31 



trol than diffusion, owing to the empirical conditions under which it is 

 applied. 



The amount of water added is not known ; the amount of bagasse to 

 which it is added is not known, and there is no way of ascertaining 

 even approximately the amount of dilution, except by turning off the 

 water and comparing the juices. No hard. and fast rule can be laid 

 down as to gauging the dilution by comparison of the first and second 

 mill juices with the water running, as much depends upon the relative ex- 

 traction of the two mills. According to Mr. Young, 1 in the method as 

 used on the Waiakea plantation, Hawaiian Islands, the dilution is car- 

 ried to such an extent that the juice from the supplemental mill stands 

 one-fourth to one-third the density of that from the first mill. It will 

 be seen that this indicates a much greater dilution than the work at 

 Calumet or Des Lignes, and I hardly see how it would be possible to 

 attain it by simply sprinkling the carrier, which seems to have been 

 the method he employed. 



For a careful study of the operation some means of knowing the 

 amount of water added is very desirable. Doubtless the work at Calu- 

 met the coming season will throw much more light upon the matter 

 than we have at present. 



EXPERIMENTS SHOWING IMPROVEMENT IN CANE BY STANDING AND 



RIPENING. 



The mill was set in operation entirely too early in the season this 

 year. The crop was over-estimated, as it was almost universally this 

 season, and with the limited capacity of the house it was feared that if 

 the campaign was not opened early it would not be able to handle it 

 before freezing weather set in. Planters often have this problem pre- 

 sented to them. It is a matter of choice between two evils, whether to 

 work green cane on the one hand or to run the chance of an early 

 freeze on the other. Perhaps the extent of the former evil may not 

 be fully appreciated, however, and in this connection a few experiments 

 made with a view to ascertain the improvement that can be made by 

 standing cane towards the end of the season may prove of interest. 



On four different cuts a portion of the cane was left uncut and al- 

 lowed to stand until the last day of the campaign, when it was run 

 through the mill ; a sample of the juice obtained was submitted to analy- 

 sis, and compared with the juice from the same cane at the first cut- 

 ting. The number of comparisons was not great, but the conditions of 

 comparison were fairly good, as a considerable quantity of cane was 

 left for the second sample, enough to fill several carts, and the samples 

 of juice represented the entire body of cane pretty well, bein<r obtained 

 in a manner I have already described elsewhere. 1 The results of the 

 analysis may be relied on as giving accurately the relative composition 



'The Planters' Monthly, vol. S, IS-i'j, p. 17i>. 

 'Louisiana Planter, June 15, 1880. 



