32 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



SUGAR IN THE MAKING 



HOW SUGAR IS MADE 



The cane is brought to the mill in carts 

 or cane cars and is dumped into great hop- 

 pers from which it is carried on a belt 

 conveyor and fed to the crushers or grind- 

 ers, which press the last possible drop of 

 precious juice out of it. This flows in a 

 steady and abundant stream into vats, 

 where an addition of lime precipitates the 

 solid parts to the bottom, after which it is 

 pumped into the evaporating pans, where 

 it boils at a low temperature by reason of 

 the creation of a partial vacuum over the 

 liquid. The technique of the whole opera- 

 tion would require a long description, but 

 in brief it passes through various evaporat- 

 ing processes down the line of the mill 

 until the juice that was at first thin and 

 watery reaches the crystallizing stage, 

 when it appears as a pasty, sticky brown 

 mass of the consistency of mortar. 



It is now sugar, but it is mixed with 

 molasses, which must be separate. This is 

 done in the modern mill by centrifugal 

 force. The pasty, sticky mass is placed 

 in a cylinder, perforated by small openings. 

 This is caused to revolve at great speed 

 and the molasses escapes through the open- 



ings while the sugar remains inside. This 

 sugar is a dark brown and not the ordinary 

 sugar of commerce. In this shape it is 

 sold to the refineries which put it through 

 various processes to whiten it. It is, how- 

 ever, said to be richer and more nutritious 

 as it comes from the mill. 



The molasses is that part of the juice of 

 the cane which refuses to crystallize, but 

 in the old style of mills the process of 

 separation was imperfect and a good deal 

 of sugar remained in the molasses, which 

 is the reason that old fashioned cane syrup 

 was so much better than that which is 

 ordinarily obtainable nowadays. At these 

 mills a part of the molasses is put through 

 a second process, so that any sugar that 

 may have escaped may be recovered. All 

 that science and miechanical ingenuity can 

 do to make the cane yield up every ounce 

 of marketable material is done. 



The cane, after the juice has been 

 pressed out of it, is used for fuel under 

 the boilers. It is claimed by the officials 

 of these mills that under old methods and 

 with old-fashioned machinery scarcely half 

 the juice was compressed from the cane 

 and that after that, hardly half the sugar 

 was recovered. — Pittsburg Gazette-Times. 



Another interior view of the Jobabo mill in Oriente Province, owned by the Cuba Company. 

 Mr. L. M. A. Evans is administrador of the estate. 



