408 Journal of Agricidtiirc. ^'icto)■ia. [10 ,7uly, 1919. 



half the profits went to the factory, then the factory would receive — ^according 

 to the above figures- — 123. per ton profit on tlie finished sugar, and tiie juicery, in 

 the one case, would receive 12s.; or, with tlie travelling juicery, the juicery would 

 receive 6s. and the farmer 6s. 



If, under these conditions, the ]\rafl'ra factory worked another campaign of 

 70 days, and produced another 1,650 tons of sugar, it would earn an additional 

 profit of close on to £1,000. If it worked three additional such campaigns, mak- 

 ing a total year's work of 280 days, it would earn an additional profit of £3,000 

 through the operations of the juiceries. 



Final Decision of the Committee. — In the absence of precise knowledge as to 

 the cost of evaporating the juice, the Committee is not in a position to recom- 

 mend these juiceries in all cases as an economic possibility. If Mr. Pearson's 

 estimate as to fuel required were confirmed, the jiroposition would be profitable. 

 IVIa-. Pearson asks that an evaporator be made and tested this year at Maflfra, and 

 states that the cost of the trial need not cost more than £250. 



Effect of Size of Juicery on Cost of Working. — In the previous estimate for 

 stationary juiceries a capacity of 5,000 tons of roots has been assumed. But 

 further estimates have been made for larger juiceries. and, without entering here 

 into details, it may be stated that these estimates show that the cost of working 

 a 6,000-ton juicery would be approximately 13s. less than at a 5,000-ton juicery. 

 In this case the operations would appear to be profitable even allowing the lower 

 rate of efficiency. 



Larger than the 6,000-ton juiceries would be inapplicable in Australia at 

 present, but in America 40,000-ton juiceries (with pipe delivery of the juice to 

 the central factory) have been used. Estimates have, therefore, been made for 

 larger juiceries, and these indicate that with a 15,000-ton juicery the costs per ton 

 of sugar would be about 35s. less than with a 5,000-ton one, and with a 40,000-ton 

 juicery 66s. le?s. 



Effect of Fall of Market Price of Siif/ar. — The foregoing estimates have hitherto 

 been made under present market conditions for sugar. With lower prices losses 

 might ensue. These losses could be met in two ways. At the Maifra factory the 

 installation of tlie plant (Stefl'en's process) for dealing witli molasses would more 

 than cover any likely losses. And as regards field operations, a general increase of 

 1 per cent, in the sugar contents of the roots would cause an increase of the 

 profits from £2 to £3 10s. per ton of sugar, varying according to the extent of the 

 operations. There should be no difficulty in securing, by means of improved seed, 

 an average of 16, or even I63, per cent, throughout the beet districts. 



Wide Significance of the Committee's Inquiries. — Tlie inquiries of the Com- 

 mittee have had a wider significance than just the fortunes of the MafTra factory. 

 The report now submitted should l.e of use to any beet factories to be erected in 

 future in Australia, and, without doubt, may be read with interest in other 

 countries. Also, it may be usefully considered by the cane-sugar industry, in 

 which the fuel to be used for evaporation would be bigasse, a by-product, and of 

 merely nominal cost. 



Principle of Continuous iro/7,- at Sugar Facto)ics. — It has been pointed out 

 that the principle of working a sugar factory throughout the year was early 

 recognised in Europe, and was put into practice with apparently great advantage 

 more than 60 j'ears ago. This was efl'ected by drying the sliced beetroots and 

 storing them indefinitely for later extraction. Subsequent vigorous developments 

 in another direction have jiushed this principle out of view in more recent years, 

 but may, perhaps, be brought into consideration again, both in the beet and the 

 cane industry. For it is evident that if the juice could be profitably evaporated 

 at a juicery, much more profitably could it be done at a large factory. At the 

 Maflfra, for instance, using the above-estimated figures, the cost would be thus: — 



75% Efficiency. 40% Efficiency. 



Costs at Maflfra up to infusion stage 

 Fuel (coal only) for evaporation 

 Labour, bags, and interest 



Total cost . . 

 Value of dried juice 



Profit .. 



