]0 July, 1910.] Beet Sugar Imlustri/. 



39' 



SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY. 



Report of Juiceries Committee. 



The committee appointed by the Minister of Agriculture to consider 

 the question of the practicability of the establishment in districts remote 

 from the M'affra Sugar Factory of juicery plants for the extraction of 

 raw sugar from beet, which could be sent to Maffra to be refined, has 

 presented its report. 



The committee consisted of Mr. J. J. Pascoe, Agricultural Editor of 

 the Weekly Times (chairman) ; Mr. A. IST. Pearson, who had suggested 

 the juicery system; Mr. D. Avery, Industrial Chemist; Mr- J. K. 

 Johnson, of the Tyne Foundry; and Mr. AV. T. Williams, Manager of 

 the Maffra Factory. 



Mr. Pearson failed to agree with his fellow members on the question 

 of the advisableness of estahlishing juiceries, and submitted a lengthy 

 minority report, giving his reasons for urging their formation. 



The following is a copy of the committee's report: — 

 We have the lionour to report, in accordance with your instructions, 

 that we have carefully investigated the proposals made by Mr. A. X. Pearson, 

 formerly Chemist for Agriculture in Victoria, to establish juiceries as adjuncts 

 to the ilaflVa Beet Sugar Factory. 



Eecognising that such juiceries, if practicable, would greatly foster agricul- 

 tural development, we have examined the proposals from two points of view: — 



1. Is it technically possible to arrest, midway, tlie processes of mamifac- 

 ture so that, by means of evaporation, dried juice could be produced in a 

 condition capable of being held for a lengthy period and of being trans- 

 ported over considerable distances to a central factory for refining? 



2. Would the operations at a juicery, undertaking sueli extraction and 

 evaporation, be a commercial success? 



At the outset the technologists on the committee conceded the point that 

 beet sugar juice could be evaporated to dried juice without material loss of 

 sugar. Moreover, Mr. Pearson supplied a convincing illustration. With an 

 experimental plant constructed from his own designs as an engineer, and operated 

 at Port Fairy and Bacchus Marsh in 1894, he (a) by hydraulic press extracted 

 from 75 to 8.5 per cent, of the sugar contained in beet roots; {b) evaporated the 

 water from the juices: (c) transported the raw sugar so obtained long dis- 

 tances; and (d) kept it without serious inversion for different periods extending 

 to three years. We. therefore, unhesitatingly conceded the point as to the scien- 

 tific feasibility of Mr. Pearson's proposals. 



In examining the commercial aspect of juiceries, consideration was concen- 

 trated upon (o) Cost of buildings and plant; (b) manufacturing costs; and 

 (c) probable revenue of the juicery obtained from the price paid for the dried 

 juice by the MafTra factory, and tlie price the juicerj' would be likely to receive 

 for tlie by-product — pulp. 



The increased costs of plant, fuel, stores, and labour under existing and 

 probable post-war conditions, rendered it necessary to greatly amend estimates 

 of expenditure based on Mr. Pearson's demonstrations in 1894. 



Obviously the cost of producing dried juice and delivering it to the factory 

 is greater than the cost of producing the equivalent juice in the factory itself,, 

 for, in addition to the operations necessary for the extraction of the juice which 

 are more or less common to juicery and factory, there is in tlie case of the 

 juicery the cost of evaporation, freight of dried juice to the factory, deprecia- 

 tion of bags, &c., none of which occur in factory operations. 



The normal campaign of the Maffra factorj', in addition to ordinary manu- 

 facturing costSj has to provide out of its revenue for interej?t on the capital, 

 depreciation, repairs, and certain general expenses for the whole year. If, there- 

 fore, the establishment of juiceries provided a supply of dried juice which would 

 keep tlie Maffra factory employed for some part of the present idle period, and 

 produced proportionately the same revenue in the additional campaign, there 



