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nearl}' all confined to small haciendas in the interior of the districts 

 of Bago and La Carlota (La Castellana), where small mountain streams 

 afford power enough to grind from 30 to 60 tons of cane per day. 



The steam mills are practically all of English or Scotch origin, of the ordinary 

 3-roller type, driven by direct-gear connection with a single-cylinder engine run- 

 ning at from 40 to 80 pounds' steam pressure, and rated at a nominal horsepower 

 of from 6 to 16, the average throvighout the island being about 8 to 10. It is 

 calculated roughly that each horsepower possessed by an engine is capable of 

 grinding sufficient cane in an ordinary working day of twelve to fourteen hours 

 to make 10 piculs (632.5 kilos) of sugar, so that the average mill of Negros may 

 be said to have a daily capacity of from 80 to 100 piculs (5.1 to 6.3 metric 

 tons) of sugar, or approximately 50 to 60 tons of cane. 



Feed. — The cane, as it comes from the field in carts or cars, is dumped in 

 the ground near the mill, and then fed into it by hand, an armful at a time. Some 

 mills are provided with mechanical carriers Avhich permit of a rather more even 

 feed and are somewhat easier on the men, as the cane can be fed directly from the 

 ground instead of being carried by hand up to. the elevated platform on which 

 the mill stands. As considerable care is required in laying the cane on the 

 carrier evenly and in its manipulation, very little time or labor appears to be 

 saved by this device, and the total number of laborers needed is about the same 

 in each ease. 



FueJ. — In clear weather, with a properly constructed mill and boiler, the 

 bagasse produced is generally sufficient to supply all the fuel needed, both for 

 giinding and sugar boiling, with some left over for a rainy daj'. As the bagasse 

 comes out from the mill it is supposed to be picked over by a couple of men 

 stationed there for that purpose, and any unbroken or imperfectly crushed pieces 

 thrown back to be ground over, the thoroughness with which this inspection 

 is made depending largely upon the proximity of the owner or manager of the 

 plantation. As the fresh bagasse contains about 55 per cent of water, it can 

 not be burned directly under the boilers, but must first be dried in the sun, so 

 it is carried out for this purpose in baskets or cradles of bejuco (rattan) slung 

 from bamboo poles, to the plaza, a level space about a hectare in extent surround- 

 ing the mill house, and there spread out on the ground and raked over from 

 time to time so as to dry rapidly. At night it is raked up into small piles, 

 then spread out again for a few hours the next morning, when it is usually 

 sufficiently dry either to burn at once or to store in the bagasse sheds for future 

 use. One of the most serious problems the hacendero has to solve is that of 

 always keeping on hand a sufficient supply of dry bagasse to run his mill. In 

 rainy weather this is almost impossible; the surplus stored up in the sheds 

 becomes exhausted in a couple of weeks, and he is compelled either to shut down 

 entirely or to burn wood at a heavy expense; in the meantime the fresh bagasse 

 produced can not be properly dried; and if stored wet it ferments and loses much 

 of its fuel value in consequence. 



It is principally for this reason that the planter of the Philippine 

 Islands is so badly hampered by climatic conditions ; his field work 

 of planting and harvesting, both carried on at the same time, is largely 

 influenced by the rate at which cane can be received at the mill, and 

 this in turn is dependent upon an ample supply of dry bagasse, so 

 that an unexpected season of wet weather may upset all calculations and 

 cause much damage. 



