30 SUGAR 



large quantities of steam required for evaporation and 

 driving without the use of any other fuel a great 

 advantage for cane over beet. 



The juice is caught in a trough below the mills and 

 flows to a vessel where it is roughly strained from the 

 quantity of finely divided cane fibre which falls down 

 with it, and is then pumped up to the clarifiers. 



Cane juice is a substance of somewhat complex 

 character. The juice from the first mill is comparatively 

 pure, limpid and of a light colour. But the continued 

 crushing in the second and third mills brings more 

 impurities into it. The colouring matter from the 

 rind of the cane gets into it ; so do the organic salts, 

 gums and albumen, all of which make it more and 

 more viscous and quite impossible to filter or evaporate 

 without previous very careful and complete clarification, 

 a matter for consideration in a following chapter. 



A good ripe sugar cane contains, on the average, about 

 seventy-five per cent, of water, twelve to fifteen per cent, 

 of crystallizable sugar, one to one and a half per cent, of 

 uncrystallizable sugar, ten per cent, of fibre, less than 

 one per cent, of incombustible matter called " ash," 

 and less than one per cent, of organic acids, gums and 

 albumen. The ash consists of very varying proportions, 

 according to the nature of the soil and of the manures, 

 of silica, potash, lime, magnesia and soda, mentioned in 

 the order of their importance, silica and potash being 

 the main ingredients. The silica exists mostly in the 

 form of silicates of an alkaline base. The alkaline 

 bases, mostly potash, are also in combination with 

 organic acids, which disappear on incineration, or with 

 phosphoric and sulphuric acid, and chlorine, all of 

 which constitute part of the ash. 



It is now necessary, before going further, to explain 

 the nature of the three kinds of sugar contained in 



