LOSS FROM INEFFICIENCY OF MILLS. 135 
of the whole weight of the stalk; most of the lighter class 
of mills do not average more than 50 percent. A perfect 
machine would produce 87°5 pounds of juice from each 100 
pounds of stalk. If in practice but 50 pounds are ob- 
tained, 37:5 pounds, or more than 43 per cent. of the whole 
amount of juice originally contained in the stalk, is stall 
retained in the trash. 
We have thus revealed the astonishing fact that about 
three-sevenths of the whole product is utterly wasted at the 
outset, in consequence of the imperfect means ordinarily 
used in extracting the juice. Such a loss is enough to ship- 
wreck any industrial pursuit of common magnitude, and it 
is a proof of the importance which sugar growing at the 
North is destined to assume, and of the firmness of the basis 
upon which it rests, that it has proved highly profitable 
under such circumstances. 
Land which has heretofore yielded the very moderate 
amount of 140 gallons of crude syrup per acre, worth in 
that condition 60 cents per gallon, or $84, would yield if 
the means of extracting the juice were perfect, 200 gallons 
per acre, worth $120; and land which, with better cultiva- 
tion, has ordinarily* yielded 200 gallons per acre, would 
yield 350 gailons. 
These facts demand more attention from planters than 
they have hitherto received. Here, in the case last men- 
tioned, is a loss of 150 gallons of syrup per acre, the greater 
part of which is recklessly, and in many cases, ignorantly 
incurred. 
It is true that a part of this waste is inevitable. In the 
manufacture of sugar from the Southern cane, in which the 
most highly improved and powerful crushing mills have 
been used, the loss from this source is still very great, and 
in many cases much greater than need be, on account of 
slovenly practice, yet it is still far less than is commonly 
Lis 
