Investigation of the Scientific and Economic Relations of the Sorghum Sugar Industry: Being a Report Made in Response to a Request From the Hon. George B. Loring (1883) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 57-157
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From page 57... ...
All Chinese sugar is made from the sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum) grown in the southern provinces, where sorghum is not found.
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From page 58... ...
Williams, says in his essay, or memoir, on the study and value of Chinese botany,t page 46: The true sugar-cane (Saccharumofficinarum) growing in China must not be confounded with what is called Northern China Sugar cane.
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From page 59... ...
We still hesitate about the botanical name by which this plant should be designated. The name of " Holcm saccharntus '> is evidently erroneous, for, although the plant is very probably the same which was formerly so denominated, that division of this genus, which is characterized by the presence of a small pedunculate male awn by the side of each fertile awn, has been thrown out of the " Holcus" group into the genus "Andropogon" or "Sorghum." In all likelihood the species "Sorghum vulgare" (Andropogan sorghum)
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From page 60... ...
JTbe Zulu Caffres cultivate a great number of varieties of the sugar sorghum, (caled by them "imphee") , not for the purpose of making sugar from them, but of sucking their stalks.
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From page 61... ...
We have just seen that sorgho has for the production of alcohol the advantage of turning to account its uncrystallizable sugar, whjch is lost when sorghum is exclusively Tised for ihe manufacture of sugar. Another advantage consists in the pureness of its juice, owing to which the alcohols, and even the crude brandies, obtained from it are pure enough to permit immediate deli-very to consumers.
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From page 62... ...
; uncrystallizable sugar, 4J per cent 16.00 The amount of alcohol produced by the juice was ascertained by the direct method of fermentation. The following are the figures in the order in which they were determined (these figures represent the cubic centimeters of absolute alcohol per liter)
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From page 63... ...
Mr. Leonard Wray is the veteran pioneer of sorghum culture in the United States and in France, whose contributions have already been referred to in the body of this report.
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From page 64... ...
is included in the natural order Graminacece, to which natural order belongs also the tropical sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) ; but it should be remarked that between the genus Sorghum and the genus Saccharum there are classed by botanists the three genera, Erianthus, Eriochrysis, and Ischcemopogon.
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From page 65... ...
except that the actual time for reaching maturity varies considerably. The following table, deduced from the results of 2,739 analyses of sorghum canes, presents, in a condensed form, a very correct idea as to the actual development of the cane itself and of .the changes in the juice: S
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From page 66... ...
2d. The percentage of juice extracted from the stripped stalks gradually increases up to the eleventh stage, then slowly diminishes until the close of the season.
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From page 67... ...
(d.) Time from planting to maturity. -- The varying rapidity with which the different -varieties come to maturity is one of the most striking physiological peculiarities; thus three samples of Early Amber seed from different sections of the country, and planted at the same time, required, respectively, 77, 80, and 89 days for complete development; "White Mammoth," 102 days; three samples of "Oomseeana" from different sections, 104, 115, and 127 days; Chinese, 137 days: three samples of Honduras, 148, 157, 164, &c.
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From page 68... ...
Cane sugar - 16.0 to 15.5 Glucose 0.6 to 1.0 Other organic solids 2. 0 to 2.0 Ash 1.0 to 1.0 Or an amount of "available sugar" ranging from 11.5 to 12.4 per cent.
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From page 69... ...
DEAR SIR: Your favor of the 31st of October at hand. Before the centrifugal broke, we had 14,752 pounds of dry commercial sugar, about like that we sent the Department and President Hayes.
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From page 70... ...
70 SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. The following States, in which the interest has been and is most prominent, are thus represented by local official enumerations: OHIO.
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From page 71... ...
SORGHUM SUGAR-CANE. -- EXPERIMENTS ON ITS GROWTH AND SUGAR PRODUCT. For the last forty years there have been experiments made to manufacture sugar from maize and from sorghum, and during the late civil war sorghum was grown in large quantity for the production of sirup, especially in the Western States.
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From page 72... ...
absolute alcohol. The plan of the experiment was, to ascertain the effect of each of the fertilizing materials applied singly and in combination on the production of sugar -- to compare the effect of muriate of potash with that of sulphate of potash -- and to determine whether by increasing the amount of phosphoric acid used per acre an advantage would be gained.
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From page 73... ...
.. S, 406 9,890 11,263 12, 160 10, 830 8,378 8,846 9,298 stripped and topped cane Founds of juice extracted per acre.
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From page 74... ...
Thirty years ago the raising of sorghum sugar-cane created quite an excitement in this country, owing to the promised revolution it was to effect in the sugar production of the country. The failures that ensued are well known, and the production of sugar from northern cane has only had spurts of success, and up to about the present time has resulted only in disaster.
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From page 75... ...
Of first importance in the raising of sorghum cane is the selection of a proper climate. Second.
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From page 76... ...
This is a very strong confirmation of all the hopes and expectations of the most sanguine friends of the sorghum-sugar industry. On my arrival at Washington I called upon Professor Collier and handed him a sample of sugar which Mr.
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From page 77... ...
MoCaU, of Donaldsonville, La.: A sugar planter's views of the liio Grande Sugar Company's plantation, in a letter to the chairman. ALBEMARLE HOTEL, NEW YORK, October 2.
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From page 78... ...
B SrtLiMAN, Chairman of Sorghum Sugar Committee, National Academy of Science.
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From page 79... ...
The necessary hot summer temperature for the production of a high percentage of sugar was entirely wanting. But, on the whole, the sorghum-sugar industry is to be congratulated for this cold, wet season, as the flattering results, which we are nevertheless obtaining here, will forever silence the claim that sugar can be made from sorghum only under the most favorable circumstances.
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From page 81... ...
FERMENTATION. The next thing which tends to destroy the cane sugar is fermentation.
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From page 82... ...
Early Amber cane raised on this farm may to some extent be seen from the following analyses, which have been made by me during the summer and fall: August 10 : Cane sugar 3.0O Glucose 4.50 August 20: Cane sugar 8.20 Glucose 5.10 September 6: Cane sugar 9.22 Glucose 4.20 September 14: Cane sugar 9.96 Glucose 3.45 September 17: Cane sugar 9.86 Glucose ._ 3.32 September 20: Cane sugar 10.02 Glucose 3.23 September 22 : Cane sugar 11.05 Glucose 2.6O September 29 :* Cane sugar -- 8.59 Glucose 3.50 September 29 :*
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From page 83... ...
One-half was topped and stripped and both lots were placed on the floor of the barn. The change taking place may be seen from the following table: Cane sugar.
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From page 85... ...
4 669 30 348 4 710 23 550 3 875 25 187 3 909 19 545 2 680 17 420 2 732 13 660 1,196 7,767 1,177 5,885 Percent. of cane sugar in juice 9.24 10.53 3.53 2.68 358 2 327 415 2 075 248 1,612 290 1,450 110 715 125 625 332 2, 158 408 2,040 142 923 1994 997t 190 1,235 2084 1,042)
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From page 86... ...
The lightest colored sirup will be produced when the juice is nearly boiled down and skimmed without defecation. The acids which in that case remain free in the sirup change large quantities of the cane sugar to glucose and impart the " sorghum taste " to the sirup.
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From page 87... ...
The whole valued at $114,516,745." He says further: " To bring the vast amount of sugar imported into this country within more easy comprehension, we have only to imagine five vessels of nearly 500 tons each and loaded with sugar, arriving at our ports each day in the year." The question, therefore, can sugar be profitably manufactured from northern sugar cane, is one of immense importance to this country. That there is much prejudice to be overcome is evident.
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From page 88... ...
If parties who have sent cane are not represented hi the following table, it is because I have received no information in regard to the cane sent, or else the cane has been without labels, making it impossible for me to tell where it belonged.
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From page 90... ...
It will be seen, however, that nearly all those samples which were analyzed within but a few days after being cat contain a large proportion of cane sugar, while those which were analyzed after a longer period of time show a high content of glucose and a low proportion of cane sugar. This corroborates my statement in the first part of this report, and shows the necessity of working up the cane directly from the field in order to get the best results.
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From page 91... ...
The average may be safely stated at from 10 to 12 tons per acre, according to the soil and season, I think. Should the industry grow in importance, purchasing cane by weight from the grower will become a very common practice, and if we may judge from the difficulties arising between beet growers and sugar manufacturers in France, it is easy to see that no small amount of trouble will occur with us.
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From page 92... ...
Mr. Swenson's analyses show that the cane sugar is mostly changed to glucose when the cane is blown down, though the loss is not so manifest when sirup alone is made.
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From page 93... ...
In order to manufacture sugar there must be qnite a large investment of capital in machinery; to manage this there must be skilled men, and over all must be a man who by chemical tests reads the varying conditions of the juice as it runs from the crusher from day to day, and whose work is law with all other employes. Until there are such experts capital should be most cautious.
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From page 97... ...
SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. 97 The following names have heen received since tabulating the above: Names.
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From page 98... ...
SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. step in advance towards the time when this industry, with the aid of your Department, is to be an established source of business and wealth to the people of the State of Wisconsin.
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From page 99... ...
SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. 99 [A letter from Mr.
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From page 100... ...
100 SOKGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. cane by the ton.
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From page 101... ...
SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. 10l the juice, and not endangering a depreciation in the value of the sirup by being imperfectly skimmed by tired and careless help; for without perfect skimming off of the impurities after they have once been separated, to keep them from being rebolled into the sirup again, there is danger that more or less of the batches or strikes will be run into the storage tank in a cloudy condition, and consequently of bad flavor, and help to destroy or depreciate what good sirup there is in the tank; and if it is intended for sugar it will be what is called a gray sugar, having a dull, dirty appearance.
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From page 102... ...
Families are using live gallons where they only used one before, with a very great difference in their sugar bill to their credit; and why not? It is cane sugar instead of the insipid glucose backed with a little sorghum that is dealt out by most of the stores as "sugar-house." There is no doubt at all in the fact that very soon we shall manufacture most of sugar and sirup and my very greatest fear is that it will be overdone, as those who raise it increase their acreage.
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From page 103... ...
Question: Would science consider that the removal of the young seed tuft from the cane would add to the strength of the cane juice? Your circular called for facts.
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From page 104... ...
IQ4 SOEGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. The first half, or that planted the thickest, weighed about 8 tons, and the other half 5^J$$ tons.
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From page 105... ...
Although in its general composition it resembles other grain, as corn, the amount of tannin contained in it, as our analysis given farther on shows, will no doubt prevent its liberal use as food for animals. Knowing that immense quantities of seed will necessarily be produced as soon as the sorghum sugar industry is introduced, we have given this matter careful study, and have found that the seed is eminently adapted for the production of glucose.
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From page 106... ...
Grape sugar. 1 Average of cane sugar.
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From page 107... ...
E Morrow, professor of agriculture: v Two varieties, Orange and Early Amber; seed obtained from Hedges, Saint Louis; planted by hand, May 14, 1880.
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From page 108... ...
67 Amber -- October 2, 1830. -- Juice obtained from the lower half of stalks. Specific gavity 1.070 Grape sugar - per cent -- 1.94 Cane sugar per cent -- 11.64 Effects of soils. -- The following analyses were made to study the effect of different varieties of soil upon the production of sugar in sorghum.
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From page 109... ...
Cane sugar 10.89. Unmanured -- Sp.
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From page 110... ...
The remainder was acidulated with dilute sulphuric acid, and boiled to convert the cane into grape sugar. Cane sugar. -- The cane sugar was then estimated with Fehling's solution, as usual.
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From page 111... ...
As ammonia-magnesia-phosphate is soluble in about 54,000 parts of ammoniacal water, .003 of a gram was add to this weight, as the filtrate measured a little over 150 c.c. The phosphoric acid was then calculated from this weight of pyrophosphate of magnesium.
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From page 112... ...
The following were the results obtained : COMPOSITION OF ASH. Silica - 27.91 Iron oxide 0.14 Phosphoric acid 5.37 Manganese oxide 0.89 Lime - 6.82 Magnesia 4.
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From page 113... ...
of cane sugar, and thus have it finished by the time the Orange was ready to harvest, leaving a small portion for subsequent experiments. Owing to the delay in the arrival of machinery the work was not begun until the above date.
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From page 114... ...
of cane sugar ami 26.91 per cent. of grape sugar.
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From page 115... ...
Hence it will readily appear why in the ordinary manner of making sorghum sirup so little of the cane sugar originally contained in the juice can be made to crystallize. A great deal of the cane sugar is converted into grape sugar during the processes of defecation and evaporation, and what remains unchanged is prevented from granulating by the undue proportion of grape sugar produced.
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From page 116... ...
4. -- Early Amber, grown upon university farm: Weight of stripped and topped cane 1, 661. 0 Weight of juice obtained 603.
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From page 117... ...
$25 00 EXPENSES. Gathering seed |2 00 Fuel 1 50 Labor 1 00 Barrels 4 00 $9 50 Net profit on glucose 15 50 Total net profit on one acre of sorghum 54 00 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.
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From page 118... ...
JANESVILLE, Wis., December 28, 1881. DEAR SIR: Your valued favor of the 26th at hand, and in reply to the several questions contained therein I would state that the yield of stripped stalks of cane per acre depends upon the quality of the seed, soil, and fertilizers used, method of planting, thoroughness of cultivation, and the season for growing the cane.
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From page 119... ...
DEAR SIR: Seeing the invitation in the RuralWorld to those interested in the sorghum sugar-cane, and thinking perhaps my experience may be of interest to you, I herewith give you a detailed account of my doings of the past three years. In the fir»t place let me state to you I am a practical sugar-refiner; spent some eight years in the West Indies making sugar from cane.
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From page 120... ...
120 \ SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. boiled some for sugar, but finding it very gummy, abandoned the idea, and made only sirup.
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From page 121... ...
I have not yet met a single person here in the West who has the elighest idea how to treat the sorgo juice for sugar. I find the j nice more delicate than the Southern cane juice to handle.
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From page 123... ...
SORGHUM SUGAK INDUSTRY. 123 France, to manage the affair from early spring, viz, the preparation of ground, until the crop was gathered.
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From page 125... ...
The cultivation of the richest variety of sorghum will henceforth become more and more extended, until it will supply the wants of the whole country. With the help of the description and the thirteen plates of very neatly executed wood-cuts with which the report is adorned it will be easy to determine the variety of sorghum experimented on; but the most important part of this work are the careful analyses of the laboratory, demonstrating the period at which the juice of each particular variety of sorghum or corn contains the most crystallizable sugar which could be profitably separated.
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From page 126... ...
. 25 17 Total yield per acre 56 12 Net wholesale price per gallon, sirup 5O Cost per gallon to manufacture 23 Net profit per gallon 27 Capital invested 1,000 00 Per cent.
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From page 127... ...
My first convictions on this subject grew out of an experiment I made a good many years since, in an attempt to make vinegar out of the juice boiled barely to a clarifying point. The result was a mystery, which, however, I did not set out to detail in this article, although not without its points in the curious chemistries of the sorghum family.
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From page 128... ...
Sorghum sugar, Department of Agriculture, 1881, 86°. 4 polarization.
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From page 129... ...
I send you a copy of my third revised edition of •" Sugar Canes and their Products, Culture, and Manufacture.'' I call your especial attention to the reports of J
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From page 130... ...
1 SAINT Louis, April 10, 1882. DEAR SIR: Your favor of the 10th to hand, and we would reply to your questions as follows: Question 1.
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From page 131... ...
The "solids not sugar" likewise are found to increase, but not in a similar ratio to that of the crystallizable sugar. As regards the glucose, or uncrystallizable sugar, it is to be remarked that during the primary stages we find the amount existing in the juice to be as high as 4.50 per cent.
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From page 132... ...
188, \ 19 and 20) , after presenting the results of a series of experiments made with different varieties of cane, the following: ^ "The preceding experiments were instituted with the view of determining whether, as has of late been maintained, cane sugar is a primary or a secondary product in the development of the plant; whether, in other words, it is formed directly by physiological agency from inorganic matter or whether it has existed previously as a constituent and inorganic portion of the cane during its earlier immature condition, and has assumed the nature of crystallizable sugar by virtue of some chemical change at an advanced stage of the development of the plant.
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From page 133... ...
This portion of the subject, which is probably the most interesting to the practical sugar-maker, is one which can be treated only in oneway -- that of analogy. No reliable data beyond results obtained by crude, not to say destructive processes with respect to the production of sorghum sugars, are to my knowledge in existence.
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From page 134... ...
In other words, it is to the amount of solid matters present that we must look for a true measure of the available amounts of sugars that we can obtain, and that in proportion as we are enabled to eliminate or destroy the effect of these elements in the same ratio will we have the power to obtain au increase of saccharine product. Beyond this it is further to be noted that the existence of uncrystallizable sugar in the beet has been •claimed by Mr.
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From page 135... ...
348, we may, under the present circumstances, reasoning from analogy, conclude that while we have a sugar constituent existing in the best sorghum j uices which will, with careful manipulation, produce profitably a commercial sugar, we have every reason to believe from the data herein afforded that this amount can be very materially increased, and to an extent sufficient to render it under ordinary circumstances a profitable industry in many sections of the country. In order, however, to attain this end, and to obtain such a maximum result, it mustbe remembered that a careful manipulation of the raw j nice is a sine qua non to success.
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From page 136... ...
As it has been with apparatus of the first class that most of the experiments made in the concentration of sorghum juices have been performed, a few remarks on this special class may not be out of place at this stage of the present inquiry. According to Hochstetter, during the evaporation of cane juice in open trains, wherein the liquid is exposed directly to the action of the atmosphere at a high temperature, formic acid is liable to be produced, and this formation is claimed by him to exert a most pernicious effect upon both the color and crystallizable powers of the cane sugar.
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From page 137... ...
SORGHUM SUGAR INDUSTRY. 137 in practice.
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From page 138... ...
Open high pressure steam pans for sirup and strike; 5. The same for sirup with strike vacuum pan; 8.
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From page 139... ...
Collier's report: 1st. That sorghum canes as a source of sugar production possess on an average less crystallizable sugar in their juices than those of the average sugar-cane, but more than that contained in the juices of the average French beet.
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From page 140... ...
B SILLIMAN, Chairman Sorghum Sugar Committee, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D
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From page 141... ...
Very respectfully, yours, HENRY B RICHARDS. Professor SiLLIMAN, Chairman Sorghum Sugar Committee, N
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From page 142... ...
get an experienced, practical sugar-boiler from Louisiana or Texas. Then place the product in the hands of one of your northern sugar refiners.
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From page 143... ...
SORGHUM SUGAE INDUSTRY. 143 It will be observed that the agreement is quite as close as could be expected in work of such a character, and that the average results given at the close of the table show that in the analytical work there is nothing to cause doubt as to the substantial accuracy of the work recorded.
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From page 144... ...
31. -- THE CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION -- ANALYSES OF SORGHUM SEED. [Annual Report for 1881.
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From page 145... ...
The manufacture of sorghum at the Department therefore has been found to be so expensive and unsatisfactory, that the work can evidently be better conducted elsewhere. To repeat the experiment of last year would be unwise under any circumstances, and it is made doubly so by the impossibility of procuring the sorghum cane at any reasonable price in this neighborhood, after the discouraging crops of last year, and by the additional fact that the appropriation is not available until too late in the season for planting to begin.
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From page 146... ...
SlLLIMAN. DEAR SIR: I take great pleasure in submitting the following brief report of the work done with sorghum canes on the farm of the University of Wisconsin during the past season.
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From page 147... ...
Nitrogen on plot. Cane sugar.
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From page 148... ...
219-223. Chinese Sugar Cane.
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From page 149... ...
208. Sorghum Sugar Cane.
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From page 150... ...
100. Sorghum Sugar, Protest from exhibitors of.
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From page 151... ...
L Sorghum Sugar made from Maize, &c.
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From page 152... ...
J W., chairman of Committee on Agriculture in United States Senate, on Sorghum Sugar, 1880.
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