176 CHAPTER X 



5. A successful harvester would include means for stripping off the dry 

 leaves and for cutting the cane into convenient lengths for loading into cars. 



6. Long periods of ratoonage are often economically necessary in sugar 

 cane cultivation. The transit of heavy machines over the fields may result 

 in damage to the subsequent crop. With irrigated cane the damage to the 

 water furrows would be excessive, and often the nature of the ground is 

 such as would prohibit the use of heavy moving machinery. 



The difficulties mentioned above have been considered and attacked 

 by inventors, but up to the present no real success has been obtained. The 

 cited machines are therefore not described here, but reference may be made 

 to the following British and American patents : — British. — Henwood, 

 3023, 1868 ; Dollens and Zschech, 4456, 1882 ; Tomlinson, 4889 and 17289, 

 1887 ; Stickings, 18301, 1902. American.— -V^'ilsov)., 415234, 1889 ; Le Blanc, 

 610069, 1898 ; Sloane, 724345, 1903 ; Dupuy, 753558, 1904 ; Gaussiran, 

 775168, 1904 ; Bolden, 813943, 1906 ; Ginaca, 853967 and 854208, 1907 ; 

 Bercerra, 903666, 1908 ; Luce, 754788 and 762073, 1904 ; 788270, 1905. 



Cane Loading. — After the cane has been felled, the next step is to load 

 it on to the means used to transport it to the mill. Two distinct problems 

 arise, first the loading of the cane into carts or small cars, running on a port- 

 able track in the cane fields, and second, the transfer of the load of cane 

 from the cart to cars, which in Cuba, Mauritius and elsewhere run on public 

 standard gauge railroads, and have a capacity up to 20 tons. This second 

 operation is usually known as transferring rather than loading. 



At the present day the greater portion of the world's sugar cane crop 

 continues to be loaded by hand, and the mechanical devices which are in use 

 are mainly confined to Louisiana. Only an indifferent measure of success 

 considered economically has attended them in Hawaii. In Cuba the pre- 

 liminary loading into bullock carts is always performed manually. 



In countries where labour is very cheap, such as Java, there does not 

 appear to be any prospect of saving from mechanical loading. A point in 

 favour of hand loading lies in the increased capacity obtained by the closer 

 packing of the material when hand loaded. With a per diem charge for 

 carts and railway wagons irrespective of the load this item is of importance. 



The main device employed consists of a portable derrick operating in 

 combination with a system of chain slings, into which the cane is bundled, 

 elevated over the car, and dumped therein by means of tripping devices. 

 The earliest patent on this system seems to be that of Bennet (U.S. 506967, 

 1893). This system, as used in the Wheeler- Wilson loader in Hawaii, is 

 shown from a photograph in Plate XIX. There are numerous other American 

 patents dealing with details based on this method. 



A second device consists of the grab, which is also operated from the end 

 of a boom mounted on a portable carrier. This apparatus lifts up the 

 cane from the heaps into which it is thrown by the cutters. The earliest 

 patent on this scheme seems to be that of Lotz (U.S. 731923, 1903) ; but there 

 are a number of other and later patents using this principle. 



A third scheme found in a number of patents, of which the earliest 

 seems to be that of Herbert (U.S. 645851, 1900), comprises the use of portable 

 inclined endless belt conveyors, on which the cane is laid, carried upwards, 

 and discharged into the trucks. A variant of this scheme is seen in Crozier's 

 patent (U.S. 1025379, 1912), which employs an inclined run- way, up which is 

 hoisted a small car sledge, which dumps its load into the railway truck. 



