26 THE ALABAMA OPFORTUX ITV. 



the first run whicli was made. althou_<:^h I was able to remain 

 during only a portion of the syrup making season. In 'Sir. 

 Smith's plant, steam is employed both for the operation of the 

 mill and for the evaporation of the juice and syrup. The 

 mill employed is of the most modern type and consists of two 

 heavy crushing rollers for crushing the cane thoroughly, and 

 three rollers' of the ordinary type for thoroughly expressing 

 the juice from the crushed cane. With this mill an extraction 

 of from 15 to 20 per cent, more juice can be secured than by 

 the employment of an ordinary horse mill -and as the common 

 horse mill frequently extracts not more than 55 to 60 per cent, 

 of juice it will be noted that the relative increase in juice ex- 

 traction is even greater. It will, therefore, be seen that the 

 employment of a mill of this kind enables the syrup producer 

 to save and utilize a large portion of the juice that usually 

 goes to waste in the imperfectly crushed cane." 



WORKINGS OF THE CANE. 



The mill referred to is similar in construction to the more 

 improved t\pes of five roller mills in use in Louisiana and 

 Cuba. The juice runs from the mill to a small tank situated 

 on a lower level and is thence pumped up to the top of a fil- 

 tering box filled with Spanish moss and any suspended mechan- 

 ical impurities are removed during this filtering process. The 

 juice runs from this filtering apparatus to evaporators which 

 are arranged in pairs, the first evaporator being on a higher 

 level than the second. 



"The bottoms and sides of these evaporators are of wood, 

 while coils of copper pipe, supported about an inch from the 

 bottom, furnish the means of heating the juice, steam being 

 admitted to the coils or shut off by simply turning a valve. 

 The first evaporators are termed clarifiers' and in this part of 

 the apparatus the juice is first gently boiled and the skums are 

 carefully removed. The well skimmed juice is next run out 

 through a valve into the larger evaporator which is located 

 on a lower level, and the juice can be rapidly boiled down to 

 syrup in this part of the apparatus. 



"In order to ascertain when the syrup has reached the de- 

 sired destiny, a specimen of the hot liquid collected in a tall 

 jar and the density can be easily ascertained by employing a 



