136 



sucrose content and free-milling qualities is hardly to be expected, it 

 is recommended that a few other good varieties of cane be introduced 

 into Negros and grown somewhat extensively, so as to have a reserve 

 to fall back on for seed in case the present variety should ever be 

 attacked by disease of any kind. Experience in other countries has 

 proved that it is a dangerous policy to rely entirely upon one variety 

 of cane. Some black cane is now being grown in Negros, and this, 

 because of its rather high fiber content and habit of growing erect, should 

 prove desirable as a substitute for the purple cane in certain very rich 

 or sandy soils, where the latter has a tendency to fall down badly and not 

 mature. 



Cultural operations are much the same in Negros as in other coun- 

 tries. After burning a field and plowing it, the seed is laid out in 

 rows, about 25,000 being planted to the hectare. Only the cane tops 

 are used for planting. Planting is carried on at the same time as 

 cutting and grinding, usually between the months of November and 

 May, and the cane remains in the ground to ripen for from ten to 

 fourteen months. The carabao is the only work animal at present used. 

 Eatoon canes are extensively gro^vn in Binalbagan-Isabela, Ilog-Caban- 

 calan, San Carlos, and Bais; in the majority of other parts of the 

 island they are the exception rather than the rule. Approximately one- 

 half of each year's crop throughout the island may be said to come from 

 plant cane. Cane is cut and loaded by hand, and carried to the mill 

 in bull carts or by means of light, portable tramways. 



The mills of Negros are of the single, three-roller type, nearly all 

 run by steam, and having an average capacity of about 50 to 60 metric 

 tons of cane per day of twelve to fourteen hours. Bagasse is used for 

 fuel, but is not crushed dry enough to be burned directly, so it must 

 be given a preliminary drying in the sun, which entails considerable 

 extra expense and renders the planter dependent on fair weather for 

 running his mill. 



From tests made from a large number of mills in different parts of 

 Negros, it is calculated that from 20 to 35 per cent of the total sucrose 

 of the cane is lost in the bagasse, depending upon the amount of fiber 

 in the cane. The average loss is 25 per cent, giving a juice extraction 

 of 64.5 per cent on the weight of the cane, a figure somewhat better 

 than might be expected, due not to any superior efficiency of the mills, 

 but rather to the small amount of fiber in the cane usually ground. 



The juice is boiled down in a train of open, hemispherical, iron 

 kettles set over a direct fire. It is defecated with lime, and a fairly 

 good clarification is effected in the first four of these kettles by skimming 

 impurities off from the surface. The sirup, after clarification and con- 

 centration to about 50° Brix is boiled down in the final kettle to a 



