FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 53 



tions such as those that have led to the control of entamoebic 

 dysentery and the isolation of the cholera carrier. 



Each year shows more clearly that thousands of pesos could 

 be saved annually to the sugar growers alone, if they had the 

 scientific information necessary with regard to planting, harvest- 

 ing, and recovering sugar most efficiently and economically. 

 More perfect extraction and more careful handling of the juice 

 should increase the production and improve the quality of the 

 sugar, even if there is no increase in the yield or in the planted 

 area. The best way to improve and increase the sugar produc- 

 tion of the Philippine Islands is by the careful application of 

 scientific knowledge. 



Many hacenderos in Negros believe that there is a secret 

 process in the manufacture of sugar. A prominent planter told 

 me that it was impossible to get more than 77-degree sugar from 

 one cane, which gives a dilute juice, whereas he got 88-degree 

 sugar from another variety. In the same way I was told that 

 it was impossible to manufacture sugar from nipa juice, because 

 it would ferment. We easily overcame the effects of the oxidase 

 secreted by the nipa palm in the latter case, and similarly we can 

 overcome the former difficulty, if we have trained men to send 

 into the field to study conditions as they actually exist. I should 

 like to send a staff to Negros with a field laboratory to make 

 analyses and to give lectures and demonstrations throughout the 

 province and thus efficiently make the hacenderos famihar with 

 the principles of sugar making and of training sugar-mill 

 laborers in the necessary manipulation in the factory. There 

 should be employees enough to give instruction and information 

 on subjects such as the following: 



1. The necessity for determining the purity of the cane before cutting. 



2. The advantages to be gained on large haciendas by planting the Cebu, 



the Inalmon, and the Lahaina varieties in addition to the Moradi 

 cane. With such a diversity the milling period would be greatly 

 lengthened, and the cutting of overripe or underripe cane could be 

 avoided. 



3. The construction and the arrangement of the mill and of the means for 



conveying the cane to the mill. 



4. The care and the storage of cut cane. 



5. Cleanliness and proper sterilization in and around the mill. 



6. The efficiency of formaldehyde as an antiseptic for cleaning cauas, 



tanks, etc. 



7. Proper extraction and proper handling of the juice before and during 



evaporation. 



8. Purity and quantity of lime to be used, -wath a demonstration of the 



