, 1873-08-16
THE SUGAR QUESTION.

AANhtA v " Il OIC1
contemporary, L, A6eiUe:
PARISH OF ST.. JAMES, June s, 1878.
Gentlemen of L'Abeille:
My reason tells me that our hours of
darkness are drawing to a close, and what
ever appearances may indicate to the con-
trary, the usurpations of the Kellogg re-
glme are coming to an end.
The American press, or that portion of
it which exercises the prerogatives of a
tree press, is doing all it can to rescue
from ruin our ill-fated State, It will yet
arouse public opinion, which will compel
Congress to do US Justice.
Taking this hopeful view of public af-
fairs, let us turn our attention to material
interests-let US talk about sugar and
sugar making. While on this topic, 4
cannot do better than to sketch a few
IDEAS concerning the Bringier sugar appa
ratus.
To speak the whole truth in regard to
this invention would appear to border
upon the miraculous but readily
believe that it is destined to make of Loui-
siana one Of the richest regions of the
American continent, for The truth will an
pear too good, to unhoped for and too
marvellous for credence for men will
scarcely overcome the rooted idea that to
make an average of a hogsbead and a half
OF sugar per acre is all that can be reason
ably expected. Speak to them at most of
a hogshead and threo-quartors and thew
Will perhaps believe you but three hogs
heads TO the acre, nay, more than that,
they can never believe it.
We think, nevertheless, that in spite
Of the denials and doubts of their skeptics,
we must follow the path of truth, how
ever difficult it may be to follow.
The following was the course of re-
Election OF Mr.. Bringier to the magnie
cent result which he has reached, He
said 20 himself " 1t is we'll known tha.
the beet root contains less saccharine uss5-
ter than the sugar cane, aud yet, thanks TO
the progress of science, the French have
found that the beet root, which in the
beginning only yielded one pound of
sugar to 66 pounds Of beet, Yields at pre-
sent the same amount Of sugar from I25
pounds of the same vegetable, while the
sugar cane, which was created by nature
for the special elaboration of sugar, pro-
duces only one pound of sugar from IS
and As pounds OF its own weight. C0nse-
q%uently the Louisiana planters make a
mistake somewhere. They waste their
time and throw away their cane. They
squander the lich material furnished by
nature.
Starting from this point, Mr. Bringier
diligently set to work to find the cause of
this wonderful discrepancy and alarming
waste.
We will not follow him in all his dife-
rent methods and experiments. The task
would be too long, and practically useless.
Let us come to this. Mr. Bringier, aided
by his experience and his mature studies
upon this subject, discovered that the
sugar cane contains cells completely filled
with vegetable water, and other cells en-
tirely filled with saccharine matter that
these cells are distinct and separate the
one from the other, and that by our pre-
sent methods we only extract from the
cane, after subjecting it to the action of
our strongest mills, the vegetable water
of the first mentioned cells, filled with
water slightly sweetened by its contact
and imperfect mixture with the cells filled
with sugar.
Thus, it is the water-that is to say,
the non-saccharine part Of the cane, which
we extract from the latter by means of the
methods now in use, while we leave 10
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