30 



double milling vvitb maceration between the mills, and I would advise 

 any one who desired to make a study of the matter to consult the Ger- 

 man and French authorities on u double pressure." A few years ago it 

 was held by many, especially in France, that diffusion would never sup- 

 plant the use of continuous presses with maceration. Time has shown 

 them to be wrong in this, however, and diffusion is conceded to be the 

 method par excellence for juice extraction by the entire sugar-making 

 world. 



But there is no doubt whatever that double milling with maceration 

 could be made as superior to the old method of single milling in cane 

 work as the continuous presses with maceration have been shown to 

 be superior to the method of single pressure in a hydraulic press with 

 beets. In beet work the maceration is carried much further than in 

 the simple method used in cane, which is not properly maceration but 

 saturation. Water is added not only between the two pressings, but 

 also to the first pulp before the first pressing. The quantity of water 

 added is from 40 to 50 per cent, of the weight of the beets, and macer- 

 ating machines are used to tear up the pulp between the presses and 

 mix it with the maceration water. 



According to Stammer, 1 the method which has given the best results 

 is to return the dilute juice from the second pressing to the fresh pulp, 

 the water being added between the presses. This might be possible 

 with cane in connection with shredding. It seems hardly necessary or 

 advisable to go into the refinements of the method of maceration in the 

 effort to adapt them to cane work, in view of the fact that improvements 

 in this line have been abandoned for the better method of diffusion. 

 Considering it simply as a make shift, therefore, as Mr. Thompson calls 

 it in his letter to Mr. Wilkinson on this subject, 2 the question is how 

 best to use it in connection with the present mill plants, until such time 

 as these can be exchanged for the diffusion battery. There can be no 

 doubt whatever of its efficiency, even in the crude and simple manner 

 in which it is now applied. 



The experiments at Calumet, which will be described in Mr. Edson's 

 report, were much more thorough and conclusive than mine, and the 

 results are equally favorable to maceration. This was doubtless a sea- 

 son in which it was particularly applicable, on account of the hard and 

 woody nature of the cane ; but still the conclusion can be drawn with 

 tolerable certainty that the extraction of a double mill can be increased 

 fully 5 per cent, with a dilution of only 10 per cent., by simply sprink- 

 ling the intermediate carrier with water. The simplicity of the matter 

 is more apparent than real, however; for if it were desired to regulate 

 it carefully, and adjust dilution to extraction so as to attain the most 

 economical results, it would be found more difficult to gauge and con- 



1 Lehrbnch <ler Znckerfabrikation, vol. 1. 



"The Diffusion Process," pamphlet by J. B. Wilkinson : New Orleans, 1889, 

 page 54. 



