New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1916-09-16
BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES AS
A BY PRODUCT IN SUGAR
MANUFACTURE.

This humble by product Of ou
great sugar factories that twenty
five wears ago was thrown int,
the bitches or into the river b,
the thousands of barrels as being
practically unsaleahle and with
out market value. has now come
10 he recognized as of very ma
terial value.
Before the use of sulphur in su.
gar manufacture in Louisiana for
decolorlzln" cane juice. much. if
not most of the molaSses made
was extremely dark in color. The
use of sulphur changed all this
and in open kettle sugar houses
whore slightly acid aoillng was
the rule very beautiful open kct-
tie sugars were produced and
very beautiful light colored mo-
lasses was also the product. both
commanding full prices.
The advent of the vacuum pan
into nearly all sugar factories
great and small and the common
use of the centrifugal machine for
purglng the molasses from the
SUGAR, led to the reboiling Of the
molasseS with view of crystalliz-
ing additional sugar from il and
IN this way second. third and even
fourth sugars were produced by
the separate or combined boilings.
With each boiling the residual
molasSes would become darker
and the old Dutch name of Black
strap. unknown in Louisiana be
fore the civil war. has gradually
grown INTO common use and this +:
low grade sugar house molasses, !
Of good flavor and valuable I
food stuff. was not recognized as I
having the merit that it had. {
After thousands of barrels were I
thrown away it became better 7
known and was sold at from 2 to II
cents gallon delivered in tank
ears at the sugar factories. AS r
IN excellent foodstuff for men or il
beasts its merits were recognized &
wherever any scientific invcstiga- Il
ions were made and during re- Il
.ent years there has graually Il
grown up a demand for such mo- o
asses throughout the entire d
Valley and reaching Il
lear through to the Canada line, D
treat stock feeding factories be- O.
ng built. using residual mill h.
'eeds produced in the West, COM m
lined with more or less molasses Ii
nd thus making popular feed Il
tufts that give satisfactory al
nalyses so far as their nutritive tn
alue is concerned and at the I'll
anne time were extremely palat- 9;
BILE to the animals consuming in
hem. II,
The distillers Of the country be- &C
an to take considerable interest er
Louisiana molasses many years co
90. but they found that the at
ubans were probably less skill it
nj than the Louisiana sugar fc
lanters so far as their sugar boil. til
" was concerned and the Louis W,
ma molasses would yield less al on
,hol per Gallon than would the mr.
uban molasses Of the same ar
ensity. This led to the general su
ioption Of Louisiana molasses N,
'r feeding up in the West to as
,ints which could readily be st,
'ached from Louisiana with I'm
nix cars. and the distilleries an
nilt in Louisiana with a view ga
utilizing Louisiana molasses or
re, finding they could do better
Cuba so far as the yield was
have been importing
wv for wears millions of gallons
molasses from Cuba. bringing hu
over in tank steamers. This co.
lsiness is hardly in its infancy, re-,
It it is certainly growing larger w