62 SUGAR 



it was considered essential. 1 In the case of the beet- 

 root, it has enabled well-managed factories to produce 

 excellent refined sugar. Even as far back as 1871 the 

 present writer saw loaf sugar produced direct from the 

 beetroot juice, and, at a later date, Langen, the inventor 

 of the process for making cube sugar, produced fine 

 cubes in his own beetroot sugar factory. 



These are some of the wonderful results of science 

 applied to sugar production, and point to a great de- 

 velopment in the future. But this country, the largest 

 consumer, cares for none of these things. 



1 As to white sugar in Java, a change has taken place in the 

 method of manufacture which may, in the future, have impor- 

 tant and wide-reaching results. The carbonatation process, as 

 has been explained, is an expensive process requiring great skill 

 and care. It requires a large mass o special machinery, includ- 

 ing lime-kilns for the production of lime and carbonic acid ; and 

 those kilns require fuel. In tropical countries, limestone and 

 fuel may be difficult to obtain. But a still stronger objection 

 to the carbonatation process in Java is that frequently a factory 

 may find it necessary, for market purposes, to go back to the 

 production of raw sugar when the demand for that sugar is 

 stronger than the demand for white sugar for India. His car- 

 bonatation process would make it too good. The planters, 

 therefore, tried experiments, and found that neutralizing the 

 lime by sulphurous acid, a simple process, would, if properly 

 carried out, clarify the juice so well that white sugar quite as 

 good in every way could be turned out. More than half 

 of the Java crop is now white sugar of excellent colour and 

 quality. 



