Chinese Sugar Cane-Will It Crystalize.

Chinese Sugar Cane-Will It Crystalize.

As the season approaches for the conclusion of the experiments with the Sorghum, or Sugar Cane, much interest is felt on the subject. There is now no doubt that this plant can be most successfully cultivated in this latitude; and, should it prove easy to granulate or crystalize the sugar from the juice of the cane, the experiments will be entirely complete. It is true that Dr. Jackson, of Boston, and some other chemists of that class, have assumed that only glucose or grape sugar, could be made from the juice of the sorghum, but more careful and thorough investigations show that the greater portion of its saccharine matter is crystalizable. M. Herey, of France contends that no uncrystalized sugar pre-exists in the cane, and that the formation of glucose sugar is only owing to the action of the salts contained in the liquid during the manufacturing process. "Be it as it may," continues the report, "it is certain that the greater portion of the saccharine matter of the juice is crystalizable and may be obtained in the state of crystals, if, after rapid boiling and filtering, the fluid be quickly evaporated, the latter operation being a condition of absolute necessity in sugar-making, as, by slow boiling, at a temperature of 112 degrees, or even exposure for a considerable time to a temperature below the boiling point, glucose may be formed from the finest caystalized sugar dissolved in water. On the contrary, if the concentrated solution of sugar he heated beyond 230 degrees F., it undergoes alteration, and is changed, at least in part, into uncrystalizable sugar, or saccharine mucilage."

Mr. Wray, of London, who is now in attendance upon the National Fair at Louisville, and who has perhaps more experimental knowledge upon the subject than any other man in the world, is quoted as good authority by the commissioner on the question of crystalization, and we presume that the experiments which he is now making from day to day will be equally conclusive upon the public mind. He has devoted years to the subject, pursuing his investigations in Africa and France, as well as in this country during the present season, and has obtained a patent for his process of sugar-making in England.

Assuming, then that superior sugar can be made from the juice of the sorghum, it is hardly possible to exaggerate its importance as an addition to the crops of the temperate latitudes. Its value was discovered at just the period when the culture of the sugar-cane at the south had become a partial failure, and when also the general consumption of sugar began to outrun production. The world demanded that by some means, if possible, the supply should he increased, and in response to that demand, as if by providential arrangement, the country was supplied with the seed of the Sorghum and the Imphee, from which we are to have our first harvest of free labor sugar. It is a great event in the political economy of this country, if not of the world. We pay out annually many millions of dollars for foreign sugar, the crop of Louisiana at best meeting but a fraction of the demand. Last year it was estimated that the nation consumed not less than 700,000,000 pounds, and this amount, vast as it is, must continually increase if a sufficient supply can be obtained. In the Chinese sugar-cane we are now confident we have the source of an almost unbounded supply. It will flourish every where in the Union, and can be raised at the west as easily and cheaply as corn. Where, then, shall we fix the limit of its culture save in the demand for sugar and molasses? The prairies of Indiana and Illinois; besides growing all the breadstuffs they do now, might almost supply the markets of the world with those articles. We shall be content, however, for the next two or three years with enough of each to meet the home demand. The business can be indefinitely extended hereafter.

9.9.1857