, 1892-07-16
A FLYING VISIT TO SOME OF
CUBA'S BEST SUGAR
FACTORIES.
From the Louisiana Planter, and Sugar
Manufacturer, June 4tk.l


FACTORY A.-Capacity $50 tons Of cane per
"a hours. A shredder prepares the cane for
one three roller mill, which gives a fairly good
extraction. The bagasse is carried partly
into the bagasse burners and gives all the
steam necessary to run the whole factory
partly it is removed into the fields.
The Juice is treated with lime and boiled az
usual afterward an addition Of super-phos-
plate is made, which effects a better c%larifi-
cation. The whole Of The juice runs by
grayitation through Daneck's mechanical
filters. After leaving them bright and clear,
it is taken into a triple effect and is reduced
there to a fine syrup Of rs degrees Beaume.
The syrup is taken at once into the vacuum
pan and is boiled to a good looking masse
cutie. The masse cutie runs into sugar wag-
CONS and remains in them for about sixteen
hours after that time it is dumped into the
mixer and from there aiken into the c%entrifu-
gals, which produce a very fine grade OF sugar
of 96.5 degrees polarization. The syrup,
which comes from the first sugar, runs, after
it has been reboiled, into IRON tanks about
l2x8x6 feet after remaining in them for
about three weeks, it is worked up as second
sugar the syrup of the second sugar is sold
as mOlasses.
The average cane analysis shows POP deg.
A'AAA ; AO'AC ROA NSAN' - S2'0
90.l purity II per cent. fibre.
The yield of first and second sugars is very
near 200 pounds per ton Of cane. Indeed a
good result for a single mill.
Factory B-Capacity 500 tons Of cane Fer
twenty four hours. Three sets Of three-rolIer
mills are in operation. The rollers Of the first
and second mill are feet long by 81 inches
diameter. The rollers of the third mill are 8
feet 6 inches by 81 inches. The extraction
is over 10 per cent, but not d very good
one, because the speed Of the mill is too
rapid. Eight hundred tons Of cane TO be
passed through one mill in twenty-four hours
is entirely too much, at least we cannot ex-
pect fine results that means a very high ex-
traction.
1t would not be fair to make any comparison
between the results obtained in Louisiana's
and Cuba's sugar factories, because IN Loui-
siana we are trying to get as much sugar as
possible per ton of cane, and in Cuba they are
trying to rush as much cane as possible
through their mills. I dare say it is more
profitable to lose by working very rapidly,
say, 20 pounds of sugar more per.tOn of cane,
than to lose thousands of tons of cane IN the
fields.
The area planted with sugar cane in Cuba is
much too large compared with the capacity Of
the sugar factories.
The bagasse is burned in four Hazelton's
boilers, which are working very satisfactorily;
much bagasse has to be hauled away, coal or,
wood is not used at all. The. method of
clarifying is quite different from the one used
in Louisiana generally. The. writer Of this
did not visit one factory in which the juice in
the CHARTERS is SKINNED. AS soon as the
juice runs into the clarifer, lime is added, and
the steam valve is opened; by the time that
the olarifer is full, the juice is almost boil
ing after a few minutes the steam valve