broom, the wash-water also going to the presses in the absence of wash- 

 outs and a scum-ditch. The filtered liquors join the juice from which 

 derived in the double effect's receiver, and are concentrated to sirup 

 without delay. The rapidity and cleanliness with which these opera- 

 tions are performed probably account for the almost total absence of 

 inversion, attributable to a use of sulphur, between raw juice and sirup, 

 and for the absence of fermentation in the juice department. The work 

 of the filter-presses received no attention from the laboratory this 

 season. 



Transparent liquors and a hard cake were the invariable rule. About 

 eight hours and CO pounds pressure were necessary to insure the last. 

 Two hours were generally allowed for a cold-water lixiviation of the 

 cake, a pressure some 10 pounds less than that employed for the juice 

 being used and the sweet water being run to two and one-half or three 

 degrees Baume. This supplementary process, it is said, is nowhere else 

 followed in Louisiana. Basing calculations upon last year's chemical 

 data, the net savings from it, after deductions for extra evaporation, 

 interest on extra plant, etc., to be about $12 per day when the factory is 

 working at its normal capacity say, 300 tons cane per twenty-four 

 hours. An extra large battery of presses was provided especially to 

 meet the requirements of this lixiviating process. The filter-press 

 cloths are customarily washed biweekly. On one occasion they were 

 operated one week without cleansing. This introduced fermentation, 

 and is not to be repeated. Six sets of filter-cloths answer for five presses. 

 The wear and tear of these are nominal. After two years' service 

 already, very few will need replacement before the close of another 

 campaign. The sirup-tank bottoms and other sweet waters of the es- 

 tablishment are also brought back to the presses. The last operate en- 

 tirely without expert attendance, except oiling of the juice-pump by the 

 engineers. The lixiviation pump is allowed to run dry. The presses are 

 worked on strict rotation and the times and other data of each pressing 

 systematically recorded. Over 22 per cent, of the entire volume of juice 

 passes through the presses. 



The treatment of sirups is similar to that of other Louisiana estab- 

 lishments. It is not thought necessary to settle these, and they are not 

 reheated and skimmed after leaving the double effect. The first prod- 

 uct is a large grained Y. C. sugar, which grades in the New Orleans 

 market from choice to ultra choice. The second product, boiled to 

 wagons at a high string-proof, is a fine-grained article which dries very 

 slowly in the centrifugals. As high as 50 per cent, commercial sugar 

 was, in at least one instance, secured from second massecuite. With 

 sufficient vacuum-pan capacity, this product might, the present season, 

 with its rich and pure juices, have probably better been grained in the 

 pan. For the first time in the history of the establishment, the entire 

 crop was reboiled to a blank string-proof for a third crystallization. 

 Though the second molasses so reboiled showed in some instances glu- 



