MA.NUFACTUKt: OF SUGAR. 425' 



T" 



MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR. 



DEROSNE AND CAIl's SYSTEM EXPLAINED. 



J. S. Ski.n.neii, Esq. Parish ok Ascension, La. 



Dear Sir : With the N-iew of making a small contiibution to the mass of varied and most 

 useful iniijrmation contained in your valuable periodical, and in fulfillment of a promise made 

 you, I foiward the inclosed. It is a translation of a publication of Messrs. Derosne and Cail, 

 of Paris, the object of which is to show the superiority of their system for the manufacture 

 of suj;ar over all other systems. It would, indeed, seem difficult to go beyond it, either iu 

 the mechanical or cliemical processes. By high liming, and filtration through animal char- 

 coal in grains and iu large masses, the juice is said to be brought to the state of a pure solu- 

 tion of sugar in water, which Drs. Bache and McCuUoh consider the gi-eat problem to be 

 solved in sugar making. The evaporation takes place in vacuo at a low temperature; and a 

 savbig of fuel of more than 40 per cent, is demonstrably realized by the " double-cJj'cctS^ 



The system is in a fair way of trial in Louisiana. Notwithstanding its manifest e.xcellence, 

 some modidcations may be found necessary to adapt it to the conditions in which the sugar- 

 cane exists in our State. At all events, the developments of the system will not be uninter- 

 esting to sugiU" planters — to the progressivisis among them, as well as to the stand-still or 

 Chinese — to those who are willmg, as to those who are unwillmg, to adopt improvements re- 

 quiiTUg a heavy outlay. 



Although the sugar-cane is not a subject of as much general interest as its congeners corn, 

 \vheat, &c.. and must yield to them in importance, yet it is not whhout peculiar claims on 

 public attention. Tiiie, sugar is not blotxl-producing, according to the Liebigian theory; it 

 contains no nitrogen — is not dignified by the presence of the phosphates ; but, if not blood- 

 producing, it is blood-purifying. Besides the experience that planters hare of its health- 

 givuig properties upon man and beast, during sugar-making time, it is the opinion of one of 

 our most eminent iihysicians that the virtue of the catholicous, panaceas, &c. resides chiefly 

 in the syiiip, which those who prepare them pi'etend to have only a vesicular agency. — 

 Now, impurity of the blood, if it is not, as the venders of sarsapariUa affinn, the only source, 

 is certainly one of the sources of disease. Impurit}' of blood in our country is owing, iu a 

 great measure, to the immense consumption of the flesh of that unclean animal, the swine ; 

 but let the consumer never eat it vdthout molasses, and let liim put a double dose of sweet- 

 ening in his pics and puddings, his tea and coffee, his juleps and anti-fogmatics, and he may 

 devour pork ad libilum. 



Corollary : the " blood" of a country is "pure" iu proportion to the quantity' of saccha- 

 rine matter consumed. 



With great regard, H. B. T. 



KXAMINATION OF THE DIFFERENT PROCES.SES FOR MANUFACTURING SUGAR. Tried up to- 

 tbU lime (1B43;. and the Motives which should induce a Pieteience for the Double-Eft'ect Vacuum 

 Appan.iiis for application in the Colonies.* liy Messrs. Deros.ne and Cail. 



The manufacture of beet-root suj^ar in France has gone through so many pro- 



cP5t;ps — so muny different systems, such a Viniety of nppcirntue has been li'icd — 



that everything upplieabie to the manulacture of sugar lias been subjected to the 

 ordeal of experiment ; so that, at tiie preseui liuie, theory being combined with 

 practice, we may pronounce with a lull undersiaiuiing of the siil)ject. 



The manufacture of sugar embraces three distinct processes — 1st, the mechan- 

 ical, for the extraction of the juice of the cane or of the beet-root ; I'd, the cliem- 

 ical, lor the defecation of said juice : 3d, the evaporative, the object of which is 

 to separate the sugar from the water in which it is held in solution. 



* This term cmbracea all the European Colonial establishments in the East and West Indies. 



