76 TiMEHRI. 



of the distillery, and this liquor showed no signs of the 

 usual vinous fermentation, which, though undesirable 

 from a distiller's point of view, shows that a radical 

 change in the constituents of the juice had been effe6led. 

 Unfortunately, the apparatus, with its sand and dia- 

 phragms, proved quite unworkable, and it was condemned ; 

 and I have heard no more of it. 



The failure of this particular plan may have been due 

 to details which could be altered. It seems a pity to let 

 the question drop. If ele6lricity will defecate cane 

 juice, surely the method of the application need present 

 no insuperable difficulties. 



Mr. C. Williams, who watched the experiment with 

 Mr, Gill's process, wanted to see if similar juice, with- 

 out lime, which had not been galvanized, would have 

 crystallized. He thought that the partial success might 

 have been due to an exceptional purity of cane juice at 

 that particular time, and was not to be attributed to any 

 eleftricity at all. Unfortunately, the experiment could 

 not be tried, as the smallest pan on that estate was so 

 large, that failure meant a serious monetary loss. 



It seems strange that there is no experimental fa6lory 

 in the colony, a laboratory where experiments could be 

 condu6ted on a commercial scale — large enough to see 

 how new methods would work in the plantation fa6lories, 

 and yet so small that failure should not cost so very 

 much. The expenses conne6ted with a small faflory, 

 with a little pan, of half a ton or so capacity, would not 

 be very great ; and they might, by arrangement, be 

 divided among all interestedj namely, the proprietors of 

 sugar plantations. 



Experiments on a large scale, even when successful, are 



