Vol. XVI. No. 407 



THE AGRICULTURAL JJTEWS, 



371 



demands for teaching and trainino which are really 

 technical in character. Briefly stated, the advocates of 

 the movement desire that the boys shall be taight to 

 be planters, and they e.xpress disappointment when, on 

 lea\ing school, the boys manifest unfamiliarity with 

 routine matters connected with the chief industries of 

 the place. A little reflection will show that this is 

 unreasonable. In the first place the chief requirement 

 of the school period is the imparting to the scholar of 

 the rudiments of a general education; his general 

 outlook must be considered: many subjects hive 

 to be taught in order that he may have a well 

 balanced mind, and in order that his faculties may 

 be so trained that he may be able to assimi- 

 late information, and develop in after life. Science 

 cannot be taught without a knowledge of general 

 subjects, of mathematics, and of a general ability 

 to think and reason. There can thus be little time 

 for specialization in science until a boy has been 

 long at school, and the majority of boys leave schoo' 

 before that time is reached. The function of the 

 school, therefore, is general education. Technical train- 

 ing is an affair that must have consideration later: it 

 is the function of the University, the Technical College, 

 or of the daily routine course of business. It is in this 

 latter school that so many of our local youths have to 

 gain their experience, and to gain it with much labour, 

 very imperfectly, so that there is the earnest desire for 

 the technical training which the school cannot fulfil. 



Jluch will be gained if on leaving school our boys, 

 and for that matter, our girls too, have been so educated 

 that they are able to regard with lively interest and 

 intelligence the facts of everyday life — how plants and 

 animals live and grow, what are the objects of the daily 

 work of the planter, and the gardener, and the mer- 

 chant, — and of the dail}' routine of the home, and thus 

 to ha\e educated and receptive minds, capable of 

 acquiring the technical skill which their particular 

 function in this workaday world demands. 



A good deal has been done in the direction of 

 technical training in various grades with the assistance 

 of the Departments of Agriculture: reference will be 

 made to this in another article. 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



Colonial iitports — Annual, No. 926, shows that in Fiji 

 the u.sual agricultural itiierests of tropical countries are being 

 developed. As regards the sugar cane industry for instance, 

 120,528 tons of sugar were exported in 1916, together with 

 13,346 tons of molasses. The molasses exported is carried in 

 special tanks in bulk by the steamers of the Colonial Sugar 

 liefiiiing Company to Sydney, where it is manufactured into 

 industr.al alcohol. The average quantity so manufactured 

 _annuallv is estimated to be 1,000,000 gallons. 



THE SEARBY SYSTEM OF MILLIINa 

 SUGAR-CANE. 



A method of preparing sugar-cane for the mills, invented 

 by Mr. William Searby, of Hawaii, is receiving a good deal 

 of attention in sugar circles. This method consists in shred- 

 ding the cane to a fibre condition which observers have 

 characterized as resembling the well-known excelsior packing 

 material. This is effected by means of a shredding or beating 

 machine consisting of a series of pivoted hammers which 

 rotate in a casing containing anvil bars suitably spaced, and 

 parallel to the a.^is of rotation of the hammers. The prin- 

 ciple on which this machine works is .somewhat similar to 

 that of the well-know.i 'disintegrators', of which there are 

 several in operation in various parts of the West Indies f.>r 

 grinding cotton seed, grain and other materials. 



It is claimed for the Searby Shredder that it .secures 

 a more even feed for the mills, and ihat it naturally lessens 

 the power required tu drive them. This reduction is stated lo 

 be practically equivalent to the power required to drive the 

 shredder itself. 



It is also claimed that it enables a better extractioa 

 of sugar to be obtained by the mills, and that the maceration 

 water can be used to better advantage. 



The capacity of the mills is also stated to be very con- 

 siderably increase'l. 



The work of these shredders has been critically e.Kim- 

 ined in Hawaii, wheie probably the milling of the sugarcane 

 has reached the highest degree of efficiency, ind cardul 

 observers have expressed the opinion that the use of ih^se 

 shredders may be expected to incrrase the efficiency of the 

 best mills by about 1 per cent., and the increase may be 

 expected to be larger in the ca.st of less efficient mills The 

 mills of high standard in Hawaii, operating without the 

 Searby Shredder, are capable of extr.cting some 94 ti 9.5 

 per cent of the sucrose in the cane; with the shredder, an 

 extraction of 95 to 96 per cent, is looked for: while in 1916 

 recoveries of 9773, 97-68, and 97-49 are reported from 

 Hawaiian factories. 



This striving in other countries for complete extrncti .n 

 of sugar from the cane is of significance to West Indiin 

 sugar producers. In a few instances in the Briiisli West 

 Indies there are eflioient mills extracting somi; 95 per cent, 

 of the sucrose in the cane, but they are very few in niun'jer: 

 the majority even in large factories, probably extract less 

 than 90 per cent. 



It is important that factory owners should know 

 accurately what their mills are doing, and what measure of 

 improvement is possible in their case. The efforts of their 

 competitors in other count' ies are significant of the iotensitv 

 cf the competition that is likely to ensue when normal 

 conditions of sugar production are restored. 



Sugar Purchase Announcement.— The folio^v- 



ing announcement, dated N'ovember 7, 1917, has been issued 

 by the International Sugar Committee in New York, and 

 signed by Henry C. Mott, .4gent for Arranging Purchases 

 of Raw Sugar: — 



'It is the inteution of the International Sugar 

 Committee to respect and not to disturb the channels 

 through which purchases of sugar have hitherto been made 

 . either for the United States or for the European Allies, and 

 lo continue the intermediary of brokeis and of agencies 

 as heretofore.' 



