The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1906-12-08
SUGAR sQuIBs.
Items of Interest from Field and Factory.
Grinding Campaign Nearing an End


The drouth which has prevailed for
the past several weeks was broken
Thursday forenoon, when quite heavy
shower fell throughout the parish. In
the evening the wind veered to the
north and decided drop in tempera-
ture ensued, yesterday being one of
i the coolest days Of the present season.
It is not necess airy to add that the
change in climatic conditions comes
too late to be of any benefit to the cane
planters.
The November weather record kept
by Local Observer W. D. Park shows
thatthe maximum temperature attained
during the month was 81 degrees above
zero, and the minimum ~ degrees.
The rainfall aggregated only four
tenths Of az inch, an abnormally
small precipitation for November.
There were q clear days, partly
cloudy and cloudy, and dense fogs
prevailed on the 26th and 9th.
The Iberville factories in the White.
castle neighborhood are in the con-
Guiding throes OF a short grinding sea-
son. Laurel Ridge, Alhambra and
Belle Grove have finished up, Or will
have done so before this issue OF The
Chief is circulated, and Cora is slated
to get through in a few days.
The Miles Company's Houmas Cen
trail factory at Burnside closed 30
| day run Thursday. and Evan Hall,
MeManor and Palo Alto wound up
the brief campaign today. All three
of these latter factories began grinding
about the LIST of November, hence their
seasons work occupied little more
than five weeks.
The model Belle Alliance factory in
the upper portion of Assumption par
ish ceased grinding day or two ago,
but no details OF the disaster are avail
able for publication. These will doubt
/ less appear ia Tue course in the Bou-
chereau Sugar Book, when time will
have somewhat tempered the sensitive
ness of the victims on the subject.
| The well-equipped Salisbury factory
at Landerdale finished grinding at
$50 O'Clock yesterday forenoon, after
having been in operation thirty two
days, five hours and forty-fonr min
utes, actual running time. During the
campaign 81 ,58I tons of cane passed
through the rollers, from which 5, l06,-
2aI pounds OF sugar were obtained, an
average of 136 pounds to the ton.
Last season Salisbury ground 81 ,933. Is
tons of cane and produced 9,eA0, $50
pounds OF sugar, an average of lbs IS
pounds per ton. 1t is unofficially re-
ported that the tonnage of Salisbury
| plantation proper reached about IL,
900 tons, an average crop for the place
being approximately $1,000 tons, and
| that Acadia, Lauderdale and several
smaller places in the vicinity which
send their cane to the Salisbury factory
made one-third to one-half crops. The
principals OF Salsburg's excellent
mechanical staff were as follows: Jos.
Bergeron, chief engineer; Octave Ber-
| geron and Wright Poirrier, assistants;
Nnma Thibaut, Mic Verret, Camille
Gre, Aug. Dugas aud Theo. Chauvin,
sug ar boilers. Alfred Schiller offici-
ated as chemist and general superin-
tendent of the big factory with his GUS
airy degree of thoroughness and ef-
fciency.
Louis Dehon's Lula central factory
| in the upper portion of Assumption
parish concluded operations last Sat-
nrday forenoon, having ground 49,,
635 tons of cane and produced there
from something like 1900, 900 pounds
of sugar. T. A. Leblanc, Ascension's
genial young deputy assessor and
CLERK OF registration, held down the
I position of cane-Weigher at Lula dur
ing the season just terminated, and
delivered the goods in a thoroughly
satisfactory and creditable manner.
ST. Emma, owned by the estate of
| the late lamented E. Ell. Barton, will
bring the tribulations Of the grinding
season TO an end next Tuesday or
wv CuuGSQdy3 uulSss SomCGlLuR uHlUp6s
seen should happen to prevent.
| One of the very few factories from
which it has been practicable TO get
exact figures with reference to the work
| OF the present grinding season is Gold
| Mine in St. John parish, owned and
operated by the Gold Mine Planting
Company, where the mill was started
| on October 90. After a three. lay run
a stop was made TO windrow cane, and
the mill resumed work November 5.
| Up to the 10th of November, with 152
hours of actual mill work, 2909 tons OF
cane had been ground, the yield from
which included los pounds of first
sugars per ton. The greatest OBJ
sgacle met with up to that time was
scarcity of labor, which permitted of
| only an average of sixteen hours of
| mill work per day, but preparations
were being made to overcome this UNI.
| favorable condition. The sugar yield
vas improving and much better re-
suits were looked for during the re-
mainder of the season. Among the
improvements effected at Gold Mine
this year under the supervision of
Chief Engineer +. Jos. Park are a
| fine electric light plant and oil-burn-
| ing appliances. which have operated
without a hitch and are giving the
fullest satisfaction. Insufficient cane
supply has been the only obstacle to
| the continuous work of the Gold Mine
| factory, fact that implies q COM
pIiment to the mechanical skill and
ability of Engineer Park, a Donald
sonvfIlian born and bred. AS else