Vol. XV. No. 379. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



.'?57 



The work of the mills has been extremely good, the work 

 being very similar at the two factories when judged on the 

 basis of mill efficiency notwithstanding the difference in the 

 natui-e of the cane dealt with. 



The amount of juice lost in the rhegass per 100 of fibre 

 was 38-0 at Antigua, and 40-2 at St. Kitts, a small difference 

 that only requires the expression of 0'3 per cent, more juice 

 from the St. Kitts cane to eijualize. 



The Antigua mills extracted 92-2 per cent, of the juice 

 present in ihe canes, and the St. Ivitts mills 93-6, the 

 weight of juice expressed being at Antigua 73-1 per cent., and 

 at St. Kitts 77-1 per cent, of the weight' of canes. 



The megass as analy.sed contained at Antigua 3-01 and 

 at St. Kitts 2-99 per cent, of sucrose. These quantities are 

 very low; they were obtained by good milling accompanied 

 by the use of 19'8S parts of maceration water per 100 of 

 cane at Antigua, and 24-62 at St. Kitts. in both these cases 

 account is taken of the quantity of maceration water retained 

 by the megass, the proportion of water employed per 100 

 fibre being 97-2 at Antigua and 185-8 at St. Kitts. 



It is satisfactory to note that owing to the improvements 

 effected in connexion with the furnaces, the sugar was manu- 

 factured practically without the use of fuel other than megass; 

 4.5 tons of wood being used in all at Antigua, and 86 tons at 

 St. Kitts together with 5i tons of crude petroleum. 



The work of manufacturing the sugar from the juice 

 has also been satisfactory'. 



The amount of commercial sugar made (grey crystals) was 

 at Antigua equivalent to 95-35 per cent, of the sugar in the 

 juice, and 95-19 at St. Kitts. These recoveries are remarkably 

 good: they compare very favourably with the work done in 

 first class factories in other parts of the world. Reckoned in 

 terms of sucrose they show a recovery of 91-58 per cent, of 

 sucrose at the former factory, and 91-39 at the latter. 



The losses in various stages of manufacture are recorded 

 above: it may be of interest, however, to record that the 

 quantity of filter-press cake at Antigua was 1,551 tons or 

 equal to 12-5 per cent, of the weight of; the sugar made, or 

 1 37 per cent, of the weight of the cane. It contained 3-6 

 per cent, of sucrose. 



The weight of filter-press cake made at St. Kitts is not 

 recorded; it is, however, stated tc contain 6-2 per cent, of 

 sucrose. 



The progress that has beer, made in increasing the 

 efficiency of Gunthorpes Factory may be judged from the 

 increased recovery of sugar from the sucrose in the cane as 

 shown in the statement below: — 



From the foregoing statements it will be seen that the- 

 work of the two factories is remarkably similar in character, 

 both as regards the efficiency of the mills and the recovery of 

 the sugar from the juice: in each respect the work done is of 

 a verj' high order, closely approaching what is economically 

 po.ssible. The reproach of inefficient machinery and obsolete 

 processes of manufacture may therefore be held to be 

 effectively removed from the districts in which these factories 

 are operating. 



F.W. 



Sugar-cane Wax. — ^ According to Clacher (Inter- 

 national Sugar Journal, 1916, 18, 23), a number of factories- 

 in N^tal extract the wax from sugar-cane press-cake by 

 means of benzene The dry press-cake commonly contains- 

 14 per cent., and sometimes as much as 17 per cent., of 

 wax, which is a larger proportion than is present in the 

 press-cake of most other sugar-growing countries. The cane 

 chiefly grown in Natal is the Uba variety. 



Experiments in Mauritius (Memorandum of Director of 

 Agriculture, Mauritius, June 1915) .show that the percentage 

 of wax in the dry press-cake varies considerably, viz. from 

 1-8 to 168 per cent., although in mo.st cases 10 per cent, 

 or more is found; it appears that seedling canes give higher 

 yields of wax than Tanna varieties, and that virgin cane is 

 richer in wax than ratoons. It appears that the^wax is now 

 being prepared on a larger scale, and that further plant for 

 its extraction is being erected in Natal. ( Bulletin of the 

 Imperial Institute, Vol. XIV, No. 2, April-.June 1916.) 



West Indian Turtles. — A report of considerable- 

 value and interest appears in the Meddelelser fra Kommis- 

 sionen for Havundersogelser on 'Marking Experiments with 

 Turtles in the Danish West Indies,' by Dr. .Jos Schmidt. 

 Four species are found in this area — the leathery, logger- 

 head, hawksbill, and green turtles, — and the author gives 

 a brief but extremely useful summary of their breeding 

 habits, supplemented by some excellent figures of newly 

 hatched specimens of each species. The leathery turtle and 

 the loggerhead have no great commercial value, but their 

 eggs are taken in large numbers. The green turtle, however, 

 for its meat, and the hawksbill for the sake of its horny 

 shields, which form the 'tortoise shell' of commerce, are 

 subjected to a heavy toll, young and adults alike being taken. 

 The green turtle is happily enabled to lessen the strain of 

 this persecution in that it lays it eggs so near the margin of 

 the sea that all traces of their whereabouts are obliterated by 

 the wash of the tide {Nature, August 31, 1916.) 



DEPARTMENT NEWS. 



Information has been received to the effect thafc- 

 Dr. H. A. Tempany, Government Chemist and Super- 

 intendent of Agriculture for the Leeward Islands, has 

 been offered and has accepted the post of Director of 

 Agriculture, Mauritius, in succession to Mr. F. A^ 

 Stockdale, M.A., who has been promoted to Cyelon, 



