Edible Products. 



322 



[April, 1912. 



other countries, but so far as I am 

 able to do so, the [following may be 

 given. Cuba, Rs. 100 ; Louisiana, Rs. 26 ; 

 Java, Rs. 30. The Cuba estimate is based 

 on a production of about 30 tons cane 

 per acre. But if the cost in India is 

 really greater than in Java, it is difficult 

 to see how it can be reduced. The 

 solution of the difficulty clearly depends 

 on condition (iii), and if India is to avoid 

 her current very large sugar bill, she 

 must increase the outturn per acre and 

 extract a larger proportion of the sugar 

 which is in the cane. 



It will probably be best to consider 

 first the question of extracting a larger 

 proportion of the sugar from the cane. 

 It is well known that the amount of 

 juice expressed from cane depends on 

 the efficiency of the mill. We are not 

 considering here whether one sort of 

 cane will yield more juice than another, 

 but purely the outturn of juice from 

 any cane when crushed by good and bad 

 mills respectively. The best mills are 

 no doubt those which are working in 

 the large factories. Here the presence 

 of the engineer secures that the mills 

 are kept in good repair, and over and 

 above this, the cane passes from the first 

 mill along a "feeder "to a second mill, 

 and is on the way wetted with water, so 

 that a further quantity of juice is 

 obtained, albeit much diluted ; and this 

 process is repeated a third time in the 

 most modern factories. Passing from 

 this in the downward scale, we have 

 power-driven mills badly cared for, the 

 small iron bullock-driven mills so largely 

 used by the cultivator, and finally the 

 old wooden mills of various patterns 

 which have practically disappeared in 

 India. Comparing the small bullock 

 power iron mill which has come into 

 such general use in India during the 

 last twenty years, with the best steam- 

 "driven mills, it is quite easy to argue 

 that the latter will extract much more 

 sugar from cane than the former. If both 

 are in good repair, it is probable that the 

 steam-driven mill will extract from one- 

 eight to one-filth more. With the aid of 

 the best mills, with double and treble 

 crushing 90 to 94 per cent, of the juice is 



obtained, from which we may deduce 

 the following. It is usual to obtain 

 from the thick varieties of cane grown 

 in Southern India 70 per cent, juice, the 

 total being about 90 percent, in the cane. 

 A steam-driven mill of good type with 

 double or treble crushing will not extract 

 more than about 80 per cent. From the 

 thin canes containing about 85 per cent, 

 juice, a good pattern bullock-power mill 

 will extract 60 per cent., whilst a steam 

 power mill would extract about 79 per 

 cent. Unfortunately the small bullock- 

 driven mill is often at a disadvantage for 

 want of being kept in good order. For 

 example, in a test made by Mr. Mollison 

 some years ago at Dharwar one iron mill 

 expressed one-sixteenth more juice than 

 another pattern, and Khan Bahadur Md. 

 Hadi quotes cases in which a well-made 

 mill extracted from one-tenth up to one- 

 fifth more juice than mills found in 

 villages. Again, Mr. Moreland has stated 

 that the examination of the stock of 

 mills in one sugar centre revealed the 

 fact that not one was fit for use, and the 

 same was found in another large tract 

 of country, and he adds " at a very low 

 estimate I believe that the effective 

 yield of juice per acre could be increased 

 by 10 to 15 per cent, if efficient mills were 

 procurable." In fact, one of the chief 

 defects of the small mill is the difficulty 

 of maintaining such a very large number 

 in good working order. 



Adding to defective working the fact 

 that the best of these small iron mills 

 could not compete with the best power 

 mills in which the cane is "double" 

 crushed, one is apt to assume that, were 

 all India's cane crushed by the latter, an 

 increased yield of something like one- 

 fifth more sugar would result. And one- 

 fifth more sugar is equivalent to India's 

 imports ! But such an estimate over- 

 looks one or two features which con- 

 siderably modify it. In the first place, 

 all the cane of India will not, in our 

 time, be crushed by the best power mills. 

 Circumstances are generally opposed to 

 such a huge change. Then, secondly, 

 power mills are not necessarily better 

 than the small iron mill. For instance, 

 at the recent Exhibition at Allahabad 



