Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-06-19
Sugar Experiments.


says: The United States imports
1920, 900, 900 worth of sugar annually
from foreign countries. As we have
great diversity of climate and no other
country has better soils, it is remark
able that greater efforts have not been
made to produce it at home and prevent
our money from going abroad. Sugar
cane is the only plant from which sugar
was made in considerable quantities in
this country prior to last year, and it
can be grown protitably only within
limited areas of Louisiana and Texas.
But the results of the experiments
which were made with sorghum last
year and this year indicate that skill
and suitable machinery is all that is
needet, to make sugar from it profit
ably in Kansas and other Western
States. Since the introduction of Am
Der cane, only ordinary care has been
necessary to produce good syrup cheap
ly in Iowa, which has generally shown
a strong tendency to granulate. This
variety of sorghum has proved to be
one of our reliable crops and rich in
sucrose; but it is generally understood
that sugar can not be extracted from
it profitably, except by the use Of very
costly machinery in large factories. If
such belief IS well founded, then sugar
can not be made in large quantities in
Iowa. because the time Gwenty to
thirty days. is too short between the
ripening of the canes and frost, to war
rant the expenditure of very large
sums of money in sugar factories. But
such work can be done as well in small
factories as large ones, and that others
may Judge whether am right or not,
/ will explain the principal troubles
which are always encountered in max
ing sugar from sorghum and sugar
cane. SucrOse is cane sugar, which
crystallizes readily when surrounded
by favorable conditions, and glucose is
grape sugar, which can not be crystal
Lied by the ordinary processes for
making sugar.
The latter is much more plentiful
in unripe sorghum canes than in ripe
canes of the same variety. Inversion
is the changing of sucrose into glucose.
1t is caused by vegetable acids, which
are always found in cane juices. They
also contain heterogeneous substances
which cause fermentation. To make
sugar proftably, it is necessary no
Saccharine substances should be neutra-
lied or removed from the juice as soon
as it is extracted from the canes or in
version of the sucrose would begin at
once. Such acids are neutraliZed and
inversion is prevented by the use of
lime. When lime is not used heat
tends to hasten inversion; hence the
boiling of unlimed juices and the cool
ING of hot syrup should be done as ex-
pedtiously as possible. When a sut1i-
cient quantity of lime is mixed with
sorghum juice it will destroy more or
less of the glucose which it contains
while being converted into syrup.
Every pound of sucrose which is in
verified in making sugar prevents
another pound from crystalizing and
causes it to be held in the form of mo-
lasses. Boiling coagulates the nitro
genOus matter in cane juice, and causes
it to rise to the surface as scum. When
an oxooss of lime is used, it viii not in
jure the sugar; but it will darken the
syrup and impair its flavor. Roller
mills are used generally for crushing
sorghum and sugar canes and extract
inc their juices; but they leave one
third Of the sugar in the baggasse.
AT the present time the diffusion pro-
cess for extracting sugar from sorghum
and sugar cane is attracting most at
tention in Kansas, Texas, and Louisi-
ana. When this process is used from
six to dozen or more large iron boil
srs or cells are filled with shredded cane
or cane chips, from which the sacharine
matter is removed by repeated wash
Snn hDt
all Of the sugar can be extracted from
the SHREDDED canes, but the juice is much
diluted. When a sufficient quantity of
juice of a certain strength has been OBJ
tanned from the diffusion cells, it is de-
fecated in large iron tanks by the use
of lime and heat, and then discharged
into vacuum pans or open evaporatOrs
to beboiled down. Although the results
of the work which has been done in
some of the Kansas sugar factories is
very discOuraging, still | am confident
that the making of sugar from sorghum
by the diffusion process will become a
leading industry in several of the West
ern States. The sorghum canes are
rich enough in sugar, but our neigh
bors have not learned yet how to make
it crystalline in paying quantities. The
partial failures of the Kansas sugar
companies can be traced to the follow
ing causes: l. AS the making of sorg-
hum sugar has not gone beyond the
experimental stage, their factories were
entirely too large and costly for ex-
detrimental work. 2. They were man
aged generally by men who we're not
expert sugar makers and operated by
others who had never received special
training for such work. 3. General
ly too much sugar was allowed to in
vert before the necessary means were
used to produce thorough DELEGATION.
4. Frequently, sorghum of inferior
quality was used"
Crops for Green Manuring.
One of the best crops to be grow n
and plowed under as a green manure is
buckwheat. 1t makes a quick growth
and spreads out in short time so as to
completely shade the ground, and dur
ing the summer, at least, this aids the
process of nitritication considerably.
Buckwheat, like clover, not only adds
considerably to the fertility, but also
makes a soil friable. One advantage
with buckwheat is that it makes a very
rapid growth, and two crops can be
grown and plowed under in one season
by sowing the first reasonably early in
i