The San Juan County index. (Aztec, N.M.) 1890-19??, 1906-12-21
The Secrets OF SUGAR Maxine.

AU Une sugar 1acl OrleS IN COLORADO
the beets are taken into the storage
sheds and dumped into cement floor
ed bins holding great many thous-
and bushels each and having the
floor sloping toward the middle like
the letter V. At tae bottom of each
bin is ditch or sluice two or three
feet wide. This is..kept filed with
water and as the beets are needed
they are floated on and into a larger
flume whence they are conveyed to a
great screw which hoists them into
the factory itself, All the smaller
bitches converge II to the big channel.
Just before reaching the sluicing ma
chinery the beets foat into fume-
like structure in v .ich the huge end
less screw revolves This screw is
set at an incline and as it turns the
beets climb slowly upward and are
dumped into the cl sning tanks. Their
journey through tie sluices has al
ready loosened much of the dirt and
the work of the c'1aners is quickly
done.
Elevators runnin; on endless belts
carry the cleaned heets up and into
slicing or grinding, machines where
they are sliced in ruch manner that
the juice is still retained. These
slices then go on sTother endless belt
to presses where tie juice is extract
ed. At this point 5le process becomes
more or less a secret. The juice must
be bleached. 1t nalst also be filtered
several times to eliNinate every shred
of pulp. When thNjuice finally goes
to the great vacuu, pans in which it
is boiled to a thicl- syrup it is abso-
lutely clear and eoorless. The heat
in the pans is terrific. AT the sides
of each pans are slveral peep, holes
covered with mic, through which
the operator may watch the tossing,
foamy mass on the inside.
There are also APPLIANCES for test
ing. AS soon as tip proper thickness
is attained the syn I is drawn off and
the actual transfers. alton into sugar
begins. The juip passes through
several stages of Geatment, largely
chemical, for the purpose of eliminat-
ing various delete'ious constituents,
among them carboNate of lead, pot
ash and soda. Qunklime is used to
precipitate the suelr and during the
stage of crystalliza ION the sirup-or
massecuite, as it ikecnically called
is violently agitate,, The massecuite
is very hot, OF corSe. when this pro-
cess is begun. the aA7o of which is
the constant movt Aent of the form
| Ii4o ~ --'- i,~A--,, N--SA- 49,
faces into contact with fresh particles
of the sugar solution, thus promoting
a rapid growth in size. The masse
cutie is rapidly cooled during thi
process and as the crystals reach tn,
proper size they are thrown out o
the solution. The machines in whicl
this work is done have capacity o
several tons.
After capitalization comes the dry
ing. The crystals are run through
centrifugals kept at uniform tenn
perature which is just below tn
scorching point and when the suga
comes out with blush cast it is read,
for packing into one hundred poun
sacks. Nothing but granulated suga
is made in beet sugar factory. Th
pulp is flushed out of the factory int
long trough supported on trestl
fifteen or twenty feet high and cal
ried to distance of quarter Of
mile or so where it is dumped to b
hauled away for feeding purposes
The purity of sugar is often question
ed but granulated sugar is certain t
be pure. Field and Farm.