Vol. XIV. No. 350. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



" 



SOME RECENT TOURS FOR THE STUDY 



OF FACTORY CONDITIONS. 



This arti :le i concet 



in different parts "I the wot I y < 



will 

 ntion is ei n Sn ar Industry 



and Modern Meth 



Sngar E> 



Manufacture, by < I X. 



the Dep hum. -hi of 

 This valuabli i i running 



iculture, Boml 



formation obi tit 



Mr. Sahasrabuddhe in the Wi I [ndi -, where he spent two 



undei a Travelling Scholarship awarded by the 



Go' nt "i India. The course ol stud" was followed 



r the direction of the [mpei ial t lommissioi er oi 



Agricult 



The Report seeks to enquire into the causes underlying 



backward condition of sugar manufacture in [ndia, 

 and furnishes irrefutable information showing that the 

 adoption oi West Indian facto in many parts of 



would be of vast economic value. With special 

 refen Bombay Deccan, it is stated that this area is 



in a position to compete ally in the matter of cane 



growing with the countries which import sugar into India. 

 But as already intimated, in order to r tmpete successfully in 

 the market, sugar must be manufa :tured on a factory basis 

 by means of modern machinery. The chief difficulty facing 

 the establishment of central factories is the uncertainty of 

 a regular supply of cane for the mill. The various methods 

 by which this difficulty may be eliminated are fully discussed 

 by the author. For complete security it is considered 

 necessary that the factories should own a certain area of land 

 and that they should enter into contracts with neighbouring 

 growers for the supply of further quantities of cane. 



Space will not allow consideration of the numerous 

 details of interest which are to be found in the course of 

 perusing this bulletin, but attention may be called 

 especially to a table which appears on page 45, showing the 

 efficiency of different milling plants in different sugar- 

 growing countries, including the West Indies. This is 

 reproduced, in part, in the opposite column. 



The last column of figures are of greatest significance, 

 the efficiency of the milling being highest where the juice 

 lost per 100 fibre in the megass is lowest. 



The second publication to which reference has 

 been made is entitled The Manufacture of Sugar in 

 Louisiana. This Bulletin, published by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, Mauritius, is by Mr. J. F. Clarenc, 

 who was granted a travelling scholarship by the 

 Government of Mauritius after leaving the Audubon Park 

 Sugar School, Louisiana, to visit sugar factories of Louisiana, 

 Cuba, Porto Rico and Java. The present report gives details 

 of the methods of manufacture in the Louisiana sugar 

 factories. In opening his report, Mr. Clarenc states that 

 the Louisiana factories of which there are 210, twenty-three 

 of these however, making cane syrup only, vary in their 

 capacity from 300 to 2,400 short tons of cane per twenty-four 

 hours. It appears that about 58 per cent, of the sugar-cane 

 is grown on land owned by the factories, the remainder being 

 purchased from planters or cane growers. The cost of trans 

 portation from the field to the factory is heavy, and operates 

 in limiting the size of the factories. Reference is made to 

 the system of loading and transporting, and to sugar-cane 

 harvesters which are being employed in Louisiana. 



The greater part of the report naturally concerns the 

 equipment and working of the factories themselves. Refer- 

 ence is made to Louisiana boilers and furnaces, to sul- 



phur apparatus irs, double, tripli i druple 



ts. 



third and la I report is by Mi Pi ter Abel, 

 Representative i larvey Ei Co., Gla 



v. ho i nsil [ndia in ertain the 



the country in regard to sugar machinery, and 

 to advise tl > 



mi itter Efei i rallj h here cl ad\ ic i Mr. Abel's 



report is published as Bulletin No. 17 of the Agricultural 



P I riking 'ires of the 



its illustrations, which inclui cellent 



photographs relating to sugar factories in different parts of 

 the world. The subject-matter describes processes or 

 methods in other countries, recommending their adoption 

 in India. From a technical point of view it would have 

 been more interesting if the important subject of milling had 

 received more attention. 



NOTE. Certain of the figures relating to Antigua h.u. 

 been slightly altered in order. to. bring them into accord mtl 

 information recently received from the factory in question. 



