414 



THE TPOPTCAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[November i, 1884. 



that, if the pressing mill has failed to do it, the diffusion 

 process gives promise of greater success. In the Louisiana 

 trials diffusion used only 9| cwt. of canes, when the mill 

 took 13J cwt. to make 1 cwt. sugar and molasses, equal 

 to a yield of 10-37 and 7'27 per cent respectively. At 

 Aska works the yield is much larger, amounting to from 

 13 to 14'8 per cent, and more than has been obtained 

 by the mill anywhere. It has been objected to the diffusion 

 process that an excess of molasses is produced, and the 

 first run of diffusion in Louisiana showed an excess of 

 G'79 per cent, the proportion being — 



Diffusion 5(143 sugar, 4956 molasses. 



Mill 5722 „ 42-77 



But in the second run of diffusion there was no excess, 

 the proportion being — 



58'48 sugar, 4V51 molasses, 



or 1*26 per cent or less than the mill. 



It will be noticed how large was the quantity of molasses 



made both by the mill and diffusion, caused probably by 

 the weak character of the cane juice, which does not always 

 ripen successfully iu that region. "Whether there would 

 be a continued diminution of the amount, the nearer diffusion 

 was brought to perfection in working, it is hard to tell. 

 Since the failure of the process in Louisiana, the atten- 

 tion of the planters has been given to the better grinding 

 of the canes, by adding to the 3'roller mills in use a 

 2-roller mill of greater strength and capacity. But seeing 

 what has been done at Aska by diffusion, it may be fairly 

 concluded that the ratio would be decreased. Less than 

 one-third of the product manufactured there is molasses, 

 the proportion on an average of the three years before 

 cited being — 



Sugar, 6806 ; molasses, 31'93, 

 and hitherto they have been working the process in wooden 

 vessels made in the country. 



To recapitulate, the comparative production may be 

 approximately shown thus: — 



This Table illustrates the superior skill and enterprise 

 displayed by the beet sugar manufacturers, and their success 

 in dealing with materials of an inferior natural character, 

 in the competition with cane sugar. It does not, how- 

 ever, give a full statement of the case between the beet 

 and the cane, nor does it show how utterly the cane sugar 

 producers have failed to turn to profit the advantage afforded 

 them in the relative yield of the two plants. If the growth 

 of an acre of canes gives a crop of 20 tons, it would, 

 at the rate of 1 to 13, afford a yield of 1§ tons of sugar, 

 or by a full extraction of the juice, 2J tons per acre, 

 and the produce of an acre of beets of the richer sort 

 being only half that quantity, or 10 tons, the yield of 

 beet sugar cannot be put higher than 18 cwt., or at the 

 very most, one ton per acre. Now, comparing the great 

 productive capacity of the cane with the largest return 

 obtainable by skilful management from the beet, it would 

 not be too much to say that it will be a reproach if a 

 continuance of the present state of things should lie allowed. 

 The sugar planter, not generally well-found in means, may 

 certainly see it to his advantage, when harvesting his large 

 crops of cane, to make a small extraction of the juice, 

 acknowledging to himself that, as was said of old, "He 

 is a fool who knows not how much more the half is than 

 the whole." But if the planter is content to take what 

 he can and not what he may, and expedite his work, the 

 impolicy of this waste, and the need of a reform in the 

 practice, will be recognised by the merchant and the refiner. 

 The coming-in of beet sugar upon us like a flood is not 

 a desirable thing to contemplate by any one interested in 

 the prosperity of cane sugar making, and it is only by 

 aiding the development of this great source of wealth which 

 the country now holds in neglected possession that the 

 invasion can be met and stayed. In any remedial measures 

 to be taken, the first thing is, as directed in an analogous 

 case of some note, to " catch the hare," that is, to obtain 

 from the cane a saccharine fluid not only as pure and 

 rich as possible, but in as large a quantity as may be 

 shown to be practicable. The further operations of con- 

 centrating the juice and refining the sugar are, it will be 

 admitted, of secondary importance. It is proved the sugar 

 is there, in the cane, and is procurable in a greatly inert asi d 

 amount. The call, then, for improvements in the manner 

 of manufacture will not, it may be hoped, when sustained 

 by the Society, be uttered in vain. 



Worthy, however, as the cane must be acknowledged to 

 be of receiving our exclusive attention, it is yet fortunate 

 that there is at hand in the beet an ancillary sugar bearer 

 to which, when stiuted in the supply of cane, we can 



turn for the relief of our wants. And deserving the sugar 

 licet (it is a mangel wurzel) is to be called ''scarcity 

 root," considering how large a quota it furnishes to meet 

 the requirements of our greatly increased consumption, 

 the needs of which would, with cane alone, have caused 

 ere now a sugar famine. According to the Board of Trade 

 returns, the imports of sugar into this country amounted 

 in the year 18JS2 to 1,130,267 tons, of which more than a 

 third, or 395,915 tons were beet sugar. But the unre- 

 strained admission of this portion of the supply is objected 

 to by the home trade, and .strenuous endeavour has been 

 made to restrict the importation of beet by the imposition 

 of a countervailing duty of £2 per ton, which, as was 

 shown before the Select Committee on sugar, would suflice 

 to equalise the foreign bounties given to the exporters. 

 That the claim lias not been conceded is scarcely surpris- 

 ing; the wonder is that it was ever made. The rules of 

 free trade have never been shown to be so considerate of 

 the growers of corn or sugar, as to give reason to suppose 

 they would be indulgent to the second-hand traders in 

 the same products, the millers and melters. And an arti- 

 ficial bar of this kind put up in the way of beet sugar 

 would be surmounted by the manufacturers improving 

 their machinery, and adopting new processes to extract all 

 the sugar possible from the saccharine of the root. The 

 diminution in value by the tax would be compensated by 

 the augmentation in quantity of the sugar; when the 

 controversy would begin again, and a cry be raised to have 

 the barrier made higher. A surer way to stop the influx of the 

 objectionable commodity would be to lower permanently the 

 price. The present low quotation prevailing in the sugar 

 market will, doubtless, lessen for a time the production of 

 beet on the Continent, but so soon as the demand over- 

 takes the supply, and prices rise, the cultivation will be 

 followed up and extended. One-half the time and pains 

 that have been taken in an unavailing opposition to the 

 foreign bounties on beet, would, if given to the introduction 

 of improvements in cane-sugar making, have furthered 

 the object of the planters and refiners more effectually. 

 And that without injuring the consumer, who, when pro- 

 vided with better and cheaper cane sugar, could have no 

 cause to complain of the displacement of beet sugar from 

 the market. But it almost seems as if our people had 

 lost a great deal of their relish for the sweet cane, and 

 had more liking for the unsavoury beet. For instead of 

 applying skill and money to the development of cane 

 sugar works yi the Indies, the habitat of the plant, the 

 manufacture of sugar from beetroot is to be commenced in 

 this country. A former attempt to make sugar iu Suffolk 



