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SUGAR OF POTATOES.

STREAM-WORKS. The name given by the Cornish miners to alluvial dejewitesof tin ore, usually worked in the open air.

STRINGS. The name given by the Cornish miners to the small filamentous ramifi-cations of a metallic vein.

SUGAR. The recent researches of the eminent French chemist, M. Casaseca,uponcane-juice at Havana, in Cuba , have demonstrated clearly the enormous loss whichsugar-planters suffer by the imperfection of their manufacturing processes. His re-sults confirm those previously obtained by M. Peligot in Paris , and show that cane-juice evaporated in vacuo at the atmospheric temperature, yields, in 100 parts :—

Crystalline white sugar - 20-94

Water - - . - - - . - - 78-80

Mineral substances - - - - - -0-14

Organic matter, different from sugar - . - - 0-12

100-00

The cane from which the above was drawn is called canade la lierra in Cuba . Thei juice of the Otaheite cane is identical with the preceding. But the proportions of lig-neous fibres in the two canes are very different; that of la lierra containing, accordingto M. Casaseca, 16-4 per cent., while that of Otaheite contains only 10. Other canes,however, differ in this respect considerably from these two varieties. The averagequantity of grained sugar obtained from cane-juice in our colonial plantations is proba-bly not more than one third of the quantity of crystalline sugar in the juice which theyboil.

The following analysis of cane-juice, performed by a French chemist, was given meby Mr. Forstall of New Orleans. In 10 English gallons, of 231 cubic inches each, ofjuice marking 8|° Baume, there are 5| ounces English of salts, which consist of—Sulphate of potash ... 17-840 grammes= 15-44 grains each.

Phosphate of potash - 16-028

Chlorure of potassium - - - 8-355

Acetate of potash ... 63-750Acetate of lime ... - 36-010

Gelatinous silica ... - 15-270

157-253=5-57 ounces avoirdupois.

To the large proportion of deliquescent saline matter, of which one half, he says, re-mains in the sugar, the analyst ascribes very properly the deliquescence and deteriora-tion of the sugar when kept for some time or transported. It was probably the juiceof the cane grown in the rich alluvial soil of Louisiana , and therefore more abundantin saline matter than the average soil of our West India islands. The Demerara cane-juice has perhaps the above saline constitution, as it suffers much loss of weight bydrainage in the home voyage.

SUGAR OF POTATOES, GRAPES, or STARCH. About two years ago a sam-ple of sweet mucilaginous liquid was sent to me for analysis, by the honorable thecommissioner of customs. It was part of a quanity imported in casks at Hull, fromRotterdam . It was called by the importers, “Vegetable juice.” I found it to be im-perfectly saccharified starch or fecula; and, on my reporting it as such, it was admit-ted at a moderate rate of duty.

Three months since I received a sample of a similar liquid from the importer at Hull,with a request that I would examine it chemically. He informed me that an importa-tion just made by him, of 30 casks of it, had been detained by orders of the excise, tulthe sugar duty of 25s. per cwt. of solid matter it contained was paid upon it. It wasof specific gravity 1-362, and contained 80 per cent, of ill-saccharified fecula. .

In the interval between the first importation and the second, an act of parliament hadbeen obtained for placing every kind of sugaiySrom whatever material it was formed,under the provisions of the “ Beet-root Sugar Bill .” As the saccharometer tables, sub-servient to the levying of the excise duties, under this act, were constructed by me, atthe request of the president of the board of trade, I well knew that 50 per cent, of thesyrup of the beet-root was deducted as a waste product, because beet-root molasses mtoo crude an article for the use of man. Well saccharified starch paste, however, con-stitutes a syrup, poor indeed in sweetness when compared with cane syrup, or that o ~the beet-root ; but then it does not spontaneously blacken into molasses, by evaporation, as solutions of ordinary sugar never fail to do when they are concentrated, evewith great care. Hence the residuary syrups of saccharified fecula may be all workeup into a tolerably white granular mass, which, being crushed, is used by greedy gcers to mix with their dark-browm bastard sugars, to improve their color. ^ .

It is only within two years that sugar has been in this country manufactured frpotato starch to any extent, though it has been long an object of commercial enterp