Cane, 3,840 tons,@ $2 $7,680 Seed, 967 tons, @ $3 1,934 ------- $9,614 00 Labor bill from August 15 to October 15, including labor for department experiments 5,737 16 Coal, including all experiments 1,395 77 Salaries, etc. 3,500 00 Insurance, sundries, etc. 1,500 00 ---------- Total $21,746 93 ========== Total value $34,476 50 Total cost 31,248 93 ---------- Net $13,329 57 To be paid by the department 6,534 75 ---------- Total profit for season's work, 1887 $19,764 32 OUTLINE OF THE PROCESSES OF SORGHUM SUGAR MAKING. As now developed, the processes of making sugar from sorghum are as follows: _First_, The topped cane is delivered at the factory by the farmers who can grow it. _Second_, The cane is cut by a machine into pieces about one and a quarter inches long. _Third_, The leaves and sheaths are separated from the cut cane by fanning mills. _Fourth_, The cleaned cane is cut into fine bits called chips. _Fifth_, The chips are placed in iron tanks, and the sugar "diffused," soaked out with hot water. _Sixth_, The juice obtained by diffusion has its acids nearly or quite neutralized with milk of lime, and is heated and skimmed. _Seventh_, The defecated or clarified juice is boiled to a semi-sirup in vacuum pans. _Eighth_, The semi-sirup is boiled "to grain" in a high vacuum in the "strike pan." _Ninth_, The mixture of sugar and molasses from the strike pan is passed through a mixing machine into centrifugal machines which throw out the molasses and retain the sugar. The process of the formation of sugar in the cane is not fully determined, but analyses of canes made at different stages of growth show that the sap of growing cane contains a soluble substance having a composition and giving reactions similar to starch. As maturity approaches, grape sugar is also found in the juice. A further advance toward maturity discloses cane sugar with the other substances, and at full maturity perfect canes contain much cane sugar and little grape sugar and starchy matter. In sweet fruits the change from grape sugar to cane sugar does not take place, or takes place but sparingly. The grape sugar is very sweet, however.