16 



able. Maceration, or the addition of water to the bagasse between the 

 front and back mill was commenced in this run, and a remarkable in- 

 crease in the yield was derived from it. This will be discussed further 

 on under the head of "maceration." Available sugar, or sugar actually 

 secured, expressed in terms of glucose present in the juice, was 0.82 times 

 the' glucose deducted from the sucrose. The final molasses contained 

 26.80 per cent sucrose, 30.85 glucose, with a purity of 33.49. 



SECOND PLANT RUN. 



This run, judging merely from the nicety with which the machinery 

 worked, would have been pronounced the best of the season. Careful 

 chemical control showed, however, that the mechanical losses were pro- 

 portionately larger than in any other run of the season. 



The chemical control carried through this run was, I believe, one of 

 the most complete if not the most complete work of its kind ever at- 

 tempted in Louisiana. All the products from the raw juice to the 

 final molasses inclusive were carefully analyzed, weights and measure- 

 ments taken at each stage, and the sugar present compared with that 

 of the previous stage. The work was extremely satisfactory, the losses 

 being accurately located and the parts of the house which worked well 

 noticed. The chief and in fact almost the only loss after the juice had 

 been expressed occurred at the double effect. This, owing to the prac- 

 tice of maceration at the mills, was being so worked beyond its capacity 

 that not over 7 to 8 inches of vacuum could be maintained in its first pan, 

 while 27 to 28 were secured upon the second. The difference of the 

 boiling points of the two pans being thus so great the juice from the 

 first entered the second pan far above the latter's boiling point, and 

 flashed therefore instantly into vapor, the excess of its sensible, being 

 absorbed as latent heat. This instituted a current of vapor direct from 

 the liquor feed-pipe towards the condenser evidently sufficiently violent 

 to entrain large amounts of the entering juice in the form of globular 

 spray or mist which escaped the catch-all. 



After the juice had passed the double effect there was only one other 

 place where there was any appreciable loss, the work in the refinery be- 

 ing remarkably good and close. In boiling for third sugar some of the 

 massecuite was boiled too stiff, and about 6 inches in the bottom of the 

 wagons having been chilled by too low a temperature at or near the 

 floor of the hot room during a spell of cold weather could not be dug 

 out, and had to be melted and run into the molasses. This accounts 

 for the relatively high percentage of sucrose in the final molasses, the 

 analysis of which gave 29.11 per cent of sucrose, 29.36 glucose, and 

 purity of 36.94. 



THIRD PLANT RUN. 



In this run, though the chemical control was carried as systematically 

 as in the previous, the results were not quite so satisfactory from the 

 fact that a great deal of settlings from the first molasses were carried 



