, 1890-02-01
Let Us Improve Our Processes
of Sugar Manufacture Still
Further. for 1890.

this season, for the first time, weighed its
cane, and it has but 100 pounds of sugar
to the ton of cane. The smallness of this
result, compared with what others
were doing, led to a careful investigation.
1t was found that at the mill, with an ex-
traction there obtained and with ascertain
ed sucrose in the juice, the yield in one or
binary we'll managed sugar house would be
1853 pounds per ton of cane.
What, then, became Of the fOrty-three
pounds per ton? 1t was in the cane, and
the mil got it out, and it was subsequent
ly lost in line of manufacture. A care
full consideration of these led to the con
clusiOn that the losses from the qpGSb-0NtS
of the CHARTERS, the settling tanks the sy-
rup tanks and perhaps the overflow of the
Rillieux train, had thus, under what seem
ed to be the conditions of good work,
thrown over O~ne-Quarter Of the crop into
the ditch.
This is a startling conclusion, and yet
it seems a sound one; in fact, seems to
admit Of no dispute, for it is revealed,
first, by the fact that the scales put up
this season for the first time to weigh the
sugar cane consumed showed this house
to be getting less sugar per ton of cane
than any other house near it, even from
cane grown on similar land second by a
careful examination and calculation of the
extraction and Of the sugar content of the
Juice; and, third, by the fact hat no other
sugar house i'll that section was getting as
little as 1870 pounds of sugar per tom of
cane.
This house ground about 1000 tons Of
cane. With a yield of $50 pounds per ton
and the sugar and its incidental molasses
estimated at 81 cents per pound fOb the
sugar, the gross proceeds would be $3.50
per ton and the loss of one-fourth of the
crop, or 1850 tons, would at $3.50 per tor
amount to $15,4O0.
Now, this is a genuine loss, occurring
this season on a first class vacuum pan
plantation, and only revealed by their
weighing their cane the first time this sea-
son.
Gould there be a more terrible lesson
teaching the imperative necessity of the
absolute control of every process of our
manufacture and thus obtaining the re-
sulting possibility of instantly checking
losses.
The second lesson taught by this ex-
ample is the necessity OF our closing all
washouts and by the use Of filter presses
turn out no more scums, nothing but a
solid residuUm. This is now done in
scores of our best sugar houses, and it
should be done in all, and the filter press
es should be put in in 1890. No planter
with a crop of 300 hogshead should pass
another season without eheir use. On any
moderate crop a filter press will pay for
itself in one year and there can now be
no excuse for their nO~n-adOption.
The next lesson that we think the sugar
house under consideration teaches is the
necessity for more careful consideration
of the entertainment of the juice and spray
in our double effects and the resulting loss
es. While these losses are more diff
cult to determine with exactness, yet they
are occurring all the time, even from ex-
cellent pans, and what we need on prob.
ably every pan is some sort of aseparator,
such as Gaunt's, Stratton's, Simpsons, or
Taylor's all advertised in these columns,
which at once reveal these losses by
entrainment and they are simply enOr-
nous.
That with the low prices of sugar any
NAH can continue its production and yet
fail to procure from the cane all that IS
available, and this once procured, to lose 1t
in washouts and ScunES, or by overflow or
entertainment from the evapOrating pans,
goes in the negative without saying.
The crop of 1889 has not been very
satisfactory financially, but that's all the
greater argument for Improvement III
our manufacture. VerbNm S@~p.-Lo~tsaGn0
I-A