unforeseen obstacles which from time to time have made their appearance, do not find the business a profitable one.

The outlook at present is more encouraging, as the drawbracks to the business are being gradually removed out of the way. During the present season, through the combined exertions of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and Mr. Henry A. Hughes, the indefatigable superintendent of the sugar works, obstacles which hitherto had seemed insurmountable, have been overcome.

In former numbers of the Bureau reports reference has been made to the deep interest taken by Professor George H. Cook, Director of the Experiment Station in the experimental work going on at Rio Grand, and quotations have been freely made from reports of that station upon the subject. During the present season this interest on the part of Professor Cook has been renewed, and the chemist of the station, Dr. Arthur P. Neale, was allowed to spend several weeks at the sugar works, where, assisted by Superintendent Hughes, valuable experiments were carried on both with mill product and by diffusion. The most of their experiments have been so satisfactory that it really appears as if the turning point in the sugar industry had been reached; certainly if the suggestion made by Dr. Neale can be carried out during the next year there will be a greatly increased production of sugar, and there is every reason to believe that the industry will become a profitable one in the State.

The work accomplished at Rio Grande is of such importance that we do not feel willing to rely upon the publication of extracts, but will reproduce Bulletin XXXVIII. of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station in December 21st, 1885, upon that subject.

THE RIO GRANDE SORGHUM SUGAR WORKS.

I. Brief history of the Rio Grande Plantation for the season of 1885.

II. The effects of Commercial Fertilizers.

1. Upon the growth of sorghum.

2. Upon its yield of sugar, per acre and per ton of cane.

III Milling and diffusion compared, as methods of separating sugar from sorghum. 1. Mill products from unstripped cane compared with diffusion products

from stripped cane.

2. Diffusion products from stripped cane compared with diffusion products

from unstripped cane.

IV. General summary of results.

I.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE RIO GRANDE SUGAR PLANTATION FOR THE SEASON OF 1885.

The history of the past season at Rio Grande is essentially the same as that of previous years. There has been the same honest effort to reduce working expenses, to discover and avoid wastes, to improve processes and, in brief, to do every thing possible to place this huge experiment upon a strict business basis. The success has been quite as marked as could be expected and at no time in the history of this plantation have its prospects appeared so bright.

In 1884, phosphates were used upon the crop; in consequence it ripened much earlier than had been expected, and throughout the season the fields were in advance of the sugar house, over-ripe cane only being delivered at the mill.

In 1885, the opposite course was followed, no phosphates were used and during the first half of the milling season the sugar house was in advance of the fields, the cane at times being so green that more than once it was almost decided that the house must be closed until ripe cane could be secured. The marked improvements in the clarification of mill juice not only prevented a failure, but even kept the average yield of merchantable sugar, per ton of unstripped and untopped cane, quite up to that of the previous year.

At present the mill is the greatest drawback to the sorghum sugar industry; an experiment upon a large scale, published later in this report, indicating that it fails to secure at least one-half of the sugar existing in the cane. A similar record was made in the last annual report of this Station.

That report also contained the results of an experiment showing that diffusers were much superior to mills, as they wasted approximately five per cent. only of the total sugar. Unfortunately, however, diffusion extracts dark colored and bitter tasting compounds from unstripped sorghum, which make the product almost unsalable; it seemed necessary, therefore, for the present at least, to retain the mill.

It was, however, surmised that both color and taste came from leaves and leaf sheaths. Superintendent Hughes therefore devised a machine by which the cane could be thoroughly and rapidly stripped. His model and plans were submitted to a number of mechanical engineers, whose verdict was that the machine should be constructed. This for various reasous was not immediately undertaken, and the past season has been devoted to proving that such a machine is essential to success. The details are given upon subsequent pages.

Although, from previous trials, it was reasonably certain that the product would be of low grade, it was still deemed best to again operate the diffusiou battery upon mill bagasse, for defects in the apparatus, errors in its manipulation, and all other drawbacks could be discovered by diffusing almost worthless material quite as well as by working valuable cane; the regular "run" of the house, too, would not be disturbed by this arrangement.

The diffusers were therefore used for twenty-six days, and two hundred and twenty-nine barrels of heavy syrup was secured; as expected, it was of medium quality only, but still merchantable for enough to more than pay experimental expenses. It was found, by experiments with a ton of bone black, that the dark color and bitter taste could be removed, the undesirable bone black flavor, however, was substituted. The exhaustion of the bone black also was judged to be too rapid to admit of its profitable use.

A practically automatic apparatus for filling diffusers was devised, tested and found

in all respects thoroughly efficient. The difficulty in removing the spent bagasse from the cells in a great measure disappeared as the experience and skill of the workmen increased, no noticeable delay in working the battery resulting from this

source.

No cane was purchased this season, all that was milled having been grown upon the company's plantation, 960 acres yielding 7,420 tons of unstripped and untopped sorghum. Out of this, 281,000 pounds of merchantable suguar, 50,000 gallons of syrup and from 9,000 to 10,000 bushels of seed were secured, these products finding a ready market at satisfactory prices.

The records of this plantation, for the past five years, show that upon the average, seven and seven-tenths tons of unstripped and untopped cane only have been grown per acre, while the average yield of merchantable sugar per ton of cane has not exceeded forty pounds.

To compete successfully with other sources of cane sugar, therefore, the average tonnage of good cane per acre should be at least doubled, while the quantity of merchantable sugar secured per acre should be increased many fold.

The possibility of accomplishing both objects at Rio Grande can be seen from the following experiments, planned by the Station for this plantation. The expenses of the trials were willingly borne by Mr. Potts. The success is largely due to the hearty co-operation and earnest work of Superintendent Henry A. Hughes.

II.

THE EFFECTS OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

1. Upon the growth of sorghum;

2. Upon its yield of sugar per acre and per ton of cane.

The field selected for this experiment is level, uniform in quality and protected from northeast storms by a heavy strip of woodland several hundred feet distant.

Its soil is a very sandy loam, easily worked and responsive to fertilizers. For several years in succession it has been cropped with sorghum, but has never been rated high in fertility.

Before arrangements had been made for this trial the field had been dressed with a compost made of four tons of mill bagasse to one ton of yard manure. This had been spread uniformly at the rate of five tons per acre.

Upon this field a surveyor measured a tract five hundred and forty-eight feet long and one hundred and fiorty-five and two-tenths feet broad. This was bounded upon the northeast by a fence, and upon the southwest by a farm road; upon the northwest and southeast it was isolated from the rest of the field by lanes four feet wide. A headland, from six to eight feet wide, was left at one end of each plot; this afforded an opportunity, in cultivating, to turn the horses without damage to canes at the ends of the rows. The farm road running across to other end of each plot answered a similar purpose. This tract was first prepared as if intended for Indian corn. By means of lanes four feet wide, it was then divided into sixteen plots, each one-tenth of an acre in area. The fertilizers were sown broadcast and harrowed in; the quantities and combinations used upon each plot, as well as the cost of material, can be found in the following table. As in former experiments made by this Station, phosphoric acid was used in the form of bone black superphosphate, and nitrogen in the form of nitrate of soda; muriate of potash was applied to some of the plots and sulphate of potash to others.

Two tons of yard manure were spread upon plot 9, and forty pounds of land plaster upon plot 15. Two plots, Nos. 1 and 16, were left without fertilizers in order to learn what the soil alone was able to produce.

On the 22d of April, Early Orange seed was planted in rows three feet apart, making ten rows upon each plot. The plants were thinned out as much as was necessary and cultivated twice during the season; late cultivation was avoided, as this is believed to be injurious, particularly to seed development.

Owing to a misunderstanding, instead of three feet, the rows upon plot 1 were drilled three and one-half feet apart; there were also indications that several of these rows were upon the edge of a former compost bed. This plot was therefore abandoned and comparisons of the effects of fertilizers must be drawn against plot 16 alone.

1. THE EFFECTS OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS UPON THE GROWTH OF SORGHUM.

For several years Mr. Henry A. Hughes, Superintendent of the Rio Grande Plantation, has been keeping a careful weekly record of the development of the cane upon each field; this system he also introduced into this experiment. The following interesting and instructive table is copied from his note-book.

The table shows that six weeks from the date of planting, the canes stood from two to three inches only above the ground; this "moping" characterizes both sorghum and oats; it is their time for root development. Fertilizers in this experiment seem to have had no power to shorten this period.

Nitrogen alone was used upon plot 2, phosphoric acid upon plot 3, and potash upon plot 4. Plot 16 was cropped without fertilizers. At the close of the week ending June 23d, a comparison of the records of these four plots indicates no marked differences in the relative growth of the plants.

During this week, the tenth from the date of planting, upon all of the plots the plants increased in height by one hundred per cent.

From this date the effect of nitrate of soda became more and more marked, until at the close of the week ending July 28th its plants were fifteen inches taller than those upon plots 3 and 4, and twenty-seven inches taller than those upon the unmanured plot, No. 16. This date closed the fifteenth week from the time of planting.

At this point muriate of potash began to exert the most marked effect, and at the close of the week ending August 11th, its plants were quite as tall as those upon the nitrate of soda plot. Upon August 25th, the date of the close of this record, the canes upon muriate of potash plots were three inches taller than those upon the nitrogen plots, ten inches taller than those upon the phosphoric acid plot, and thirty inches taller than those upon the unmanured plot, No. 16.

With the exception of No. 14, the cane upon the muriate of potash plot (No. 4) was the tallest in the experiment. Next in order stood that which had been grown with a combination of nitrogen and potash (No. 6), and last of all, that which had been fertilized with nitrogen and phosphoric acid (No. 5), and phosphoric acid and potash (No. 7).

At the time of harvest, October 11th, the cane upon the muriate of potash plot appeared still to be the tallest in the experiment, being rivaled only by that upon plots 6 and 14. It is estimated that in these three cases the cane stood between eleven and twelve feet high..

Potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen all react favorably upon sorghum growing

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Rio Grande Plantation-Early Orange Sorghum.

WEEKLY RECORD OF DEVELOPMENT, EXPRESSED IN INCHES.

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