Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1921-10-07

the hrSt OF december 10 the HrSt Oh
October. The fields are SO planted In
the first place that each month OF the
grinding season produces its own
crop of mature cane. Here is group
of fields where the new crop has just
sprouted; over yonder another group
where the cane is half grown; and
on farther is group where harvest
ing operations are in full swing.
How the Crop is Harvested.
In harvesting, the cane-cutters first
strip the blades from the stalk; then
they cut off the upper part OF the
latter, which Is worthless except for
replanting, since what juice 1t con-
tains possesses very little sugar. One
of the strange things about sugar-cans
is that the sap of the growing plant
has little sugar, while in the mature
stalk the juice Is rich in sucrose. The
action Of the suns rays seems TO
| transform glucose into sucrOse-a
| transformation that cannot be accom-
plished by human means. Ii man
knew how to do that, every cornheld
would be sugar field.
The main body of the stalk Is cut
down and loaded into the ox-carts.
In these it is hauled to the field sta
ton and placed in the waiting cars
Each car contains about twenty tons
and each train Is made up Of thirty
cars. This makes 600 tons OF cane
to the trainlOad, and eight TO ten
trainloads a day are required to keep
one of the bigger centrals in opera
ton for "a hours. The big United
Fruit central at Preston requires the
crop from $50 acres every day to
keep it busy. Imagine field three
fifths of a mile square being harvest
ed between sunup and shutdown to
keep one central goingl
| At the mills the cars of cane ara
| dumped on an endless belt which car
| ries II to the crushing rolls. Each
| set of rolls the cane passes through
presses 1t harder than the one before.
| The last set may exert pressure or
million pounds, and when the
"bagasse," as the crushed cane Is
called. issues from them 1t is almost
as dry as finder. 1t Is carried by con-
yeyors TO the fire-boxes of the boilers,
where 1t is used as fuel in generating
the steam that drives the big mills
and boils the cane juice The stream
of crushed cane flows through the
last set of rolls at a speed Of seven
miles a day.
Making the Sugar.
After the juice is freed of sediment
it is pumped in the evaporators, where
about half of the water is boiled out
of 1t.
The next step in the making OF
sugar is to draw the thick juice into
the vacuum pans. Here 1t comes into
contact with hot steam coils and b0ils
at very low temperature because OF
the absence of atmospheric pressure.
AS the boiling proceeds, the sugar
crystallizes into small grains.
The sugar and the adhering strip
are finally removed to centrifugal
machine that acts somewhat on tne
principle of a cream separator.
Placed inside a perforated baskef
and whirled around at from 1000 to
1 400 revolutions a minute. all OF the
sirup is forced out through the per-
forations. while the crystallized sugar
remains behind.
This strip is boiled again and he
nrocess is repeated until all the avail
able sweetness has been extracted.
The remaining liquor is the "black-
strap. molasses of commerce.
A ton Of sugar-cane yields four and
one-half gallons of blackstrap mo-
lasses, and one gets good impress
sion of the immensely of the industry
when. on a single days rail journey,
he meets dozen solid trains OF some
| forty big tank cars each, every car
full to the dome with brackstrap.
After sugar has come from the
centrifugals it goes to the Dagging
room where 1t Is put into bags tnar
hold 325 pounds each. These are
hauled in trainloads to the docks and
Skinned to the United States. where
tbe big refineries remove the impur-
tiles and transform the sugar from
dirty yellow to immaculate white.