33 



that it in ust be delivered to the factory very sooii after cutting; and that 

 it miiBt be taken care of before the season of heavy frosts. 



THE WORK AT THE FACTORY. 



TILE FIRST CUTTING. 



The operations of the factory are illustrated in the large drawing, to 

 which the reader is referred in tracing the successive steps. The first 

 cutting is accomplished in the ensilage or feed-cutter. This cutter 

 is provided with three knives, fastened to the three spokes of a cast- 

 iron wheel, which makes about 250 revolutions per minute, carrying the 

 knives with a shearing motion past a dead knife. By a forced feed the 

 cane is so fed as to be cut into pieces about 1J inches long. Tins cut- 

 ting frees the leaves and nearly the entire sheaths from the pieces of 

 cane. By a suitable elevator the pieces of cane, leaves, and sheaths 

 are carried to the second floor. 



THE CLEANING. 



The elevator empties into a hopper, below which a series of four or 

 five fans is arranged one below the other. By passing down through 

 these fans the cane is separated from the lighter leaves much as grain is 

 separated from chaff. The leaves are blown away, and finally taken 

 from the building by an exhaust fan. This separation of the leaves 

 and other refuse is essential to the success of the sugar-making, for in 

 them the largest part of the coloring and other deleterious matters are 

 contained. If carried into the diffusion battery these matters are ex- 

 tracted (see reports of Chemical Division, U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture), and go into the juice with the sugar. As already stated, the 

 process of manufacturing sugar is essentially one of separation. The 

 mechanical elimination of these deleterious substances at the outset at 

 once obviates the necessity of separating them later and by more diffi- 

 cult methods, and relieves the juice of their harmful influences. From 

 the fans the pieces of cane are delivered by a screw carrier to an ele- 

 vator, which discharges into 



THE FINAL CUTTING-MACHINE. 



on the third floor. This machine consists of an 8-inch cast-iron cylinder 

 with knives like those of a planing-machine. It is really three cylin- 

 ders placed end to end on the same shaft, making the entire length 18 

 inches. The knives are inserted in slots and held in place with set- 

 screws. The cylinder revolves at the rate of about 1,200 per minute, 

 carrying the knives past an iron dead knife, which is set so close that 

 no cane can pass without being cut into tine chips, From this cutter 

 the chips of cane are taken by an elevator an.4 a conveyor to the cells 

 Of the diffusion battery, The conveyor passes above and at owe sjtle of 

 17 3 



