THE CUBA REVIEW 



33 



temperate climate, frost necessitating con- 

 stant replanting, and fear of frost requiring 

 that the cane be cut before it was fully 

 matured. The result has been that a ton 

 of cane yielded 6% sugar, as compared with 

 11% in Cuba and 14% in the Hawaiian 

 Islands." 



SIX MONTHS SUGAR CONSUMPTION 



An estimate of the first six months of 

 1914 consumption of sugar in the United 

 States is for 2,131,098 tons, which is an 

 increase over last year of 245,131 tons or 

 12.99'/o- This large increase, which is far 

 above the normal of approximately 4%, was 

 mostly expected and is caused by the lowering 

 of the United States sugar tariff, which went 

 into effect on March 1, 1914, together with 

 the influences of the large sugar crops in 

 all parts of the world, especially the Cuban 

 cane and United States beet crops, which 

 have turned out the largest on record. 



With warm weather for the balance of 

 the summer, the consumption of the country 

 should continue to be large and make the 

 consumption of the year a record one. 



The figm-es of all sugar consumption in 

 the United States follow. The figures are 

 in tons: 



1914 1913 1912 



2,131,098 1,885,967 1,814,292 



QUADRUPLE EFFECTS IN THE PHILIPPINES 



The Philippine Agricultural Review states 

 that, "the modern factories, built today, are 

 usually equipped with quadruple effects. 

 Triple effects doing most excellent work have 

 recently been installed at the Dinalupihan 

 factor}' in Bataan Province, and Tia Eugenia, 

 in Iloilo Province, Philippine Islands. The 

 last member of an effect usually has a vacuum 

 of about 25 inches (640 millimeters) merciu\y 

 when it is working properly. Untler these 

 conditions water will boil at a temperature of 

 56° C. (130° F.). Since heat is a destroyer of 

 sucrose, it will very readily be seen what a 

 great improvement vacuum evaporators are 

 over the old open-train type. 



In operating evaporators the valves may 

 be set so that a constant flow of juice is main- 

 tained from one effect to the other, and con- 

 sequently little attention will be required to 

 operate them. 



Evaporators are made in two general classes 

 — vertical and horizontal. They may be 

 further classified as submerged-tube, film, 

 etc., evaporators. 



Regarding Lillie evaporators, manufac- 

 tured by the sugar apparatus manufacturing 

 company of Philadelphia, the article says: 



"This apparatus has a peculiar design, 

 since centrifugal pumps are used as a circu- 

 lating medium to keep the juice flowing over 

 the horizontally arranged tubes, and it may 

 also be reversible with regard to steam as well 

 as the juice. This has the effect of keeping 

 the tubes clean for a much longer period, 

 thus dininishing the amount of work required 



as well as increasing evaporator capacity. It 

 is one of the best types of film evaporators, 

 as the hydrostatic head is entirely removed. 



The Guanica factory of Porto Rico is 

 equipped with three sets of quadruple effects 

 of this type, capable of evaporating 40,000 

 gallons (1,514.17 hectoliters) of mixed juice 

 each to a sirup of 30 Baume in twenty-four 

 hoiu-s. Also the new Meeker sugar factory 

 of Louisiana was recently equipped with a 

 quadruple effect of this type. 



One is somewhat surprised to find an appa- 

 ratus which is usually used in the sugar house 

 speeding about over the great ocean, handling 

 an entirely different substance and turning 

 out in this case, as the finished product, 

 vapors of pure water, which in the sugar house 

 was an entirely waste product. The United 

 States steamer Dixie was recently equipped 

 with reversible quadruple effects of this style 

 for the purpose of evaporating salt water 

 from the sea. A surface condenser is used 

 in this case, since the vapors must not be- 

 come contaminated wdth the water used for 

 this purpose. The 950 square feet of heating 

 surface in this apparatus have a capacity of 

 25,000 gallons (946 hectoliters) in twenty-four 

 hours. 



CENTRIFUGAL SUGAR PRICES 



The prices at Havana for centrifugal sugar, 

 96-degi-ee polarization, from December, 1912, 

 to and including July, 1914, is officially 

 quoted by the Agrarian League of Havana 

 as follows: 



The prices are quoted in reales, per arroba 

 (25 pounds). 



Dec, 1912. . . 4 . 68 . 5 Oct., 1913 ... 3 . 86 . 3 

 Jan., 1913... 3. 90. 9 Nov., 1913.. .4. 15.7 

 Feb., 1913... 3. 80. 7 Dec, 1913. . .3.62.7 

 Mar., 1913. .3.97.7 Jan., 1914. . .3.65.9 

 April, 1913. .3.69.7 Feb., 1914. . .3.78.8 

 May, 1913. . . 3 . 52 . 6 Mar., 1914. . . 3 . 55 . 5 

 June, 1913. . . 3 . 57 . 7 April, 1914. . . 3 . 53 . 5 

 July, 1913... 3. 91. 2 May, 1914. ..4.10 

 Aug, 1913... 4. 40. 8 June, 1914.. 4.33.8 

 Sept., 1913... 4. 39 Julv, 1914. ..4.28.9 



COMPRESSED SUGAR PROPOSED 



A new method of shipping raw sugar 

 consists of eliminating the use of the jute 

 bags at present employed, and to compress 

 the raw sugar into cubes of about 100 lbs. 

 weight having recesses for handholds. The 

 corners of the cubes would be well rounded, 

 and each may or may not be enveloped with 

 a light inexi)ensive covering which would 

 only be u.sed to ke?p the sugar clean, and 

 prevent losses from surface scratches. Or- 

 tlinary raw sugar is capable of being coni- 

 l)ressed to about 50% of its volume, the re- 

 suhing mass being very tenacious and not 

 easily broken by ordinary handling. At the 

 refinery, a suitable crusher will break up 

 the pressed material for remelting. In this 

 way a saving of 75% of the cost of the present 

 system would be effected, it is claimed, be- 

 sides having the sugar in a handy form for 

 shipment. — Agricultural News. 



