5G 



better. This form of crusher is known among the English manufac- 

 turers as a cane splitter and generally consists of two rollers like the 

 zigzag crusher. This form of crusher has been made up by Louisiana 

 planters as a modification of the first set of rollers in some of the older 

 mills by simply grooving the top roller. The other form is known as 

 the Diamond crusher. It may consist of two rollers both of which have 

 a surface with diamond projections slightly elevated above the surface of 

 the roller and so arranged that they mesh into each other, but a more 

 common form is to replace the top roller of the first mill unit in modifying 

 the six-roller mills without crushers so as to "make the first set of rollers 

 act as a crusher. 



Whatever form of crashers is used the cane is delivered directly into 

 it from the carrier and emerges from it after being reduced to a com- 

 parative state of fineness. With a good crusher it is practically im- 

 possible for any node or internode to pass through without being crushed, 

 cut and split to such an extent that subsequent crushing is greatly facil- 

 itated. A crusher of this type when working well will extract from 50 

 to 55 per cent on the weight of the cane. 



The mill. — The process of extracting the juice from sugar cane is one 

 which requires a great deal of power and the use of high pressure. 

 This necessitates building mills of such size and strength and fitting 

 them for giving the cane a sufficient number of crushings before its 

 final discharge that a profitable amount of the sugar which it contains 

 may be recovered. The pressure required in the large mills is about 2 

 tons per centimeter length of roller, or about 300 tons on a set of rollers 

 1.50 meters in length. In order to withstand this heavy pressure the 

 mill must be of a size much larger than the ordinary mills at present 

 used in the Philippines. It is generally understood among modern sugar 

 mill engineers that the length of the roller can not exceed twice the 

 diameter in mills having rollers less than 80 centimeters in diameter. ' 

 If mills are made of smaller size the length of the roller must be reduced 

 much more than the diameter in order to maintain the necessary pressure 

 for extracting the juice. Mills having a greater diameter of roller may 

 have a length of slightly more than twice the diameter. 



Large mills should be fitted with high pressure devices for securing as 

 large an extraction of juice from the cane as possible. For this purpose 

 the hydraulic pressure is decidedly the best, but springs, toggle joints, 

 or wooden blocks may be used with a fair degree of satisfaction. The 

 surface of the rollers of the cane mill should be gi'ooved so as to enable 

 it to take the feed readily. The common belief that some of the cane 

 escapes pressure by getting into the grooves is not well founded. Sugar 

 mills may have any number of rollers from three to eighteen, but are all 

 made up of units of three rollers each. The most common number of 

 rollers in the large plantation mills is either nine or twelve, and mill 



