356 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



NOVEMBEE 17, 1917. 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



REVIEW OF THE WORK OF TWO WEST 



INDIAN SUGAR FACTORIES, 1917. 



At the instance of the Directors of Gunthorpe's Factory, 

 Antigua, and Basseterre Factory, St. Kitts, the results of the 

 working of these factories for the past season have been 

 furnished to the Commissioner of Agriculture. The following 

 information based on these reports is cabulated to be of much 

 interest and value to those concerned with the manufacture 

 of We.st Indian sugar. 



The Antigua factory manufactured 1 1,705 tons of sugar 

 from 102,601 tons of canes, the St. Kitts factory 11,843 

 tons of sugar from 93,372 tons of canes. 



It is satisfactory to note that the megass was more 

 than sufficient for the complete manufacture of the sugar at 

 the Antigua and St. Kitts factories; very large surplus 

 amounts remained on hand at the close of the season. 



The work of these factories has been extremely good 

 during this season, that of St. Kitts leading slightly; this 

 factory had a better quality of cane to deal with. 



The main features of the factories' work may be gathered 

 from Table I. 



Table II shows the recovery and losses of sucrose. 

 The average composition of the cane dealt with, calcu- 

 lated from the data supplied, is given in Table III. 



TABLE I. 



Car.e crushed, tons 



Juice 'diluted' 



Juice 'undiluted' 



Juice expressed per 100 parts j 

 of juice in cane: or sucrose ' 

 extracted per 100 sucrose! 

 in cane J 



Sucrose in juice, tons 



Commercial sugar made, tons 



Purity diluted juice 



Sucrose in 1 00 cane 



Fibre in 100 cane 



Sucrose in 100 megass 



Juice in megass per 100 fibre 



Juice lost per 100 cane 



Recovery commercial sugar on \ 



Gunthorpe's, 

 Antigua. 



102,601 

 90,876 

 74,170 



9303 



Basseterre, 

 St. Kitts. 



97,372 

 89,653 

 7.5,037 



94-4 



100 sucrose in juice 

 Recovery of sucrose on 



sucrose in juice 

 Commercial sugar made 



100 sucrose in cane 

 Calculated to 96° sugar 

 Sucrose in above per 



sucrose in cane 



100 1 



1 1 

 perl 



/I 



1001 

 / 



Tons cane per ton commer 



cial sugar 

 Polarization, sugar made 

 Molasses, Imperial gallons 

 Molasses, per ton of sugar 



94-6 



90-87 



87-95 

 88-04 

 84-52 



8-76 



96-10 



619,515 



53-0 



96-2 



92-24 



90-84 

 90-71 



87-08 



8-22 

 95-85 



TABLE II. 



Pee 100 parts of c.\ne. 



Sucrose recovered in sugar 

 Sucrose lost in megass 

 Sucrose lost in press cake 

 'Sucrose lost in molasses and\ 

 unrecorded / 



Pee 100 paris of 



suceose in cane. 

 Sucrose recovered in sugar 

 Sucrose lost in megass 

 Sucrose lost in pre.ss cake 

 Sucrose lost in molasses and\ 

 unrecorded / 



Gunthorpe's, 

 Antigua. 



10-96 

 -90 

 •07 



1-04 



12-97 



84-52 



697 



,50 



80-1 



Basseterre, 

 St. Kitts. 



11 66 

 -75 

 -06 



■92 



13-3;) 



87-08 



5-60 



-41 



6-91 



100 00 



100-00 



The character of the work done may best be appreciated 

 by comparison with the work done in the best factories in 

 oiher countries. The principal factor in determining the 

 work of the factory is the efficiency of the mills. Gunthorpe's 

 mills extracted 93-03 per cent, of the sucrose in the cane, 

 and Basseterre 944. It is stated that the average work 

 of the mills in Java in 1915 is represented by an extrac- 

 tion of 90 2 per cent, of the sucrose in the cane.s, while in 

 Cuba the average is stated to be about 91 to 92 per cent. 

 What is possibly the most efficient mill there is stated to 

 have secured 94 68 per cent, of the sucrose in the cane in 

 1915. The mill work in Hawaii is probably the most effi- 

 cient in the world; in 1914 the average percentage of sucrose 

 extracted is stated to have been 954, while in 1915 the 

 range reported from forty-three factories was from 905 to 

 97-68; this latter figure p-robably represents the high-water- 

 mark attained to far in mill work. 



It is a point to remember that the extraction of sucrose 

 from the cane is influenced by the amount of fibre that the 

 cane contains, though the disability of high fibre content is 

 now largely met by the judicious employment of maceration 

 water. In Hawaii the amount of fibre in the cane averages 

 about 10 per cent.; the canes dealt with at the factory referred 

 to as recovering 97 68 per cent, had a fibre content of 12-15 

 per cent. In Cuba the fibre content varies from about 10 

 to 14 per cent. In Java it averaged 13 14 in 1916 It 

 will be observed tbat the mills at Antigua and St. Kitts were 

 at a di.'^idvantage in this respect, and abnormally so in the 

 case of fiunthorpe's. 



The recovery of sucrose from the sucrose in the juice 

 that is to say, the work of the factories subsecjuent to the 

 mill.s, was good at St. Kitts, being 9224 per cent.; it was less 

 efficient at Antigua, where it was 90 87; the juice at this 

 factory presented difficulties in working. 



