April i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



T55 



lie made subservient to the recommendations of a gen- 

 tleman whose sole object was to make a forest and who 

 did not care two straws whether he stopped progress 

 or not by so doing ; and to the fears and fancies of a 

 Government which apparently cares as little for the 

 future prosperity of the country as Mr. Vincent, if they 

 can but carry out their own rain theories which they 

 forget are opposed to all the facts and experience of 

 the last qu.rter of a century in connection with forest 

 felling and land clearing. 



QUEENSLAND SUGAE INDUSTRY AND THE 

 LABOUR QUESTION. 



SUGAK CRUSHING AND ROILING. 



A sugar district, when crushing is in full swing, presents 

 a most animated scene. The country roads are filled with 1 

 great drays, whose sides are built up several feet, forming 

 a hold for the cane which is thrown into them. In the 

 brakes the Kanakas are busy with the knife, row after row* 

 of cane quickly falling to the ground, and as quickly being 

 heaped in the drays. Men and women are hard at work. 

 There are Taona boys, finely-formed fellows, strong and 

 healthy; Manicolo boys, equally good; and Solomon boys, 

 with broad good-natured faces ; while here and there a timid, 

 Fearful-looking fellow, with thin, scraggy limbs, represents 

 the few survivors of the unfortunate New Ireland im- 

 migrants. The " boys " are clad or unclad, according to 

 their own sweet will. Many are naked but for a loincloth, 

 whilst others have the full rig of moles and shirt, plus 

 billycock hat, generally abundantly adorned with cocks' 

 feathers. Some of the islanders have their ear lobes cut 

 and elongated in a most extraordinary manner, so that a loop 

 is formed, the lower extremity of which almost dangles 

 against the shoulder. The ears of others are simply 

 pierced, and pieces of stick inserted in the orifices. When 

 a dray is laden with cane it is taken to the mill. The mill 

 is usually situated in the centre of a great open square. 

 The hum of the machinery is heard in the distance, and 

 when over the green waving tops of the cane brakes on 

 either side the building comes in sight, one sees the boys 

 scattered about the great square raking the megass or 

 carrying great bundles of cane from the drays to the endless 

 traveller that feeds the mill. There are generally a large 

 number of men and women at this work. The women are 

 clad in cotton skirts, and have generally a bright-coloured 

 handkerchief bound round their heads. The whole picture, 

 in fact is full of colon-. There is the background of green 

 tops; then, in the foreground, piles of cane stripped of leaves, 

 with their ki < it ted s terns. bright scarlet, rose- tin ted. some with 

 a bloom like that oil the skin of a damson, others tich yellow 

 like the skin of the ripe gage ; then here and there a clump 

 of bamboo, with long, graceful, leafy streamers floating on 

 the breeze ; then, beyond the river, with tangled tropical 

 plants, out of whose massed luxuriance spring Alexandra 

 palms, with their tasselled bunches of red seed ; and beyond 

 all. the distant purpled hills, and overhead the blue sunny 

 sky. willi here and there a. white cloud that drifts lazily 

 along, sometimes throwing its shadow on the la Ids ami 

 sometimes on the river. But the mill has no thought of 

 all this. It is decidedly practical, and it bums and 

 crushes and whirls ceaselessly. Here conies i k. naka girl 

 with a great bundle of cane; down it is thrown on the 

 travelling way, and in a minute it has reached the close; 

 set rollers that are to crush it to pieces. Under they go, 

 ami the bright scarlet canes come out at the other side poor, 

 mangled, torn strips, and the juice Hows in a white, foamy 

 stream into the trough below. The mangled fragments, which 

 are technically termed megass. an- taken away to be spread 

 on the yard, there to dry, and afterwards be used as fuel ; or 

 if there be a double mill, it is carried on by the traveller to 

 lb- second set of rollers, where it is crushed again, so that 

 uot a drop of juice may be lost Now let us follow the 

 white. creamy juice which we saw Hewing from the grooved 

 Surface of the rollers. It pours along a trough into a 

 sort of straining bed, where it is filtered through a plate 

 pierced with holes, and accumulates in a well beneath, 

 whence by pumping it is carried up a pipe till it reai las 

 the top of the mill-building, and there it Hows into a tank 

 or tanks at the bottom of which are perforated pipes 

 through which sulphur is injected into the juice. From 



these it is carried to a series of other tanks, known as 

 clarifiers, where it is heated by steam pipes and where 

 lime is thrown into it. A thick yellow scum rising to 

 the top is skimmed ofl and, except in a few mills where 

 it is gathered anil pressed, is thrown away as refuse. The 

 lime has an effect upon the acid, and renders the juice 

 almost .neutral between acid and alkali. The juice, which 

 has now become about the colour of old brown sherry, ie 

 carried off by pipes to the batteries, where it is boiled at 

 a fierce heat, the effect being to bring it to a density of 

 about IS- lJeaume. In a cloud of steam kanakas are fa l p' 

 ing the liquor stirred up. The hot juice is then passed 

 into another set of tanks known as subsiders, where il 

 settles and the heavier substances that may not have been 

 before extracted fall to the bottom. When it lias settled 

 sufficiently, it is carried by pipes into a sort of drum we I 

 whence it is lifted by a pump to the vaccuum pan. Tin' 

 object of the vaccuum pan is to boil the juice at a low 

 temperature in vacuo. Atone time the boiling was .loin 

 in Wetrzell's open pans, but an immense heat was n 

 quired, and there was always the possibility of burning; 

 and as burnt sugar is one of the most intense colouring 

 mediums known, such a mishap was of serious consequence. 

 In vacuo the boiling can be done without any such fear. 

 The vaccuum is generally created by means of an air-pump 

 and engine, the vacuum obtained being about from 25 to 

 26 inches of mercury— the most perfect vacuum man can 

 make is about 2M| inches of mercury. The boiling in vacuo 

 is done at a temperature of from 118 to 1£0 degrees, 

 whereas the temperature at which water boils in the open 

 air is. I believe, 212 degrees. The sugar-boiler, who is a 

 man of great importance at the mill, is skilled in knowing 

 the exact time when to withdraw a panful of sugar. The 

 vacuum pan is, in general appearance, like a huge kettle- 

 drum, inverted on a low column, which it exactly fits. In 

 the metal surface of this drum is fixed a glass disc, 

 through which the sugar is seen boiling within ; and, by 

 a most simple and ingenious contrivance, a. tester can be 

 inserted and a sample withdrawn to see how the sueu- 

 may be granulating. When boiled sufficiently the juice is 

 discharged into coolers, each holding a charge. These cool- 

 ers, in the greater number of cases, travel upon rail-, so 

 that Heir contents can be removed, and, when cool, dis- 

 charged conveniently into the pug mills. In the pug mills 

 tin- juice, which has now become of a thick consistency 

 and granulated, is poured, as it may be required, into 

 self-adjusting centrifugals, which are generally situated im- 

 mediately beneath the pug mills. The centrifugal in general 

 appearance represents an inverted mushroom, the stalk 

 being a heavy steel rod, and the head a sort ot basket, 

 constructed of wire gauze. When the basket is charged 

 with the thick juice the shaft is rapidly revolved, and 

 by this action the juice is forced outward against the gauze, 

 the crystals or grains being unable to escape are caught 

 against the gauze screen, but the molasses is forced through 

 the holes, and becomes thoroughly separated from the 

 granular particles. The mill is then stopped, and a man 

 with a small wooden instrument scrapes the sugar from 

 the basket of the centrifugal, and the contents are emptied 

 iuto travelling boxes, and thence taken to the sugar ware- 

 house, where they are screened and bagged. The sugar 

 from the juice the first time it is passed through the mill 

 is known .as "firsts," or " first counter." The '■seconds," 

 •' second counter," is the sugar extracted from the molasses 

 which is separated in the centrifugal mills/from the " firsts." 

 In making seconds the molasses takes the place of the 

 juice direct from the cane, and goes through exactly the 

 same process, with the exception of the sulphur injection. 

 Sugars are made down to "fourths," which represent the 

 lowest class of ration sugar. This brief description gives 

 a general idpa of the principles of sugar making, but in 

 many cases the minutiae of the process are varied. For 

 example, in sonic instances steam is used for all heating 

 and boiling purposes. The old-fashioned battery, heated 

 by fire beneath, still exists i u a few mids. but the more 

 general plan adopted is that of heating by steam coil 

 Then, again, the sulphur-injection process is varied, and in 

 seme instances the liquor is limed cold instead of hot. 

 Ale. scum presses a-e used in some mils in order to 

 extract the juice from the scum, which in the old days 

 was, and in some cases still is. thrown away as useless, 

 Aspiuall pans are also used after the juice has passed 



