, 1890-05-07

year, 1t Is certain that 1t will be late before
this years crop will be closed. The re-
turns obtained from the canes are every
where most satisfactory. three hhdS. to the
acre and in Il few cases four having been
reached.
The Christ Church correspondent of the
Planters Journal wril eS ''phe return of
sugar per acre is very satisfactory, and
there Is every reason 10 congratulate our
selves on our dealings with the manure
makers. We should not grud&e these gen
tlemrn the profits of their trade"
The young canes are looking splendid
every where, thanks to the frequent
showers, and they are being trashel as
soon as the material is obtained from the
cnt cones. There is a general comp al 1t
respecting LABOR, especially with refer.
ence to cane cutters. Ole correspondent
writes: "L1OouT is scarcely equal TO tie
demand, judging from the difficulty in
obtaining good cane cutters" Another
WrlteS:- "LahOur Is reported as fai,ly
~steady.-There still continues to be il Scarci.
ty OF cane-cutterS, although II cents per 100
is, l believe, generally given. The leaders
too have been giving trouble, sickness be.
Ing, | fancy, often teIgned where the canes
are thick and strong" And still another
correspondent writeS:- The Labor mar
kpt is not fully supplied, cane. cutters eSpe-
ClaIly being III demand. Our young la
boureIS seem to shirk this kind of work.
The produce shipped to date amounts to
7,ll4 hhdS. sugar and lO,067 puns. MOllS-
SEES, against Fill hhds. sugar and 49,, 743
punS. molaSseS at the corresponding period
last year.
To-day at a meeting of the general Agri-
cultural Society at the Planters Hall, Mr..
Skekrl, an engineer from Demerara. gave u
practical demonstration Of the working of
the cane mill which he proposes TO intro
duce mere. On the large Estates of Dam
erara diffusion 0atr> probably the best re.
suit so far rs the extraction Of the largest
possible amount 0f Sugdr fsom the cane is
concerned, and consequently there is no
scope for Mr.. Skekpl there. Bat in this
island with our small estates, diffusion is
ont OF the question, and it ouly remains for
us to do the best we can to improve our
crushing. We recently gave some figures
showing the loss sustained by our imppr.
feet crushing, Mr.. SirkeI, speaking rough
~ rs a practical enginceg, and not as II
chemist, computes that the sugar cane Of
this island contains $500 Juice and 1921
hOle, h. claims that his mill can give
5000 and $50 being lost by evaporation.
MOI only does he claim this, but he actually
ground 5lbS. canes at the Planters Hall in
his model mill, with the result that Abs.
were oht"ined and lib. megasS. This is
vastly superior to our present results. Our
smaller mills give only between 60 aud
1000 juice, and taking the good and the
bad together, We think Mr.. Skekel was not
far wrong in estimating that our average
result is at least 1920 less than what he
proposes to obtain for us. On u crop Of
$1,000 tons e. is would mean, taking sugar
at go u tou, e72,OoO, and moIaSses at 70
gallons to the h~o5>htad, E1S,000. R~td
upon Il &I00,0J0 Il year clear gain
Mr.. Skekel further claims that the trash
can be burnt directly it leaves The mill,
thus saving the expense of drying and tho
loss of opportunity from repeated inability
to work with W.T. trash in rainy seasons.
The principle OF Mr.. Skekel's mill is that
the second pair Of rollers are placed hori-
zontal facing upward, so that the loss of
juice from re-abSOrptiOn is prevented, the
juice falling back below us the crushing
takes place. 1t is something like in this
respect to the improved four roller mills;
but the fourth roller and the second trash
turner "a great disad vantage-occaSi0ni1lg
much loss of power through ~frietion) are
saved. Mr.. Skekel has informed us that
for one of our mills making between 300aDd
400 HhdS a aver, the cost of efecting the
alterations required to Introduce his i'm
prOvenents, tlaying down new head stGckS)
will be about G300, which amount would