EXTRACTIOX OF JUICE FROM CAXE. 257 



CHAPTER VIII. 



(a.) Extraction of juice from cane. 



(6.) Roll mills. 



(c.) Various methods for the extraction of juice. 



EXTRACTION OF JUICE FROM CANE. 



In the production of sugar from plants, the first step is the extrac- 

 tion of the juice ; and in this operation the methods generally applied 

 to sugar-cane and sorgum or maize stalks, on the one hand, and to 

 beets upon the other, differ radically, and those methods employed 

 with beets are in their principles and in their results va.stly superior 

 to those in general use in the production of sugar from cane. 



A recent writer, eminently qualified from long experience to judge 

 of these matters, declares that " the sugar beet industry in all its de- 

 tails has been so exhaustively investigated, in Europe, that it may, 

 without exaggeration, be declared to be at present the most thoroughly 

 developed department in the whole range of industrial science. The 

 question of the successful introduction of this industry into the United 

 States rests on purely economic considerations." 



In no respect is the perfection to which this industry has been 

 brought more manifest than in the success which attends the processes 

 for the extraction of the juice from the beets, and in no respect are 

 the two methods of sugar production from cane and beets more at 

 variance than in this preliminary step in manufacture. 



A glance at the results obtained will suffice to show how much yet 

 remains to be done before the sugar-cane industry shall even approach 

 in practical economy that of the sugar beet. 



The results ordinarily obtained in making beet sugar are as follows: 



100 pounds of beet I'oots give — 



First sugars 5 00 pounds. 



Second" ...-. 1.50 



Third " 50 



Molasses 1 .50 



Loss. Su.gar in pulp 50 



" soum 35 



" filters 59 



" Miscellaneous 06 



Total 10 00 pounds. 



Tlie above estimate is from " Sugar Growing and Refining," page 

 387. 



With beets of higher sugar content than 10 per cent, the losses 

 17 



