Year: 1879

from the y. y. Merchant, NOV. Ill


The works of the Sequel Beet
Sugar Company are situated at So
quel, small village In Santa Cruz
county, four miles from the city OF
Santa Cruz. The building is locat-
ed on the side of hill, and as the
beets first go into the factory at the
upper hill side, much power in lift
lug beets and fluid Is saved. The
beets are washed in the same man
ner as at Alvarado; but, instead of
being cut, they are gronnd to a
pulp between stones, from which
they are fed to a set of centrifugal
machines, instead of to o diffusion
battery. These machines are COM
posed of two cylinders, one inside
the other, the inner one perforated
with small holes. and revolving
with great rapidity. The pulp is
poured into the perforated cylin-
der, and forming coat on the
sides the juice Is forced through
the holes and runs off from the
outer cylinder by pipes. When the
Juice is nearly all extracted a
stream of water is turned on the
pulp, and this frees the last of the
Juice. The great advantage
claimed for this method over
the battery is that, if
anything breaks, the centrifugal
machines are empty, or nearly so,
for they are filled and emptied in
about three minutes, while the bat
terry holds large quantity of pulp
and takes some time to work, so
that If anything should go wrong,
causing a stoppage of the machin-
cry, the beets would sour and sew
eraitons be lost. From the centri-
fugal machines the juice goes to q
receiver, where lime is added, after
which it passes to another receiver,
and the lime is neutralized by car
bonic acid, and afterwards precipi-
tated in the montejuice filters. The
juice is then evaporated and
filtered again, and so goes
to the vacuum pans. The evpaor-
ators, which in Alvarado are up
right, In Sequel are horizontal, but
the pumps are the same. A very
important difference is in the vacu-
um pans, where the sugar is boiled;
these are made of iron, instead of
copper, and the managers claim
that the iron is Just as good for that
purpose. After boiling it is put in
sugar buckets and allowed to stand
twelve hours. The sugar is then
run through a mixer and centrifu-
gal machine, which separates the
sugar from the syrup. This is the
same in both factories. But the
drying process is different. In
Sequel they spread their sugar out
on q warm floor to dry, and then
grind it in a mill, when it is ready
to barrel.


The Sequel Sugar Company only
make one brand of sugar-"A
crushed"-not being willing to put
an inferior brand upon the market.
All the machinery Of this factory,
with the exception of the GEN.
trifugal machines, which were
imported, were made by q
we'll known San Francisco iron
works. The factory is at
present under the sole management
Of Messrs. Otto & Kleinau, who
have leased the works for tie sea-
SOD, believing that they can do
better when they are responsible to
no one but themselves. They have
been in the business in California
for the past eight years, but always
having been in the employ of COM
panies whose directors interfered
more or less, they claim that they
could not do Justice to themselves.
The Sequel Company is now pay
ing $4.75 per ton for beets
delivered at the depot at
Pajaro, and rs cents for hauling to
the factory, which makes $3.50 as
the cost of the beets. They could
get their beets cheaper If they could
pay ready cash, but as there is the
risk and delay of waiting for the
sugar to be sold, of course farmers
demand higher price, especi-
ally as they did not all receive
their full money for last years
crop. The beets are raised in the
Pajaro Valley, in the neighbor-
hood of Wafsonville, where the
land seems suitable for growing
good sugar beets. The beets must be
dug now, and will Keep until Jam
uary or February, but not longer.