The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-01-26
looking like corn stalks, and it comes

out sugar ana mOlasSeS.
This refinery eats up 800 tons of
cane day, and each ton produces $50
pounds of sugar. Think of that Out
of Ghis mill comes every day 10000
pounds of the sweetening which is
used on our tables. A pound Of table
sugar day is a good allowance for
the ordinary family. This factory
grinds out enough daily to keep l2O,-
600 families going or more than
enough for the table use Of one Of our
cities, excepting the largest ones.
The cane is not touched after it leaves
the car. It is thrown on to movable
belt, or movable roadway, which car
ries it up to the top of the mill and
drops it between great iron rollers
which have teeth like round file.
These rollers arc about as big around
as hogshead and about seven feet
long. They are very heavy. They
are so arranged that an enormous
weight is added to them by hydraulic
pressure, and as the cane is drawn
through them by means of the teeth
catching the fbres this great weight
presses the juice out Of it and it
comes out almost dry. It is now
sprinkled by means Of machinery and
carried on to go through second
pair Of rollers quite as heavy as the
first. Now the pith which is left con-
tasns as little water as last years
corn stalk. 1t is carried on from the
rollers upon another elevated railway
and emptied into the enormous fur
naces which run the machinery Of the
mill. When the stalks of cane left
the cars they were very heavy. They
were as full of juice as balf-soaked
sponge is of water. They come out as
dry as tinder and you could light
them with a match.
Come with me below the great roller
presses and see where the juice goes
to. You see it pouring down in tor
rents from the lower parts Of the roll
ers. 1t falls in the shape of a sweet
rain into trough about a foot wide,
and this flows in steady stream both
day and night, as long as the mill is
running. Put your finger in the water
and take taste of the liquid as it
comes from the cane. The fluid is Of
greenish yellow. 1t looks dirty. 1t
reminds you Of dish water, and the
taste is almost sickening. Still, out
Of that sweet, dirty dish water the
pure, white sugar must come. The
water, however, must first be clarified.
Every bit of dirt must be taken out Of
it. 1t must be bleached until it is as
clear as crystal before it is ready for
boiling down into sugar.
It is first run into great iron tanks,
each holding 1000 gallons, and each
having pipes running through them.
These pipes admit gas made of sui
phur, which is blown about through
the water. The gas makes the juice
bubble and yellow foam almost like
soapsuds stands on it's top. Lime is
also put in ia order to settle the dirt
on the same principle as it is used in
clarifying water and at the same time
the scum is skinned off. After this.
the water having passed through sew
veral tanks, has Become clearer and
clearer, and it is now ready for boil
ing.
This is done in great kettles or watts
Of copper. They have steam coils in
them, ana the sweet fluid is soon
raised to boiling heat. Asst seethes
scum rises to the top. This is
brushed off by men with great wooden
ladies'. 1t flows from one tank to
another. growing clearer and clearer
and thicker and thicker. Taste it
now 1t is the purest Of syrup, and it's
color has become light yellow.
Look at the syrup as it seethes in
the tank! What an enormous amount
there is of it. Follow it in those
pipes which carry it to the floor above,
and look at the enormous vats which
are filled with the sweet fluid. There
is enough syrup here to give whole
State taffy y-pulling. There is one
big barrel which contains forty thous
and pounds, and in which the syrup is
boiling and seething ill the process of
being turned into sugar. Come on to
that great vat and see the half granu-
lated molasscs which fills it. What a
fine swimming tank it would make. 1t
is forty feet long; and so deep that if
you fall in you would be drowned in
the sweet fluid. Take up a spoonful