The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-10-13
Special Committee Win Study.
Walkers New Method Of De-
terminlns Suorose
,FlRE.RooM EFFICIENCY
LOWER THAN ON MAINLAND
Sugar Men Blame New Canes
and. New Fertilizers For Many
~ ~ or Their Troubles '

The Sugar Chemists in convention al
the Library Of hawaii yesterday morn,
ing, elected, Professor H. s.. Walker
president for the ensuing year; w. F.
Duker,l Sies-president, and s. s. Peck,
ary-treasurer! The new executive
committee will be Horace johnson. A.
Fries, H.. W. Robbins, A. Kraft, G. C,
James and W. McAlIep. G, Giacomotti
was ehairrian at the morning session,
The first paper on epzynes,H by
F. 7. Dillingham;, gave a comprehensive
review Of the relationship this group
OF organic ferments bears to putrefae.
tion and assimilation process In living
plants and .anhnals. what theyaRre and
what they do, There was nosdiscus.
sion. =. y
Agricultural chemistry by r. s.
Burgess, was the next subject consider
ed. He said the subject given him was
too broad aud he therefore confined his
remarks TO 'iSoiI Chemistry,n treating
II In comparative manner TO show
the progress made in the last hundred
years. -
Methods To Follow,
Thasdifiieulty. Of finding methods that
will give in the laboratory, results ,ap,
plicabIe to field practise has led to the
D founding Of a number of ''sehOOls I"
Of workers more or less at variance
with one another. The Davy school
taught that chemical analysis is an
absolute guide to crop and soil re-
quirements while Liebig and the chem
lists who follow him denied this. Grad
ually other, schools were developed ,un.
dor the leadership, of Johnson of Yale,
Hilurd, Hopkins, Hall, Whitney, Rus
sell and others, aud n a 10. tremen dOua
amount of Investigation has been ear
ried on. The result seems to be that
the modern soil chemist has elaborated
system which draws something, from
each of those which preceded, and
much work Of great practical advant
age has resulted
sulphur IN came juice - 'N-'''''
He, placed much weight on the func.
fton Of the element sulphur in the main
tenHnce of soil fertility and the advant-
nge Of using superph6sphates instead of
raw rock. This point was taken up by
the mill chemists in the discussion
which followed. r,..
Mr.. Giacometti asked. the chemists
why the volume of sulphuric acid in
cane, juices is greater now than former
ly. II: p. Agee and Mr., Burgess said
they did not know. That led to a debate
on methods of sulphur determination
and 1T developed that where the sulphur
is in organic form there is no easy
method( Of estimating it qIantitatively
The, chairman brought the chemists
back. to- the topic first mentioned, say.
ing that the plantation men want to
knowwhy sulphato, scale is more abund
ant now than formerly. He suggested
that the change in fertilizer practise
NAV have, something to do with it, and
that the experiment station men ought
TO look into it,,
To Determine sucrose
H., B.. Walker briefly summarized a
new process for determining sucrose by
double polarization which he has thor.
Oughly tested and which seems to be
an Improvement over the Herzfeld.
Clergets method. After discussion, the
chemists voted to have Sommittee in.
vestigate this. subject and report next
year.
G. H. Halden' q report on the field
distribution of yields, developed the
fact that no uniform system of samp,
ling has been devised. Where the plan
tations depend on many small planters
and contractors il is impossible to est.
mate the snerose, purity and other
factors in each man % cane, especially
where the mill is receiving cane from
twenty, to- fifty different small areas
through one fume.
Mr. Giacometi thought that under
srch, circumstances averages for II 6efi
mite time period must be used as n basis
for calculation of values. Mr.. Allst0R
favored using the quality ratio as ba,
sis. Each plantation would have to use
methods applicable to its own immR,
data problem. III,
Chemists Overlap Engineering
Horace johnson read Alonzo Cart
ley's paper on fire room efficiency in
which he emphasized the point that
uplass the Are room il well provided
with instruments Of precision there is
a lack of incentive for better work. The
hest feature of this report was letter
from J., A. Glib explaining in detail
how Honolulu Plantation has improved
its efficiency through scientific rear.
Tangement of all fire-rOom units.
This led TO a discussion of compare
tive fuel values of bagasse aud oil. One
pound OF oil eyapOrates fourteen pounds
of water IL the right amount of air Is
used while one pound of bagasse evapo
rates rs pounds. II developed that oil
fressneed at least fifty per cent excess
of air over the theoretical amount re-
duired for complete, combustion. Many
furnaces heresare not built for oil burn.
ing, and 1t developed that oil cannot
be used with perfect efficiency unless
they are. ,"hE
Hawa.ian Ineficiency
II. Ennis Savage reverted to mainland
practise and. said that the average fire
room efficiency Is higher in the big fac
tories and manufacturing establish
ments than here. r. s, Norris brought
up the subject of where TO put the car
bon dioxid gauges. He thought the