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THE CUBA REVIEW 



MORE ABOUT SHREDDED CANE 



SUGGESTION TO HOLD THE DRY CANE FOR THE NON-REAPING SEASON 



THE NEW M MULLEN SUGAR PROCESS 



The experiments in connection with the 

 new McMullen Sugai- process are being 

 prosecuted with great vigor, and though 

 the patent owners are keeping the matter 

 very quiet, we are in position to state that 

 10,000 tons of cane, shredded and dried 

 in a way pecuHar to the new process, have 

 been prepared on the Cuba plantations of 

 the United Fruit Company, and shipped to 

 arrive at Madison, Wisconsin, by the end 

 of May. 



It will be recollected that in commenting 

 on the previous experiments in our October 

 issue of last year, we stated that the 

 United Fruit Company had obligated 

 themselves to an enormous extent in con- 

 nection with the new process, having paid 

 one and a half million dollars for one-half 

 share of the patent rights, and further hav- 

 ing undertaking to provide forty milHon 

 dollars capital for establishing refineries 

 in the United States to manufacture sugar 

 by the new process. It is in connection 

 with the latter provision, it is said, that the 

 huge quantity of cane is now on its way 

 to Madison, to enable experiments to be 

 conducted on a scale more approximating 

 to that that will have to be employed in 

 actual manufacturing for commerce. Spe- 

 cial machinery enabUng this to be done has 

 been installed in a beet factory at Madison. 



The inventor of this new process, which 



— if all that is claimed for it is verified — 

 will undoubtedly bring about an entire 

 revolution in the sugar world, is a Cana- 

 dian. Seen recently Mr. McMullen was 

 even more optimistic, if that is possible, of 

 the prospects of his process than he was 

 when first he announced his discovery to 

 the world. A full report of the process, 

 given in an interview with the inventor, 

 appeared in our last November issue. — 

 Canadian W. India Mag., Mont, May, 1913. 

 Commenting on the McMullen process, 

 the West India Committee Circular says, 

 that "under the present American customs 

 tariff the sugar in the dried cane would 

 go in duty free, which is, we take it, the 

 raison d'etre of the process. Otherwise 

 there is no reason why the paper stock 

 should not be made on the estate as well, 

 and the cost of drying the megass saved. 

 When all the considerations and the process 

 are boiled down, we get back to diffusion 

 instead of milling. As we have before 

 pointed out there is just a chance that it 

 might pay to erect a smaller factory to 

 work all the year round, instead of only in 

 the crop season, drying the cane for the 

 non-reaping season ; but this is very doubt- 

 ful. The question of the use of megass for 

 paper making has been so long before the 

 cane sugar world without any definite view 

 of profit from it, that doubts arise as to 

 the pecuniary advantage of converting it 

 into paper instead of fuel." 



Ruins of mill at Preston, Nipe Bay, used in the experiments for 

 defibering cane. The mill was burnt down April 26th. 



