AND COLLEGE, PUSA, FOR 1914-15. 27 



Mr. Robertson Brown and the writer have discussed the 

 practicability of employing this process on the large scale 

 for the advantage of a factory. There is no doubt that it 

 is rather more troublesome to take cane up by the roots 

 than to cut it off; there is also the cost of putting the cane 

 into clamps, and the cost of taking it out again. Altogether 

 apparently this increased cost would come to about one 

 anna per maund of cane. On the other hand it is to be 

 realized that a factory situated in this part of India could 

 certainly afford to pay somewhat more for cane in February 

 and March rather than stop working altogether, for in the 

 latter event the whole of the more expensive staff is kept 

 idle and the daily paid labour becomes dispersed. It is 

 therefore by no means necessarily the case that because it 

 costs something to put cane into clamps, it would not pay 

 everyone concerned to employ the process. 



Estimates were obtained during the year for a small 

 sugar factory fitted for working beet and cane and capable 

 of producing from 1 to 2 tons of sugar per day. These 

 were submitted to the Agricultural Officer, North- West 

 Frontier Province. Briefly the factory would cost about 

 Rs. 1,50,000 erected; the annual running charges would 

 come to : — 



Rs. 



Wages, etc. 10,000 



Cost of 900 tons of cane . . . 9,150 



Cost of 900 tons of beet .... 10,800 



29,950 



whilst the value of sugar produced (155 tons) would be 

 about Rs. 33,480. The total sugar annually imported into 

 the North- West Frontier Province is about 9,000 tons 

 which is either consumed locally or re-exported to other 

 frontier countries. Some of this sugar could be easily 

 grown and manufactured locally without in any way 

 seriously affecting the local production of gur, which is 

 considerably greater, namely, about 35,000 tons. 



