118 



small factory making sugar to the value of, say, 500 pesos per day about 35 

 pesos more per day would be gained by having the cane perfectly clean before it 

 enters the mill. Six laborers in the mill at an extra cost of 2.40 pesos per day 

 should be able to free all the cane from trash • as it comes from the field and 

 would repay the additional expense for their services many times over. The above 

 remarks should not be construed as reflecting against any one hacienda or district 

 in particular, but apply equally as well in nearly every other part of Negros. 



The percentage of sucrose lost in the skimmings^ working with such 

 a rich juice and no filter press, was considerably higher than that which 

 might ordinarily be expected, as the scums, because of their high density 

 (sucrose, 28.72 per cent), were very slow to settle, and a tank full 

 yielded only about two-thirds of its volume of clear juice, the remain- 

 ing third being thrown away. The loss due to caramelization was some- 

 what less than the average, since less time was required for evaporation, 

 and the fairly pure "massecuite" could be carried down to the desired 

 low-water content with comparatively little danger from burning, so 

 that a very light-colored sugar was produced. The figures denoting loss 

 by inversion have in reality very little value as showing the real amount 

 of inversion taking place, but simply give the amount of invert sugar 

 produced and which happened to escape destruction by overheating, 

 remaining as such in the final product. 



Finally, taking into account the large losses of sucrose incurred in 

 milling, and in fact throughout the entire process of sugar making, 

 it should be noted that the actual weight of raw sugar produced, re- 

 ferred to the weight of cane crushed, is by no means as small as might 

 ordinarily be believed. This is so because of the retention of all soluble 

 impurities and molasses in the concrete; so that from the juice ex- 

 tracted as much if not more low-grade sugar is yielded by the present 

 process than could be secured from the same amount of juice in the 

 form of 96° crystals by a modern factory, although, of course, the re- 

 covery expressed in terms of sucrose is very much less. 



Thus, in the present instance 1 ton of cane produced 0.1115 ton of sugar, or 

 to produce 1 ton of sugar required 8.97 tons of cane, a ratio which would be 

 considered very fair work in many countries where even the best and most 

 economical working might not, on account of the poorer quality of cane dealt with, 

 turn out more than 0.1 ton of sugar (96°) per ton of cane. Calculated to the 

 hectare of land, the field used for this test produced 21.33 metric tons of cane 

 and 2.378 metric tons, or about 38 piculs, of sugar per hectare, a very poor yield 

 for the locality, but just about what had been expected, since it was one of the 

 poorest fields in the hacienda. 



MILL CONTROL NO. 2, HACIENDA SAN JOSE, SAN CARLOS (JUNE 1, 1909). 



Kind of cane used. — ^The field from which this cane was taken has been dis- 

 cussed under "Cane analysis No. 46," District of San Carlos, where it was cited 

 as an example of the effect of drought on very young cane in changing it from 

 a state of immaturity to one of decay without giving it an opportunity to become 

 fully ripe. The field itself is in general considered one of the best in the locality, 



