, 1877-01-24

twenty per cent. of juice are lost, although
the cane is submitted to great pressure
under rollers many tons in weight, screwed
down so closely that the crushed residue
leaves them almost in powder, heated per-
ceptibly by the balance pressure it has
undergone. The loss, moreover, increases
with the richness of the cane in sugar as
1t is harder to crush, and, although
reduced to shreds, bears with it to the
manure heap or the furnace a large per-
centage of sugar. The writer has visited
in Cuba, Mauritius, and the French West
India Colonies the largest (cane) sugar
factories in the world. In the former
island the vast appliances at the "Alava"
estate leaves nothing to be desired under
the old plan. There are two six-feet horl-
zontal cane mills, driven by an engine OF
12O horse power (nominall, which fur
nishes to the immense concentrating appa-
ratus Juice sufficient for the manufacture
OF eighty tons of sugar in twenty-tour
hours. The caues ars brought to the mill
by rail, drawn by locomotives, dispensing
with q train If u hundred bullock carts,
and a perfect army of drivers. On this
vast plantation, perhaps the largest in the
worId, seven thousand tons of sugar were
at one occasiJn produced in a single sea-
son. The Flor de Cuba is another fine
property, where the latest appliances have
Ueen introduced regardless of expense. In
the central uSiues OF Martinique the manu-
%facture is as completely separated from
tho cultivation as the culture Of cottoj IN
the Southern States from the Manch1 ster
looms. Every appliance is IN use That
skill and intelligence can bring to bear on
the old system ; nevertheless the loss Is
rarely under 10 to Is per cent, depen'
dent on the maturity of the cane. The
pant of one Of these stupendoGs factories
represents an immense sum. In 81 ordl'
nary sized usine there is rarely less than
6O0-horse power Of steam at command,
and Is or 20 miles of railroad connect
ths refinery with the circumj acent cane
farms, or i. the factory be on the scaboari,
a small steamer aud hotilla of punts
takes the place of the railway and
trucks. Ga these usincs nothing Is lost
Of the 60 or 70 per cent. OF jules
crushed out of the cane. Inc motaSSeS
is boiled twice or o%ftener, and th5 re-
sidue sem down into the dlStlIlery, where
rum is extracted in steam stills with all the
latest Improvements. An average OF ten
tons of coal a day are used to assist the
combustion of the megass (%crushed cane)
which CONTAINS so large a percentage OF
moisture (cane juice that it Wi not burn
unassisted in other words, ten tons OF coal
are consumed daily to get rid OF refuse con-
tanning 10 to 30 per cent. OF cane juice,
which by the new process would be saved
aud converted into sugar.
The two great ends comprised by the
new system, as opposed to the Old, are
the elimination of the t0tolc 0me sugar
from the cane, ard the Liberation Of capital
now locked up in ponderous engines and
mills, q 1O-hofse power engine AMI lighter
gear replacing one Of so. In a word, the
minimum return from the cane IS obtained
by a minimum expenditure OF money.
The sugar factory at " Aska" sill be at
work in January, wnen the writer propo.
ses to give q detailed description OF each
step in the process from the moment the
"ryot" discharges his CARLOAD OF canes at
the factory door, to the time when the
sugar is ready for the market.
am, sir, yours, &c.
GAIN"