most 10
per cent.
Another encouraging feature is that
the gummy substance separated by the
process is itself fermentable, yielding
almost half its weight in alcohol. 1t APP
pears that from the gum itself, then. a
sufficient amount of alcohol may possi-
bly, be derived to supply the whole waste
which would take place in the process
of manufacture, and any additional
quantity of alcohol needed, could be OBJ
tanned from the mOlasses after the ex-
traction of all the crystallizable sugar
In other worlds proper stock of alco-
hol once provided, the wastage therein
in the process of manufacture could be
in great measure, if not entirely sup
piled by the refuse matter which would
be manufacturing waste. "
Again, by the adoption of this pro-
cess, DR.. Wiley says, the period Of man
ufacture, the shortness of which has al
WAYS been one of the troubles in the
making of sorghum sugar, can be con-
siderablv heightened. The usual period
for the manufacture of sugar, now
practically confined to the months of
September and October, could be devot-
ed exclusively to the extraction of the
iuice and the making of the syrup.
which can easily be preserved and
worked into sugar subsequently, either
through the winter months or in the
spring, when the factory could again be
set in operation.
The larger storage facilities required
bv this means viii be far more than
offset by the fact that the whole Of the
apparatus for manufacture could be
built ON a smaller scale than if it We're
necessary to treat all the syrup rs soon
as manufactured during September and
October One factory could take care
of much larger crop of cane than
where the whole manufacturing opera
tions had to be continued at once.
The report states that in order that
this method of production of sugar may
become possible, it will be necessary for
the revenue laws 10 be so modified as to
allow the preparation of the alcohol
used in the process to be carried on
without tax, the alcohol to be made I'M
der bond TO be given by the manufac-
turer that it should be used only in the
work of manufacture, and should in no
case enter commerce for any purpose
whatever.
Attention is also called to the fact
that this process having been discovered
and operated by the chemical division
of this department it is unpatentable
except by the department for the COM
mon use of the people. DR. Wiley earn
estly urges that the department should
at least be permitted to itself carry on
experiment on a small scale with this
method in the experimental stations for
the improvement of sorghum cane and
the manufacture therefrom. To carry
out these experiments in a practical
way, he estimates that grant OF SO,
600 would be entirely sufficient.
Secretary Rusk cordially endorses this
recommendation. arguing that the mag
nitude of the industry involved is such
that it does not seem possible that any
objection could be made to this practi-
cal method of demonstrating the value
of the process and the feasibility of its
practical application topurposes Of sugar
manufacture.
Fire at NIiRden, Neb.
LINCOLN. Neh.. Dec. l6.-The fire