SUGAR FROM MELONS.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 202, 26 August 1873, Page 2

SUGAR FROM MELONS.

At the Ballarat Farmers' Club, Mr Bacchus read » short paper on the manufacture of sugar from melon*. In Hungary and Italy, sugar, he said, is made extensively from melons, which, while they can be produced at much less cost, yield n. lai gcr percentage of sugar than sugar beet. The cultivation is ]p»> expensive, inasmuch &i it is not necessary to cultivate tlio whole of the ground between the rows The fruit i-> clean, anil requires no dressing and trimming before being ground into pulp, whilo the surplus seeds yield an oil reputed to be superior in point of quality to that of theolne, and sufficient in quantity to pay half the cost of producing the crop. As a farm crop the melon is further credited with leaving the whole of the .saline and alkaline salts in the soil, while the Vet rx'uuists it of these substances, and their presence in the syrup tends to prevent the crystalisation of the saccharine matter. Altogether the claims of the melon as a sugar producing crop were placed in a very favorable light by Mr Bacchus, who is of opinion that "nothing stands in the vray of farmers going into melon growing and sugar making. ' Guardian.