The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-14
BEET sUGAR PROGRESS.
There Are Now Eight Factories in the
Country and Two Being Built.
Philadelphia Press.

Philadelphia Press.
The beet sugar industry has recently
ceived an impulse by the recently granted
state bounty on each ton of beets grown
in the State of New York, and the action
OF a Californian philanthropist, who do
mated six hundred acres of land to the
Salvation Army In that State, to be de-
voted to the raising of sugar beets. The
United States Department of Agriculture
Wiley former director of the sugar beet
experiment station III Nebraska, setting
forth in detail the growing of beets and
the manufacture Of sugar therefrom The
author states thar while sugar beets form
a lucrative crop when grown near to es-
tablished factories, yet the cost of such
factories, owing to the low price OF sugar
and the large amount of mineral salts
found in sugar beets which has to be got
rid of, requires the employment or
the most complete and approved APP
paratus in order to produce a profit,
so that the cost of manutactur-
ing on a small scale is prohibitive; The
average cost of factory IS about $2o0,O0O,
an amount too great to allow OF purely
cooperative work among the farmers, yet,
Notwithstanding these difficulties, there are
at present three factories in California and
two more in the course of erection; two in
Nebraska, one in New Mexico, one in
Utah, and one in New York State; The
future field of the sugar beet industry
would appear to be indicated by the re-
markable fact that this comparatively
new source of sugar has been able to sup
ply the large deficiency in the worlds SUI
gar crop produced by the Cuban war In
three years the supply of sugar furnished
by that island has fallen from 100000 to
100 900 tons, and yet there has been no APP
probable deficit in the total sugar produc-
ton of the world. That this field is ex-
tensiye would apPear TO fe Iher c6 Su
tries, there being 397 factories OF this char
acter in Germany, 356 in France, 216 IN
Austria and 297 in Russia
The sugar beet is botancally identified
with the common garden beet, but care
full selection and culture have resulted in
producing in it high saccharinic qualities.
The two varieties best known in this coun-
try are the Vilmorin improved and the
Kleinwanzlebener. Beets bring on an aver
age from 81 to s. per ton at the factory,
and the average yield per acre may be
placed at about fourteen tons. The net
profit is stated to be from $40 to $40 per
acre. Very little attention is required after
the seed has been planted.
In the process of the manufacture OF
sugar from sugar beets the, beets, freed
from what is technically called the neck
and top are conveyed to washing tanks pro-
vided with suitable apparatus for washing
them and by automatic elevators the peets
are next taken to a point above the center
of the diffusion battery, whence they are
dropped into the slicing apparatus, where
they are cut up into sman pieces Inc Inc
a cell of,the diffusion battery and the hot
Juices from the cell last filed are admitted
and allowed to remain in contact with the
twelve cells are thus kept In use. The ex-
tracted cuttings are carried through a
removed, and they are then in suitable
condition for cattle feed. The juices OBJ
tanned as above are next carried TO car
bonatation or saturation tanks where they
are treated with from two to three per
cent of their weight of lime and after
wards with carbolic acid until nearly all
the lime is precipitated. After filtration to
remove solid particles the juices pass TO a
second set of carbonatation tanks, in which
they are treated in the same manner as
before except that the quantity of lime
added is smaller. The juices are then car
ried to multple-effect evaporating pans,
consisting of a series OF pans CONNECTED
higher vacuum in each, and here reduced
to syrup.
evaporating apparatus called the strike
pan This apparatus is usually very large,
often holding a thousand barrels of sugar.
1t is usually of pear shape and provided
with a series of coils, one above the other
to which steam can be admitted at Will.
The admission of steam is so regulated that
if is not allowed to enter any of the coils
above the surface of the liquid in the pan.
The portion of the syrup first introduced is
evaporated until it reaches a point of con-
which viii permit OF the forma-
ton of crystals. In this condition, II por-
ton of fresh syrup be quickly introduced,
the whole mass in the pan becomes charged
with exceedingly fine crystals OF sugar. by
careful manipulation and the introduction
of new quantities of syrup from time to
time these crystals are made TO grow. AS
the pan becomes full successive coils of
the steam pipes are brought into use, so
that the boiling surface of the pan is grad
ually increased in proportion to the volume
of contents. In the course of a few hours
the skilled sugar boiler will ind that the
pan is full and the crystals have grown to
the proper proportions The sugar produced
in the strike pan contains from to 10 per
cent. of water, and this is separated by CEN
If refined sugars are to be made
the juices and syrups are passed over bone
black TO decolorZe them, and the crystals
are washed in the centrifugal in order to
make them perfectly white.
The waste product Of the factory con-
sists of the pulps and molasses. The mo-
lasses is used for various purposes, either
for making sugar, for fertilizing purposes
Gas it contains a large amount of mineral
sometimes for cattle food. The pulps make
a valuable cattle food. II is stated that the
value of the pulps for feeding purposes is
from one-fourth to one-fifth of the value
of the beets. They may be dried and fed
or used in the condition in which they
come from the factory