60 



MANILA DAILY BULLETIN 



The Development of the Sugar Industry 



BY C. J. H. PENNING 



HARROWINTG (OLD METHOD) 



The sugar cane and the industry to manu- 

 facture sugar from cane were brought to the 

 Philippines by Chinese, as different names 

 of implements and processes used in the manu- 

 facture of sugar are of decidedly Chinese 

 origin. 



When Magellan discovered the islands 

 in 1521, he found a small sugar industry, 

 which was quite similar to the Chinese in- 

 dustry and also produced a sugar similar to 

 the fine grained Chinese sugar. 



Therefore there can be little doubt that 

 the sugar industry is of Chinese origin. 



During the Spanish regime little attention 

 was paid to the development of the natural 

 resources of the islands. Also practically 

 no assistance was given to the hacenderos. 



The real importance of the Philippines as 

 a sugar producing country dates from 1849 

 when the Spanish governor general put the 

 island of Negros under the jurisdiction of the 

 clerical order of the Recolectos. 



This order en coura g e d the sugar industry 

 and another encouragement was given by 

 the Crimean war. which caused the price of 

 sugar to soar and made the cultivation of 



sugar cane and manufacture of sugar for ex- 

 port profitable. 



Notwithstanding the bad roads and means 

 of communication, the incompetence of the 

 planters, the lack of capital and the very 

 primitive mills and factory equipment, the su- 

 gar industry grew in importance and reached 

 in the last years of the Spanish rule a maxi- 

 mum production in 1893, with 216.686 tons. 



Through a financial crisis and later because 

 of revolutions and riots the production de- 

 creased in 1901 to 52.274 tons, but increased, 

 again under the beneficial rule of the United 

 States. 



In 1910 the production was again 116.346 

 and has since increased gradually, reaching 

 383.848 tons in 1917. 



The following are the crop totals for 1917: 



Area cultivated hectares. . . . 185,931 



Crude sugar kilos 362.338,084 



Panocha do 23,460,746 



Molasses liters 1,969,496 



Basi do 7,016,842 



Average price in Municipal Markets: 



Crude sugar, per kilo 



Panocha, per kilo 



Molasses, per liter 



Basi, per liter 



Total values: 



Crude sugar 



Panocha 



Molasses 



Basi 



Crude sugar 



Panocha, per kilo 



Molasses, per liter 



Basi, per liter 



P0.098 

 0.103 

 0.082 

 0.086 



P35.525.048 

 2,414,648 

 162,014 

 602,996 

 P0.098 

 0.103 

 0.082 

 0.068 



In above table "crude sugar" includes 

 sugar in bayones, in pilones, and in bulk. 



Panochas are small cakes of unrefined 

 sugar. 



Basi is a beverage produced from fresh 

 canejuice. 



The greatest difficulty to a quick expan- 

 sion of the sugar industry has been the pov- 

 erty of the planters and their dependence 

 on the money lenders, and until American 



CALAIfBA SUGAR SSTATE CENTRAL AT CANLUBANG, LACUNA 



A MODERN TRACTOR 



rule, the lack of roads to convey their prod" 

 uct to shipping points. 



The small rural factories are all badly 

 installed and very uneconomical, losing 

 great quantities of sugar through bad ex- 

 traction and the highly primitive juice treat- 

 ment in open pans and earthenware pots. 



The bulk of the sugar in the Philippines 

 is still made into so-called "muscovado." 



The cane is crushed in small cattle- or 

 steammills and a great amount of sugar re- 

 mains in the milled cane (begasse), which 

 is burned to boil the juice in a series of open 

 cast-iron pots, arranged in rows on brickwork. 



A high extraction would in many cases 

 make the bagasse unsuitable for firing under 

 the pans. 



The flames pass also through a small boiler 

 to generate the steam for the engine driving 

 the mill. 



The juice runs into the pan furthest away 

 from the fire and is ladled over from one pan 

 to the other, until it arrives in a pan right 

 over the fires. 



Here the juice boils hard and most of the 

 water is evaporated. 



When the boiling is sufficiently concentrat- 

 ed the contents of the last pan, are quickly 

 ladled into a low wooden box and stirred un- 

 til the heavy liquid crystalizes, as it cools. 



On the way in the pans the juice is treated 

 with milk of lime and the impurities are skim- 

 med off and in some cases filtered and the 

 clean juice returned into the pans. 



This sugar is put in mat bags called "bayo- 

 nes," and classed in different grades as follows: 

 No. 1 polar zing 87" or higher 

 No. 2 polar zing 85 to 86.9 

 No. 3 polar zing 82 to 84.9 

 No. 4 polar zing 88 to 81.9 

 No. 5 polar zing 76 to 79.9 



No. 6 or "corriente" are all sugars below 

 this. 



In other cases the concentrated juice is 

 ladled into earthenware jars, called "pilones," 

 conical in shape and containing about 125 

 Ibs. of sugar when crystalized. 



The molasses drains away from the crys- 

 tals through a hole in the bottom, which is 

 covered with begasse when the pilon is filled. 



Pilon sugar is classified in three qualities. 



The first is from the top and contains 

 little molasses, the second is from the middle, 

 whilst the third consists mostly of molasses. 



The pilon sugar is roughly refined. The 

 top of the pijon is clayed first and thereby 

 washed. The best part of the washed pilon 

 sugar is then remelted, treated with white 

 of eggs and recrystallized. 



A third way to prepare sugar is to let the 

 syrup crystalize in half shells of coconuts. 



