Vol. VII. No. 158. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



MT 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



Cariin^-ton Central Factory, Barbados. 



Arlditional machinery was added ,to the plant at 

 Carrington Plantation, Barbados, in time for the work 

 of the present crushing season. Tliis machinerj' has 

 ■worl^ed very satisfactorily. 



The output of the factory, ,so far, has reached ahtjut 

 1,000 ton.s of dark crystals, the productioni being at the rate 

 of 80 to 110 ton.s per week, according to the rate at which 

 the cane.s were available. About 700 tons of this sugar are 

 from the two estates Carrington and Chapel, while 300 tons 

 are from other estates, and from canes purchased from peas- 

 ant cultivators. The canes from the Carrington and Chapel 

 estates have yielded about 21 tons of sugar per acre. 



Prices Inive been paid for i)urchascd canes in accord- 

 ance with the condition of the sugar market. The highest 

 figure paid for labourers' canes was 12s. QJ, per ton, with the 

 use of the estate carts free of charge In regard to canes 

 pui'chased from other estate.s, the highest price paid was 

 17.«. 8tl., the estates selling the canes being responsible for 

 delivering them at the factory. 



An improvement in the present crushing power is under 

 consideration, since the three-roller mill now in use has, it is 

 stated, frequently delayed the triples at theii- work. It is 

 e.xpected that a new mill will be put down in time for the 

 next season. 



Formaldehyde as a Preservative of Cane Juice. 



In Hawaii, as in the West Indies, it is the general 

 cu-stom on sugar plantations to add lime to any juice 

 which it may be necessary to keep over for a day or two 

 when cane crashing is temporarily stopped, with the 

 object of preventing fermentation. There are, however, 

 disadvantages connected with the use of lime for this 

 purpose. In the first place lime does not altogether 

 prevent fermentation, not being a very efficient steriliz- 

 ing agent. Further, the lime combines with the 

 glucose present, forming dark-coloured products, which 

 investigation goes to show are responsible for the 

 ' sweating ' and consequent deterioration of raw sugar. 

 Another disadvantage of this course is that the greater 

 part of the excess of lime added is deposited on the 

 evaporator tubes or vacuum pan c-oils as soon as evaiw- 

 ration begins. 



In view of the above objections, the use of formaldehyde 

 as a pre.servative agent of cane juice has been tested in 

 Hawaii, with appai-ently satisfactory results. It has been in 

 use for this purpose for a number of years with laboratory 

 samples of juice. The juice exjierimented with was first 

 clarified by adding milk of lime until just alkaline to litmus, 

 heating to boiling, and then filtering. 



In the experiments a very small cpiantity of formaldehyde 

 {0'025 c. c. per litre of juice or 1 part to 40,000 i)arts of juice) 

 suHiced to keep the juice from fermenting for twenty-four 

 hoius. A considerably increased proportion, i.e., I part of 

 formaldehyde solution to 3,500 parts of juice was necessary, 

 however, to j)revent fermentation on the second daj-. When 

 added in this quantity, the proportii:)n of saccharose was still 



the same at the end of the third day, shcnving that no fermen 

 tation had taken place. AMien the formaldehyde solution wa.s 

 added at the rate of 1 part to 2,500 parts of juice, it prevented 

 fermentation for four days. When fermentation has once 

 started, it is very difficult to stop it, and under those condi- 

 tions the experiments showed that 1 part of formalin to 1,600 

 parts of juice checked the fermentation, after it had been in 

 progress for a short time, for only twenty-four houi's. 



In ordinary mill work, the amount of formaldehyde 

 required for preservation jiurposes would probablj- be some- 

 what larger than the quantity used in the above experi- 

 ments, depending on the extent to which the juice wa.s 

 exposed to fermentation organisms. At the Hawaiian and 

 Commercial Sugar Company's factory, where formaldehyde 

 is generally emjiloyed, 1. c.c. is added per gallon of juice, 

 which prevents fermentation for from twelve to sixteen hours. 



In any mill using ff)rmaldehyde for the first time, it 

 w(]uld be advisable to have the juice polarized frequently, 

 in order that loss of saccharose might be observed and the 

 progress of fermentation estimated. In this way the mini- 

 mum amount required for purposes of preservation might be 

 iletermined. 



In the aI>ove exp 'rimeiits a 40-i)er cent, solution of 

 formaldehyde in water (ordinar}' formalin) was employed. 



Sugar Output of Java. 



The prosperous condition of the cane-sugar indus- 

 try in Java is well known, and in view of the account 

 given in a recent number of the Ar/rirtiltaral News 

 (Vol. VII, p. 115) of the methods of cultivation followed, 

 a note on the output during recent years may not be 

 without interest. 



Tlie .Tava sugar cro]iof 189fi amounted to 5.34, 390 tons 

 From that year up to 1904 there was a steady and consistent 

 increase in the output, which in the latter year reached 

 1,055,013 tons, or almost exactly double the figure of eight 

 years before. The sugar crop of the island has remained 

 practically constant at this figure during the jiast three years, 

 and apparently the natural limit of production under existing 

 agricultural and economic conditions has been reached. 



The area under cane in Java amounts to about 283,000 

 acres. There has been a very slight increase during the past 

 two or three years. The greater part of the sugar land is 

 rented from the native Javanese, to whom it reverts every 

 alternate year, when it goes into rice cultivation. 



The planters of the island therefore, lose the advantage 

 of the ratoon crop, but on the other hand, they get heavier 

 returns from the plant cane crop, and the land luidoulitedly 

 benefits from the change. 



It is stateil that the return from cane-sugar cultivation 

 in Java i^ about doul>le the yield obtained from beet culture 

 in Germany. Da the basis of the figures of the past ten 

 years, the sugar return was abotit lOi per cent, of the weight 

 of the cane crop, i.e., abottt 2 10, ft), of sugar were given by 

 2,000 ft. of cane. 



RED PAINT FOR SHINGLES. 



It may be useful to place on record the following" 

 recipe for a red paint for shingles which has been 

 furnished liy Dr. Francis Watts, who states that it is 

 used l)y the Colonial Engineer and others in Antigua : — 



2 gallons .Stockholm tar. 



8 gallons boiled linseed oil. 



1 cwt. red ochi-e. 

 Heat together and apply hot. 



