STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 375 



flows out collected, and which constitutes about 0.4 of the juice con- 

 tained. The bags and plates are then placed under the platform of an 

 hydraulic press, which is unscrewed after having maintained the pres- 

 sure for about ten minutes, when the bags are placed two by two between 

 two plates and again still more powerfally pressed. In this manner from 

 seventj^-five to eighty per cent of beet juice may bo extracted, only 

 about fifteen per cent being left in the pulp. 



"As the juice soon changes, it is essential to raise it as quickly as possi- 

 ble to a high temperature, in order to prevent fermentation, and to 

 saturate with some lime the free acids, which would soon convert a 

 portion of the sugar into glucose. For this purpose the juice on leaving 

 the press is conveyed into a double-bottomed boiler, heated by steam, and 

 the temperature is rapidl}^ raised from one hundred and forty degrees to 

 one hundred and fifty-eight degrees; afterwards it is conveyed into 

 another boiler, also heated by steam, where the desiccation, or treatment 

 with lime, is effected. Hydrated lime is usually made bj'- pouring on 

 quick lime ten times its weight of boiling water, and when the lime is 

 entirely slacked, passing it over a metallic sieve, which arrests the grains 

 of sand and the non-decarbonated portions. The juice is first heated to 

 one hundred and sixt3^-seven degrees in the desiccating boiler, the milk 

 of lime is then added, and the whole is stirred to render the mixture 

 homogeneous. 



" The lime combines with the free acids, the albuminous substances, the 

 fatty and coloring matters, producing insoluble compounds, effecting, at 

 the same time, a kind of clarification by carrying down with the insoluble 

 compounds organic remains which were suspended in the juice. A thick 

 scum having formed on the surface of the liquid, the latter is kept from 

 boiling in order to prevent its rupture by the bubbles of steam. The 

 proportion of lime added varies with the nature of the beet and their 

 freshness — only three pounds for one thousand pints of juice being used 

 at the beginning of the season, and with fresh beets, which quantity is 

 gradually increased, and frequently reaches ten pounds before the close 

 of the season. 



"An excess of lime remains in the liquor, and forms a deliquescent com- 

 pound with a portion of the sugar. In some factories it has been 

 attempted to saturate it with a proper quantity of acid. 



"When the operation is terminated, the liquor is drawn off, and filtered 

 through animal chalk; the filters used for this purpose being large 

 sheet iron cylinders, having a false bottom pierced with holes like a 

 colander. A cloth is extended over the bottom, over which is spread 

 \QYy coarsely powdered chalk, added in successive layers, until it fills 

 the cylinders to Avithin one foot and a half of the top, when another 

 cloth is laid upon it, and is covered by another metallic plate, pierced 

 with holes; each filter receiving from six thousand to eight thousand 

 pounds of charcoal. The filtei's should be kept constantly" filled with 

 fluid, which is easily done by means of a stop cock. After this process, 

 by which the juice loses a portion of its coloring matter, and the lime in 

 excess, wiiich adheres to the charcoal, it is conveyed as rapidly as possi- 

 ble into the concentrating boilers, which are usually shallow, and are 

 heated b}' a circulation of light pressure of steam, through copper tubes, 

 arranged over the bottoms. The juice is raised to a temperature of 

 seventy degrees in ten or twelve minutes. The workman judges by 

 indications understood by experience if it is properly concentrated, or 

 if the boiling is completed. During the ebullition, which terminates at 

 a temperature of two hundred and sixty-six degrees to two hundred and 

 seventy-five degrees, a considerable portion of the sugar is altered, and 



