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The World's Commercial Products 



BY-PRODUCTS OF SUGAR MANUFACTURE 



The chief by-products obtained in the manufacture of sugar from the sugar-cane are (1) 



the megass or crushed cane stalks left by the mill ; (2) molasses ; (3) rum, made from the 



molasses. , T 



Megass 



Fuel. The refuse material from the mill known as megass, or by the Americans, " bagasse," 

 is of great value to the tropical sugar planter, as on it he relies for the heat necessary to evaporate 

 the juice into crystallisable syrup. A West Indian estate, yard, in crop season, was formerly 

 covered with the megass taken from the mill and spread out to dry. The introduction of 

 improved furnaces which burn " wet" megass has done away with the necessity of this to a great 

 extent, with consequently a considerable saving, as it was expensive in labour to handle all this 

 material. It is estimated that megass as delivered by a good modern nine-roller mill is worth 

 as fuel approximately one-third its weight in coal. Such megass contains nearly half 

 its weight of water, but yet can be at once burnt in the new furnaces. Poor mills leave a high 

 percentage of sugar in the megass, and although this may enhance its value as a fuel it is a very 

 serious loss to the planter. In ordinary circumstances, with up-to-date machinery the quantity 

 of fuel required is much less than in the days of the old, wasteful, open-pan boiling, and instead 

 of having to supplement his megass by wood or coal, the modern sugar-maker finds it difficult 

 at times to get rid of the surplus megass. 



Molascuit. During quite recent years aprocess was patented by Mr. T. Hughes whereby the 

 finer portions of the megass, consisting really of small fibrous elements of the sugar-cane stem, 

 were employed to absorb molasses, and to form a cattle food. The little tubes of the megass 

 became filled, and the whole mass saturated with molasses, and yet the net result is a powdery 

 material as conveniently handled as an ordinary moist sugar. This product, known as 

 " molascuit," is prepared now in many parts of the cane sugar producing world, and is 

 rapidly progressing in favour as a cattle food. 



Filtering Medium. The utilisation of the megass as a filtering medium has already been 

 referred to under the Naudet Process. 



Molasses 

 The use made of molasses cannot be summed up in a few words because in the first place 

 the molasses obtained in the muscovado process, and that obtained from a modern vacuum 



pan are of very different 

 value. The molasses con- 

 tains the uncrystallisable re- 

 sidue, and the nature of this 

 " residue " depends very 

 greatly on the method of 

 making sugar employed. In 

 the muscovado system inver- 

 sion sets in very rapidly 

 when a high temperature is 

 reached, and accordingly the 

 concentration cannot be car- 

 ried to anything like the 

 degree it can in a vacuum 

 pan. The result is that 

 much more crystallisable 

 sugar — sucrose — remains in 

 solution, along with the un- 

 crystallisable sugar — glucose 

 — and the various mineral 



GATHERING BEETROOTS 



