26 
tral factories, or wsines, as they are called, are owned by joint-stock com- 
panies, by which the sugar-cane is taken from the plantation and 
transported to the mill upon railroads, or tram-ways, constructed by 
those companies, a certain per cent. of the value of the cane 
being allowed the planter, the price being regulated by the mar- 
ket at Point-d-Pitre at the time the cane is delivered. The system 
seems to have proved a success, affording to the manufacturing interest 
a handsome profit, and, by leaving the planter free to devote himself 
to his peculiar vocation, largely increasing the cultivation of cane. 
The government of the island of Jamaica recently appointed a com- 
mission to visit the French islands, and inquire into the working of this 
central sugar-factory system. The Department of Agriculture has re- 
ceived, through the Department of State, the report of these commis- 
sioners. Their examinations were made during the last summer, and 
the results, as stated by them, are not without interest and value to the 
sugar-producers of the United States. 
The largest central factory in the French islands is that which is ecom- 
monly called the “ Usine @’Arboussier,” at Point-a-Pitre, (Saint Louis,) 
the chief commercial station of the island. The factory is in the suburbs 
of this sea-port, and is constructed upon the grandest scale, having all 
the improvements in machinery and the manufacture of sugar devised 
by modern science. The cost of it was upward of a million of dollars, 
and its capacity of manufacture is equal to 10,000 tons of sugar during 
the first six months of the year, which is the manufacturing season. 
The process of manufacture, as described by the commissioners, 18 as 
foHows: 
The canes are brought by the planter to a siding of the main tram-way on his 
estate. The wagon generally carries two tons of canes, and one mule on a good level 
ordinary tram-way can draw easily two wagons. The wagon, when brought to the 
mill itself, conveys the canes to the rollers. The bagasse being elevated by power to a 
platform over the boilers, the juice, on leaving the mill-bed, falls through three 
strainers into a tank, which has a double bottom, heated by steam. It is treated here 
with a little bi-sulphite of lime, and is then run into a montejus. This montejus, by 
steam, sends the juice up to the clarifiers, where it is heated in the ordinary way and 
tempered with lime properly. From this it is passed to the charcoal-filters, through 
which it gravitates, and then passes by a gutter into a receiver. From this it is passed 
to a montejus and is thrown up by steam into a cistern over the triple-effet. From this 
cistern it gravitates into the triple-effet, passing from the first to the second, and 
from the second to the third boiler, as the attendant wishes. When it leaves the 
boiler it is immediately passed over new reburned charcoal. It gravitates through 
this and falls into another receiver from which the vacum-pan takes it up and boils it 
to sugar. The first-quality sugar is generally crystalized in the pan, and is then 
dropped into sugar-boxes which “stand seven feet from the ground; under these boxes 
a little charging-vessel runs on a railway that is hung from the bottom of the said 
boxes, and this vessel conveys the sugar over the centrifugals, where it is cured; the 
molasses from this being boiled up, when found in good condition, with the sirup of 
the following day. When this molasses is thick and clammy it is boiled into a jelly by 
itself and dropped into sugar-boxes, where it is allowed to granulate for a number of 
days. This makes the second- quality sugar, and the molasses from this, along with 
the skimmings and subsidings of clarifiers, goes to make rum. The juice that leaves 
the clarifiers does not pass over fresh char coal, but follows the sirup from the triple- 
effet, thus assisting to wash out the sweets which may have been left by the sirup. 
The weight of canes delivered at the factory last year was 75,000 tons, although it 
was a season of drought. The factory can receive 100,000 tons a year. Last year 5,320 
tons of sugar were obtained from 68,745 tons of cane, or about 7% percent. In April 
last the factory company declared a first dividend of 24 per cent. In other words, a 
net profit of $181,585 was made upon the manufacture of 68,745 tons of sugar, and 
182,798 gallons of rum. 
The processes of manufacture in all the factories, both in Guadalupe and Martinique, 
are identical, the only difference being the adoption in the new factories of the appli- 
ances of modern science, and improved mechanical and other arrangements. ‘The clari- 
fication of the juice, its reduction to sirup at a low temperature, the perfect crystalli- 
zation and color of the sugar, and a maximum return, are obtained by repeated filtra- 
tion through animal charcoal, the “ triple-effet” and vacuum-pan processes, and, last 
