The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-04
SUGAR HARVEST IN EVERGLADES
 TO SET RECORD
By MILTON L. CARR United Press stan Correspondent)

Clewiston, Fla, Dec. 4-(UP) = The nations largest raw sugar mill reached a capacity output of ale most 1000 pounds a minute today as A0OO singing Negroes harvested the war-rationed crop in the Flor ida Everglades.
 From the 30,O0O acres of cane under cultivation in the rich muck soil surrounding the southern banks of Lake Okeechobee will come more than 100000 tors of raw sugar dur ing the next six months.
 This, together with sugar pro- duced in other sections of the United States, must partially sup- ply the needs of nation whose imports have been curtailed by the war. Before Pearl Harbor, the United States depended upon Cuba, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Philip pines for more than two-thirds of its total consumption.
 Four years ago the United States Sugar Corp, which operates i2 plantations in Florida, was destroy ing acres of the now precious cane. The federal government, under the sugar act of 1897, had limited Floria production to one per cent of the total amount used in the United States.
 Lack Machinery to Expand
 Shortly before Dec. 2 the restric- tion was lifted by Presidential pro- clamation. But it was too late. The producers who suddenly were called upon to step up production found that machinery and other materials needed for the expansion were not available.
 Today they are attempting to re- place with research and efficiency of operation what they lack in facili- ties.
 The Florida corporation main tains two laboratories and a staff of scientists who are constantly ex- perimenting with varieties of cane in an effort to get the utmost return from planting. The sugar house, which formerly operated on two shifts a day, has been placed on a three shift, 24-hour- -aday schedule. This forced-draft tempo of oper- ation has spread to the fields and the plantation homes of the Me- groes who reap the cane. It is re- f1ected in the made-up songs they sing as they swing the machette- like cane knives.
 Sugar for the Soldiers Cut 1t short and get it all in l '. :. gotta send more sugar to the soldier men," is the type of chant that is heard above the metallic ring of the sharp blade against the brittle cane.
 From the fields the cane is hauled in wagon trains pulled by tractors to central loading station where it is weighed and placed in railway cars for the trip to the mill. At the mill the cars are automatically titled to dump the cane on a giant con- veyor which carries it through an elaborate grindingh system at the rate of 25 tons every five minutes.
 After passing through a labyrinth of pipes and tanks, 10 per cent of the cane comes pouring from a chute as raw sugar. It is sacked in 325 pound lots for shipment to the refinery. The amazing thing about the mill is its spotless cleanliness. There are no flies, as might be ex- pected, and no stickiness.
 The remaining 90 per cent of the cane is far from wasted. The pulp when the juice is extracted is used as fuel for the giant boiler furnaces; molasses, from which the sugar is separated, is sold to feed mixing companies in addition to being used in the manufacture of smokeless gun powder; the remaining impuri- ties are diluted with water and piped to the fields as fertilizer.
 The Everglades harvest will con- tinue until the middle of May, al- most a month longer than last year Jay W. Moran, president of the corporation, predicted that it would be the largest in the Flori- da industry's history, more than doubling that of five years ago.