tet 
Visy 
” ~ 
he aS sta . ee PSA WARE LY edhe pt ee tery chy Nt aay Faia tate 
+s 214 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE, 
taken to make the results just as valuable 
terials used were finely-powered lignite, bituminous coal, shale, sev- _ 
juice except when the juice had become highly colored by addingan 
‘number of experiments were made with varying quantities of lignite, 
_ chinery were also conducted as early as the condition of the cane 
-was similar to that employed last year. The seed heads, however, 
‘each other, each fan being furnished with a separate set of shakers. 
_ made up of three separate sections, each with 10 knives. Although — 
+ s ¥ A ie’ x ad 
big Ain id ees 
! as if made ona larger ~ 
scale. These experiments were begun on July 29. The filteringma- — 
eral kinds of soils, and prepared carbonate of lime. The following 
conclusions were derived from these experiments: |. | 
(1) None of the above materials would filter juice satisfactorily 
that had an acid reaction. hte Ms 
¢ Neutral juice filtered very slowly and a hard-press cake would ~ 
not form in the press. : ey 
(3) With a decidedly alkaline juice the filtration took place much | — 
ae readily, but was not entirely satisfactory except with carbonate. _~ 
of lime. Kas 
(4) Lignite did not have any apparent decolorizing effect on the » 
“an 
a et 
ee 
Sor a 
ees 
excess of lime, when a slight decolorization took place. A large’ 
but in no case did it show any superiority over fine, sandy loam either 
as a decolorizer or filtering medium. | i i ee 
Experiments for testing the cutting, cleaning, and elevating ma- 
would permit. . she 
The method of unloading the cane and getting it onto the carrier | ~ 
were cut off in the field. The cutters were made by the Belle City — 
Manufacturing Company, of Racine, Wis. They did the work well, 
but the machines were too light to stand the very severe work they 
_ were called upon to do. 
_ The cane was cut into pieces about an inch long and then elevated 
by'a drag to the top of the series of four fans standing straight over 
The cleaning apparatus, after considerable adjustment, did fairly 
ood work. The leaves and sheaths were removed by a suction fan. ‘a 
he cleaned pieces of cane were cut by a rapidly-revolving cutter, 
consisting of a cylinder carrying 30 knives. The cylinder was 4; 
no difficulty was encountered in cutting, the work of the cutter was ‘s 
very unsatisfactory. A large portion of the chips consisted of long . 
pieces with the bark on one side. Diffusion in this case could take /% 
place but in one direction, and in the largest chips of this kind the 
extraction of the sugar was very imperfect. The drag for conveying - 
the chips to the cells was rebuilt and placed higher and on one side’ _ 
of the battery so as not to interfere with the packing of the chips in 
the cells. The exhausted chips were dumped directly into a carrun-"¢ ~ 
ning on rails under the battery. Thiscar wasrunup aninclineonto | ~ 
a trestle work about 20 feet from the ground, by the aid of an end- 
less cable. Two friction clutches, running in opposite directions, | 
served to run the car forward or backward, and the car was so ar- 5 
ranged that the charge of exhausted chips could be dropped at any 
point by simply reversing the motion of the cable. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH CRUSHER. i re 
It was the opinion of a number of men interested in this industry 
that a very much larger yield and better quality of juice could be ~ 
obtained by the crushers if the cane, previously to being pressed, ; 
were cleaned and macerated, and it was deemed best to give the matter, . * 
. 
/ : S Tat 
