42 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



ated and overcome. But the planters themselves were not willing to make such an 

 experiment at their expense, and, there being no one else who seemed to be either 

 inclined or capable of doing it for them, the thing remained undone. 



In 1879, however, our Sugar Planters' Association again took notice of the process, 

 and appointed a committee, consisting of Messrs. Dymond, Godberry, and Laplace, 

 three prominent planters, who, after affording me the pleasure of showing them a 

 sketch and the workings of a modern diffusion apparatus, suitable for sugar-cane, 

 appeared to be quite satisfied, and concluded their subsequent report, as follows : 

 "The dearly learned lessons of the past bid fail - to so improve diffusion, as applied to 

 sugar-cane, that the cane planters adopting it shall so increase their yield and so 

 diminish their expenses that they will be able to hold their own against this Euro- 

 pean giant, grown suddenly so great and strong that ho now seems about to crush 

 the cane-producing world out of existence." 



" 3. How do you explain the indifference with which the planters generally regard 

 the process ?" 



Our planters do not regard the process with indifference, but have in general not a 

 very clear conception of the whole matter. The majority of all sugar-houses in Lou- 

 isiana are already so deficient in evaporation, that if the crop happens to be a little 

 larger, or the season be shortened by sudden changes in the weather, the planters are 

 immediately exposed to the danger of losing a part of their crap in the field, and as 

 this has already not unfrequently occurred with an extraction of merely two-thirds 

 of the juice, it would of course happen more frequently still if something like 50 per 

 cent, more juice was thrown upon their sugar-houses, unless their capacity for evapo- 

 ration should be very nearly doubled, so as to provide against every contingency. 

 Our planters generally have an idea that good evaporators are much more expensive 

 than bad or inferior ones; but this is a mistake. At all events the introduction of 

 good evaporators is of still more pressing necessity even than the increase of the ex- 

 traction. If diffusion had no other merit than to force our planters to improve their 

 evaporation — and it has done this in Europe — it would be one of the greatest blessings 

 that could be conferred upon our sugar industry. This subject, however, is so vast 

 and far-reaching in its relations to this great industry that I could not hope to do it 

 justice in a few passing remarks like the present. Suffice it to say, that evaporators 

 such as those which our planters are now getting at a comparatively great expense, 

 can no longer be seen, except in some of the most superannuated and poorly arranged 

 sugar factories of Europe or in the antiquated sugar-houses of tropical countries. 



In this respect the sugar-planters of the Hawaiian Archipelago are setting us an 

 example worthy of imitation, for, notwithstanding their great natural advantages, 

 they seem to be ever anxious and ready to take hold of every improvement or prog- 

 ress which the cane-sugar industry has been or is on the point of making. I was 

 therefore not much astonished to learn that the other day these planters had listened 

 with particular attention and favor to a proposition submitted to them with a view 

 of inducing their Government to appropriate $50,000 or $60,000 for the importation 

 from Europe of a diffusion apparatus and other machinery necessary to the establish- 

 ment of an experimental station, at which the process could receive a complete and 

 thoroughly scientific test. Considering the great influence which these sugar-plant- 

 ers have, and the great services which their industry has rendered to their Govern- 

 ment, it could scarcely deny them a favor so insignificant in comparison to the object 

 in view. 



But the planters of the Sandwich Islands are not alone in their endeavor to 

 advance their industry as much as they can: the sugar-planters of Cuba are afeo 

 earnestly thinking of improving especially their present unsatisfactory methods of 

 juice-extraction, and from information lately received I believe that they too intend 

 to give the process a fair trial next season. The necessity for these improvements is 

 imposed upon them by the recent abolition of slavery, by the growing scarcity of 

 labor, and by the nevertheless declining value of their products. It seems, therefore, 

 quite certain, that our planters also can no longer trust in the natural or artificial 

 advantages of their position, and that, on the contrary, they ought to use every 

 available means to economize in their expenditures, in their raw material and labor, 

 so that they too may be able to resist any further encroachments upon the value of 

 their crops and productions. 

 Most respectfully, 



R. SIEG. 



Prof. H. W. Wiley, Washington, D. C. 



EXPERIMENTS MADE IN GTJADALOUPE. 



The next account of experiments made with diffusion on sugar-cane 

 is in a communication by M. Edmond Riffard to the " Sucrerie Indi- 

 gene," published in the numbers for 19 th and 26th of June and 18th of 



