The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1896-12-19
A GREAT YEAR FOR SUGAR.
Louisiana Planters Building Up the Cane
Industry.

Louisiana Planters Building Up the Cane
Industry.
Til present year is one of promise to
the sugar plantations along this much
sung bayou, and the eden of Louis
lana" will justify her name in the ooun-
tifal crop now almost ready for the
cane-knife and the mill.
Progress has been active, despite the
falling price of sugar. Perhaps because
of il, since salvation lay in the increas'
ing acreage and improvement of man"
ufaeturing processes. Six years ago
two factories lay side by side near
where | write and boosted what was
then 'banner" output of 100000 and
1000, 900 pounds of sugar, respectively.
To-day these two are trying boilers,
mills and apparatus, and setting all IN
readiness for crop of 100000 on
the former place and 100000 on the
latter.
One of the signs Of the determination
of Louisiana sugar men to succeed in
maintaining the cane industry is shown
by the recent establishment of several
large central factories which are en-
ecuraging the growth of cane by small
farmers in sections hitherto so remote
from mills that profitable planting was
rot possible. These factories have
opened communication with the lines
of the Southern Pacific and other roads,
and haul cane by ear loads with
their own locomotives "a move
which is being followed BY
many older factories, which, while
already enjoying facilities of wa
ter transportation, find that the rail
way gives them access to- cane and
cane lands which in many cases already
have doubled their output.
But | wish to tell of what is perhaps
the most striking innovation in meth
DDS of making sugar from the raw ma
terial, and one which is just at its be-
ginning, that is, the "superheat clarl-
fication." 1t is worth description,
but requires preliminary account of
the process it is to supersede.
The juice of the cane contains, be-
sides sugar, a quantity of vegetable
IldbltlS, NlltNtl3 Nllllt lltNNsSdiN w
plant, are decidedly undesirable from
the point of view of the manufac
turer, as they interfere seriously with
the separation of the sugar. The one
practicable way of more or less COM
plete removal of these substances, so far
as experience has taught. is by adding
a small quantity of pure slal<ed lime
to the juice, heating and removing the
gnmmy matter which partly settle to
the bottom, and partly entangling air
bubbles rise to the surface of the tank,
or elarifier, in which the juice is thus
treated
To the present time this has required
from ten to twenty clarifying tanks,
with steam coils and complicated pip
ing arranged to carry off the upper
layer of seums. next, the main body Of
clear juice, and lastly, the bottom layer
of mud and the water with which each
tank must be washed out otter empty
ing. The doing of all this work requires
five or six men, each caring for some one
or two of the many minor operations,
who follow each other as the CHARTERS
are filed, lined, SKINNED, emptied and
cleared in rotation.
1t has been common experience that
the hotter the juice could be kept, the
better and more rapid was the work.
But if the boiling point was reached,
the steam and violent agitation de-
stroyed the effectiveness of the treat,
Ii ha ir.iCa +nt-hi1
the ordinary clarified juice was after
ward concentrated to heavy strip,
preparatory to final crystallization in
the vacuum pan, the higher tempera-
ture reached during the evaporation
caused a second slight precipitate,
which required a second setting of the
strip.
In place of all this complication the
factory is now offered a means of clar-
flying the juice in transit, at a high
temperature, by means of an apparatus
which needs the employment of but one
| man.
The juice fresh from the mill is re-
ceived into three or more large tanks,
where sufficient lime is added to il,
thence passing by means of a pump
through large coil of copper pipe, sur
rounded by strong iron cylinder, into
which enough steam is turned to bring
the temperature of the juice to about
| IS Fahrenheit degrees above the boil
ing point. The action of the lime is
instantaneous and complete, and the
juice, passing through continuation
of the pipe in another cylinder
Through which cold juice is being
forceD, Immediately gives up its over
plus of heat in warming the cold juice,
and passes out of the pipe little below
the boiling point by means of a weight
ed valve into series of large,
conical-bottomed settlers, flowing up
ward from one into the next, leaving
behind all the mud, which is drawn
away at intervals by a cock at the
apex of the cone, and carried to filters
which recover all but a minute fraction
of the juice which flows into it. The
high temperature and rapid transit
through the tubes go feet per minute)
effectually free the air bubbles, so that
there is no scum to be removed.
Standing in the light of the electric
lamp, watching the clean, quiet, bust
ness-like working of the new way, there
comes an inevitable sigh for the men,
DRY of the long, steaming row of dirty,
lime-splashed CHARTERS, and the fuskv
crew of ehattering hands," fitting up
and down the semi-darkness, skim