140 The Philippine Journal of Science 1920 
In the case of poor cane it is clear that the planter is the one 
who suffers most, as he gets no returns for raising, cutting, and 
loading it, while the factory can at least clear the cost of trans- 
portation. In fact, I should be inclined to consider whether it 
might not pay to work up poor cane for its molasses yield, rather 
than in the manufacture of sugar. Molasses would then become 
one of the main products, although still a by-product. 
Naturally, when good cane is available, cane that yields juice 
of too low a purity should not be allowed to be milled together 
with the better grade, since it is almost impossible, under or- 
dinary circumstances, to keep the juices separate. If the fac- 
tory would decide to give the planter an interest in the molasses, 
or in any of the products made from molasses, such as alcohol, 
conditions would be greatly altered. The planter should be 
allowed an interest in the by-products, for the reason that mo- 
lasses contains most of the soluble salts, of which potash forms 
about 2.5 per cent of the weight of the molasses. This potash 
is the most valuable constituent taken from the soil by the 
cane, and unless returned to it the soil becomes impoverished. 
When the molasses is burned in conjunction with the bagasse, 
most of the potash can be recovered, and this should be given 
to the planter for fertilization purposes. The planter should 
be required to pay the cost of loading and hauling. In practice 
much of the potash is lost, due to the fact that the furnace is 
maintained at too high a temperature, which fact is betrayed 
when the top of the smoke stack of the factory shows white. 
In Table 2 are shown the values of the molasses when made into 
denatured alcohol, taking alcohol at 1 peso per gallon, or about 
14 centavos per pound. The table also shows that a fair amount 
of money can be recovered from the molasses. As a rule, a 
well-equipped, modern central will be able to run its distillery 
without interfering with the operation of the boiling house and 
mill. There should be no lack of steam and, if the cane contains 
from 11.5 to 13 per cent of fiber, sufficient bagasse fuel should 
be on hand to run the distillery also. The table shows that the 
poorer the cane, the more valuable the molasses, the yields being 
as high as 53.80 pesos per ton of available sugar in one instance 
when expressed as alcohol, while the molasses itself represents 
a value of only about 8.23. pesos when sold as such at 6 centavos 
per gallon. If we take 12 centavos as the value of the molasses 
per gallon, a ton of available sugar would yield in molasses only 
16.46 pesos, or 37.34 pesos less per ton of sugar when sold as 
molasses than when sold as alcohol, 
