1-n 



and rind was about tlie same, although the liud still contained less sucrose per 

 unit weight of fiber; while the third, fourth, and fifth mills yielded a much more 

 completely exhausted pith bagasse without materially reducing the sucrose con- 

 tent of the rind. He concludes from this '"that the milling process is very eflFec- 

 tive so far as regards the soft interior pith, but very crude as regards the excre- 

 tion of sugar from the hard outer rind." This might indicate that canes posses- 

 sing a soft fiber should allow of more efficient mill work than harder ones, 

 provided more than six rollers are used. The opposite has been found true, how- 

 ever, by Geerligs '* in .Java, who says that "in most cases, canes having a high 

 fiber content will yield bagasse the fiber of which offers but little resistance to 

 pressure. This to sopie extent compensates for the increased loss of sugar oc- 

 casioned by the large amount of bagasse obtained from canes of high fiber content. 

 From the average of a great number of determinations it is seen that a high fiber 

 content of the cane corresponds with a high fiber content of the bagasse, so that 

 a hard cane yields a drier and more exhausted bagasse than a soft one." It i's 

 evident that there still is room for much work before this question can be solved. 



Eeturning to Xegi'os and the mill controls^ it is seen that working 

 with a poor juice^ much less sucrose is lost in the skimmings than 

 with a richer one, this because a lower density allows of more rapid 

 and complete settling of impurities in the scum tanks, while vohmie 

 for volume the skimmings from an inferior juice of course contain less 

 sucrose. The loss by inversion, as far as could be detected by analysis, 

 is about the same in each case; that caused by burning is enormously 

 larger in the second experiment than in the first, and it is my belief 

 that, in making "corriente" sugar from poor juice, much sugar is 

 not only inverted and caramelized, but literally burned, some of it 

 even forming gaseous products. The fumes from a very low-grade 

 "massecuite" during the last portion of the boiling are sometimes so 

 irritating as to be unbearable even to the native workmen. 



The total losses in manufacture, referred to the sucrose in the cane, 

 Avere not far different in each experiment, the poor cane losing only 

 about 1 per cent more of its sucrose than the better one. As regards 

 yield of raw sugar, this was somewhat less in the second test, but 

 not so much as might be expected from the poorer quality of cane 

 ground, since the loss in sucrose is largely compensated for by the 

 larger amount of impurities turned out as "sugar." The yield of 

 "corriente" sugar from this inferior cane was 0.942 tons per ton of 

 cane, so that 10.61 tons of cane yo^I^^ ^6 required to produce 1 ton 

 of sugar. 



Calculation of the average yield of raw sugar per ton of cane in 

 ^cgros. — Combining the data brought out by all these experiments, the 

 average losses of sucrose during the process of sugar making as carried on 



'"Cane Sugar and its Manufacture. Manchester (1909), 105. 



