LOSS OCCASIONED BY IMPERFECT MACHINERY. 



79 



power expansive engine, with rollers 5 feet long and 28 

 inches in diameter, which make 2i revolutions per minute, 

 and will give from 2500 to 3000 gallons liquor per hoar. 

 This machinery was accompanied by five powerful vessels, 

 which are intended to clarify the whole of the cane juice by 

 the waste steam from the engine, and by boilers which are 

 meant to generate all the steam by the waste heat from 

 the coppers' flues. The cost of such an apparatus, with 

 two batteries of carron pans and ail appurtenances, com- 

 plete, is, I understand, about £2500. A second, of 12 

 horse power, having an expansive steam engine and gearing 

 to turn the rollers at 2i revolutions per minute, was 

 intended for " Tulloch " estate, Jamaica, and the others, 

 besides being geared to revolve at the same slow rate, had 

 also, in many cases, the additional apparatus for clarifying 

 by the engine's waste steam, and for generating all the 

 steam by boilers placed at the end of the coppers. These 

 last mentioned improvements, I am informed, have been 

 carried out on a great number of estates by Messrs. M'Onie 

 £c Mirrlees, during the last four years, particularly in the 

 island of St. Croix. 



It is evident, from what I have stated and quoted, that 

 it is in the power of the planter, by making the requisite 

 alterations in the machinery for crushing canes, to extract 

 50 per cent, more sugar than is now done; or, in other 

 words, every estate now making 100 tons of sugar loses 

 50 tons in the megass — one third of a crop which has been 

 brought to maturity at a heavy expense, and the proceeds of 



