, 1912-04-20
MECHANICAL DEVICES MUST SUP
PLANT MANUAL LABOUR.
(Lo uiSjana Planter, MUch, 23rd)

modern sugar refining combination of sugar
trust. in his argument for free sugar before
the Hardwlck Committee last spring, with
personal knowledge to the contrary, testified
that Louisiana was still behind all of the
producing countries Of the world IN
following crude and primitive methods Of
cane culture and sugar manufacture, our
Louisiana sugar industry would not have
survived and could not survive unless it had
kept and still Ike p9 in advance OF the sugar
producing world in the field and factory
work which has lesseued the cost of sugar
production.
Verify, necessity is the mother of inven-
ton. When the forests Of our sugar region,
which furnished the enormous quantity OF
fuel required in primitive sugar manufacture
began to disappear, ana Pennsylvania coal
was too costly to entirely use because Of dan
gerons and expensive river navigation, a ma
tive Louisiana engineer, Norbert RllieuX,
devised the system Of "muitip!e effect eva
n~oration in vacuo," which cut down fuel
consumption in sugar manufacture more
than fifty per cent. That invention has been
compulsorlly adopted by all of the sugar
producing countries Of the world, and with
out employing it to-day sugar could not
be p oftabIv made.
A little later, when the West Indies be-
came the source Of the chief commercial
cane sugar supply of the world, and the
West Indians preferred not to grind Their
cine too closely because thus they dimin-
ished the fuel capacity Of their sun-dried
bagasse, Louisiana sugar engineers, impelled
by West Indian competition to obtain the
greatest possible JUICE extraction out of their
cane and he highest possible immediate fuel
value out of their bagaSSc almost slmultA-
meously invented multiple mills and furnaces
for the stepm generating c0nibHstlon Of green
ba9asse. In time the West Indies, and
every other cane sugar country OF the world,
followed this progressive step started IN
Louisiana.
Almost a human generation ogone the SUI
gar planters of Louisiana founded the inst
important sugar experiment station operated
entirely on private means; although that sta
ton was subsequently partly supported by
State AMI Government aid; and public sugar
experiment stations had been started IN
0 her sugar producing c untrles exclusively
under government support and supervision.
Then came the Louisiana sugar school, u
pioneer of its class and kind, which soon be-
came patronized by Cuba, Mexico, and South
America, and has sent Louisiana graduates
to every part of the cane sugar world, to
Hawaii, and even to Australia, to teach I'LL
around the world the progressive and sclen-
titic methods of cane culture and sugar man
u%facture first p~ractised by what Nj. Spree
kels has falsely called ''the crude and prl-
mitive methods of the Louisiana sugar in
dustry."
Every cane sugar country in the world,
even progressive and inventive Japan. has
been guided by and adopted the scientific
cultural and manufacturing methods orlgIna-
ting in this State. Cuba, the greatest OF
all cane sugar countries, has closely studied
and adj ,ptod them in field and factory, aud
has consequently been able to double its an
nual sugar production inside Of two decades.
The modern revolution III cane cultivation
and sugar manufacturer, involving more fire.
quent and carefully prepared paintings,
thorough and intensive cultivation and fer
tilization, multiple milling with green ba-
gusse burning, multiple effect evaporation
and chemical control of central factories,
began fist in this State, and it's advanced
ideas were p~ropagated over most of the mo-
dern cane sugar producing world 10y paplls,
graduates and teachers of its sugar school.
But still our State Is called upon through
It's own necessities to play the part OF q
pioneer in other inventions and advanced
methods. The rapid growth of our cities