SUGAR, 



201 



canes, and one mule on a good level ordinary tramway can draw 

 easily two waggons. The waggon, when brought to the mill itself, 

 conveys the canes to the rollers, the megass being elevated by power 

 to a platform over the boilers. The juice on leaving the mill bed 

 falls through three strainers into a tank which has a double bottom 

 heated by steam. It is treated here with a little bisulphite of lime, 

 and is then run into a monte-jus. This monte-jus by steam sends 

 the juice up to the clarifiers, where it is heated in the ordinary way 

 and tempered with lime properly. From this it is passed to the 

 charcoal filters, through which it gravitates, and then passes by a 

 gutter into a receiver. From this it is passed to a monte-jus and is 

 thrown up by steam into a cistern over the " triple effet," passing from 

 the first to the second, and from the second to the third boiler, as 

 the attendant wishes. When it leaves the third boiler it is, gene- 

 rally speaking, 25° Beaume, and is immediately passed over new re- 

 burned charcoal. It gravitates through this and falls into another 

 receiver, from which the vacuum pan takes it up and boils it to sugar. 

 The first quality sugar is generally crystallized in the pan, and is 

 then dropped into sugar boxes which stand 7 feet from the ground ; 

 under these boxes a little charging vessel runs on a railway that is 

 hung from the bottom of the said boxes, and this vessel conveys the 

 sugar over the centrifugals, where it is cured ; the molasses from this 

 being boiled up, when found in good condition, with the syrup of the 

 following day. When these molasses are thick and clammy they are 

 boiled into mass by themselves and dropped into sugar boxes, where 

 they are allowed to granulate for a number of days. This makes the 

 second quality sugar, and the molasses from this, along with the 

 skimmings and subsidings of the clarifiers, go to make rum. The 

 juice that leaves the clarifiers does not pass over fresh charcoal, but 

 follows the syrup from the " triple effet," this assisting to wash out the 

 sweets which may have been left by the syrup. 



The following figures show the weight of canes delivered to the 

 factories in the three years commencing with 1869 : 





Year. 



Tons. 



Kilos. 







1869 



17,808 



17,808,217 







1870 



42,808 



42,808,079 







1871 



68,745 



68,745,493 





This year (1872), notwithstanding the severe drought, the receipt 

 of canes was upwards of 75,000,000 kilos., or 75,000 tons. 



Thus, in the first three years, the growth of canes upon plantations 

 under contract to the Usine had quadrupled, and the management, 

 accused at first of having established a factory in a district devoid of 

 canes, have been compelled to erect a third large and powerful mill, 

 with its accessories, to provide for the reception of the normal quan- 

 tity of canes expected, viz. 100,000,000 kilos., or 100,000 tons per 

 annum. 



