Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-10-12
CONVENTIONOF CHEMISTS FOLLOWS
CLOSELY after THAT OF ENGINEERS

the pancreas. The proteelytic enz.
! yme Of the pancreas is known as tryp-
sin and il acts energetically upon pro-
TENS, prUteoses and peptones.
AS examples of proteolytic vege'
table ferments we have those Of ger.
minating seeds; of the pitcher plant;
of. the papaia or pawpaw, known as
papain; of the pineapple, known as
bromelin; and the erepsin of the cab
bage. ...:. 4
I "Chemistry as Applied to the Study
of Soils" by p. s. Burgess was greet
ed With applause. Burgess said that
the first soil study was undertaken
fby Sir Humphrey Davy in 1900 and as
the results of his experiments many
| chemists took up the work. but in 1854
! Liebig, by declaring that nothing
j could be gained by study of the soils,
so discouraged the other scientists
! that nothing more was done until 1875,
| at which time. it might be said the
| present study of the relation between
! plants and soils started. :
! Burgess then told of various meth
| DDS employed to analyze the soil to
| determine what food values are miss
| ing, and in conjunction he presented
table; giving the principal plant
foods, their amount appearing in the
! top six inches of an acre, the number
of pounds taken out of hundred
bushels of corn and the number Of
years supply per acre. -.
Radium Not Fertilizer ~. -. ~
| According to the table there are
2000 pounds OF phosphoric acid in an
| .t,I,
takes out II pounds, and to every
acre there is sufficient to last 1870
years. Other foods are as follows:
Potash, $4,000, 10, 2600; magnesia,
$4,000. Z, 1000; lime, $500, IL, 90.
600; iron, $500, u. 100000; sulphur,
1000, 4 10000; nitrogen, 10000 900,
100, 100000. -.
1 That radium is not a fertilizer was
declared by Burgess and it has no
value, regardless of it's widely adVer-
tised virtues. Other hoaxes are cataly-
tics; electricity, artificial lights and
the employment of dynamite, all doing
no good and often harm to the soil.
I discussion of the amount of sui
phurlc acid in sugar juice came up
and methods of determining the am.
, cunt ensued. A direct method >of de-
termination suggested was to evapor-
ate the juices to dryness and after
burning determine the amount. Bur
CESS admitted that there would be a
probable loss this way and thought it
would be better to fuse the dried resi-.
due with sodium peroxide and dissolve
the resulting fusion to determine the
sulphuric acid in the solution.
Time and Temperature Vital
Herbert S, Walker In his paper on a
"Simplified Inversion for the Deter.
mination of Sucrose by Double Polar.
zation," said:
Probably the greatest drawback
to the use of true sucrose' determine.
lions in sugar factory control work
has been the necessity for such ex.
IRENE care in the regulation of time
and temperature required by the Herr
teld-Clerget inversion process. So
sensitive to faulty manipulation is the
method ordinarily used that an mex.
perienced chemist may get even less
accurate results by double polarization
than by simply assuming the direct
polarization to represent true sue.
rose ~ T.. ~.-..:
\ the Idea that by heating the sugar So
luton before adding acid to some def.
mite temperature and letting it cool
down slowly in air during a time sui.
ficient for the inversion to become
completed. The only attention re
quired would be to control the TEN
perature of solution at the moment OF
adding the acid. Since the prelimi
nary heating would be in neutral solu
ton the time required to raise to a
definite temperature would be imma.
terial" ......
l. In this connection Dr. Norris pro
posed that committee be appointed
to investigate the new method and
report to the chemists at the next
meeting. .... . - -.
Each Field Needs Study - u"
Field Distribution of Yields" pre-
scented by G. H. Halden, was the mex,
report and he says in his introduce
ton! ....':. 49,. -.
/ The subject Of correctly creditina
to each field the sugar it has pro,
duced is of the greatest Importance
to the plantation management, as from
such data may be learned the influ
ence of fertilizers, irrigation, various
methods of cultivation, different varie
ties of cane, in short, it may be said,
that a knowledge of what each field
is producing, both as to quantity anu
quality, forms the basis of efficient
agriculture. =.
In case the cane is brought by the
manufacturer from independent plant
ers, it would, without doubt, be OF
benefit to both parties to base the
price on the amount of obtainable
sugar in the cane, not on the cane
weight. The grower would be reward