The Hawaiian gazette., 1881-11-09
Dawaiiatr 6az&ttf.

.
ferred cheaply and readily by this water car
rage TO the works; and nearly all these works
are connected by further irrigation outlets win
the shipping in the ports.
The works themselves are Of remarkable
magnitude aud finish. The plant aud ma
chinery actually in work boast a present value
for the whole colony Of not less than Il 100000
and the various processes fall nothing short oil
the most Advanced discoveries OF the day
even 10 the application Of the electric light,
should night work be desirable.
After this scientific cultivation and scientific
hauling there remain those great divisions OF
process before sugar in the cane becomes
sugar on the table, and in each Of these British
Guiana exhibits height OF science rarely at
tanned elsewhere. There is the extracting the
sugar from the cane; there is the making OF
this into portable raw sugar; and there is tho
refining OF this into edible sugar. In all these
processes producers here excel.
Considerable improvement has Of late taken
place in the extracting Of sugar from the cane
In 100 parts Of cane there are, on the average,
IL parts Of saccharine matter. BY the common
method OF extracting this the cane is crushed
between heavy rollers. and most Of the sacchar-
inc matter squeezed out in juice or syrup.
This was long thought the only possible pro.
cess, though il was we'll known that eight
to ten Of these original parts of saccharine
matter remained fixture in the cane. West
Indian planters have TO thank the much
abused bounties for discovering remedy for
this evil. The excise tax on beet sugar in
Austria was levied on the amount of sugar
ton Of beets could yield by crushing; this
was, say, FIVE parts in every hundred. The
drawback system paid to the refner the amount
- f.w hNs,
hundred he exported. He thus secured back
the amount he had paid away, but he found
enormous profits in the substitution of other
methods which obtained from the beet more
parts of sugar than the five he could get by
crushing. He found that if, Instead OF crushing
aud squeezing, lie simply sliced his beet and
allowed it to become well stepped in warm
water, he extracted from the beet II Of the
l3 parts Of saccharine matter IN each 100.
Cane growers have not yet adopted any actual
" diffusion process, the only difficulty that
vet retaris such action being the difficulty of
cutting up the cane. But they have adopted
in Demerara an intermediate process, known
as maceration, by which the cane, after u,c
severe crushing, is passed over steam, gradu-
ally increasing to heat Of ls0 degrees
Fahrenheit. Ii is then crushed again. and,
in tho end, it has yielded up in various pro
cesses Is, at least, of the IL parts Of sacchar-
inc matter it originally contained The exact
results Of this process are, however, in debate,
and more important than these is the question
of pounds. shillings, and pence. Does this
extra yield Of a few parts OF sugar repay the
extra expenditure in plant, machinery. fuel.
labor and time? Il is also asserted that the
cane refuse, after this double crushing, is
greatly deteriorated in value as fuel; and in
many works this refuse, or meguss, is the sole
fuel used in boiling the sugar.
Il is, however, not at all improbable that
the diffusion process, pure and simple, may,
in the future supersede both the crushing and
the maceratiOn processes. The only diff
Guilty is the dividing the cane into layers
sufficiently thin for each sugar-holding cell to
come into open contact with the water. This
being accomplished, the cane is automatically
soaked in 10 fresh liquors for 10 minutes, each
soaking in water gradually rising to a temper
ature Of lsO degrees Fahrenheit. The ma
chiuery requisite is not expensive. no steam
power is required, and the proportional amount
Of labor is largely reduced-a fact Of the first
Importance in the West Indies. 1t may be
remarked in evidence that in one factory in
Germany, under the old roller system, 40 tons
of beet we're worked every q hours by the
labor Of $50 men; the same amount Of beet is
now worked in the p hours, by the new diff
fusion process, with the aid Of only 22i men,
a reduction Of nearly one-third, not only in
the amount Of wages paid, but in the amount
OF labor 1t Is necessary to provide. 1t has
been reported that this process has been sue
Cessfully applied to cane already in the East
Indies and by certain French manufacturers
There is no doubt that, if it can be applied to
cane more generally, it will again considerably
lower the cost Of production, even to the ex-
tent of one-thiTd, if we are to believe that il
would free for clarifying l6 of the IL parts OF
saccharine matter, only eight or nine of which
are obtained by the crushing process.
The question of labor-ths greatest of CUES
tons in the West Indian colonies-has been
settled more or less satisfactorily in British
Guiana by the instrumentality of vigorous
system. This has not only sup
piled numbers, but variety; and the conss-
quence is that, with one nationality set of
against another, not only is there a potential
incentive to all to work, but there comes to
exist considerable natural guarantee against
riot and labor troubles Of all sorts. Since
slavery was abolished immigration has brought
into the colony the following numbers and
kinds of laboring people: East Indians, IOO,-
GOO; West Indians, $4,000; Portuguese, 80
600 Africans, $4,000; Chinese, I3, 1000. With
all these advautages-of tilaEe, of labor, |
and Of invested capitalize planters here have
thus been enabled to produce sugar on a system
secure against competition elsewhere. We
have spoken Of the merits Of their method of
growing cane and Of extracting the sugar;
they are equally successful in the converting
this crlde saccharine matter into portable raw
sugar; and, further, in refining this again
into edible sugar. The ordinary builing-down
process is finished off by means of the vacuum
pan and much Of the sugar So finished passes
through the centrifugal machine, aud reaches
the home market to be put directly on the /
table Of the consumer to the great consterna-
tion Of many Of our English refners.
At the present moment there is great i'm
portance III the question Of the production
here Of eIp0rtable raw sugars for certain mar
ke;s. The United States offer market Of
great extent, Within the States is grown only |
one-eighth of the sugar consumed, and not (
lees than 100000 tons are needed even now
each year. But the Americans are endeavor- |
ing by system Of duties TO q foster y the in
dustry Of sugar refining and the West Indies, |
British Guiana foremost among the number, /
world fain supply these wants of the United 1
States. But there are endless perplexities in /
v0lved in any connecting Of sugar in fiscal |
schemes, and the United States Treasury has l
fallen foul Of the United States refining indus 1
tries. Some standard had to be adopted for
the lsTying o. the duties, aud the choice fell !
on the Dutch or color standard Among 4
others, the Demerars planters soon discovered 1
the making Of "black sugar emineutIy /
suited to this standard. The Treasury author /
tiles soon discovered al excessive richness in /
this sugar, which proved the futiIiIy of color
as test Of strength. They at once started
the idea that this blackness was adulteraiion
Tor purpo-es Of entering under the lesser
iutics. The Treasury based protests on this