79 



Edible Products. 



12" x 13" mill, 700 tons of sugarcane, and produced 118 tons of jaggery which he .sold 

 at Rs. 12C per ton, equivalent to a total value of lis. 14,160, and if he had had the 

 additional plant for making white sugar direct from the cane, his product would 

 have been 85 tons of white crystals, and 33 tons of molasses, which would have 

 had a value of at least Rs. 200 and Rs. 40 per ton, respectively, in all Rs. 18,320, 

 and produced without a single pound of fuel being purcliased except that required 

 to make a start with : — 



Dear Sib,— As promised in my last letter I herewith send you a short 

 account of the working of the cane mill supplied by you. The steamer which 

 brought out the mill arrived at Madras on the 16th February, and after a delay 

 of twenty days caused in landing and transhipping the mill arrived at my estate 

 on the 8th March. By that time I had the oil engine, a 6i B. H. P. one. fixed in 

 position and in working order, and got ready the foundation for fixing the mill, 

 besides having the boiling pans, pumps, water tanks, taps, etc., in fact the whole 

 show, in order. So I lost no time in mounting the mill on the foundation and 

 fixing it in position. The plan of the mill supplied by you beforehand enabled 

 me to do this to a nicety without the help of any professional fitter. I started work 

 on the 14th March, and closed it on the 2nd May crushing 25 acres of cane within 

 that period working at the rate of 16 hours a day. 1 could have worked more hours, 

 of course, but as I had no prior experience of oil engines, 1 had not provided for 

 two water tanks for keeping the engine cylinder cool and had consequently to 

 suspend work at the end of every eight hours, for by that time the water in the 

 tank would very nearly get to the boiling point. Next season I shall provide 

 against this. 



Dr. Lehmann, the Agricultural Chemist in this State, kindly visited my 

 estate and made experiments as regards the crushing capacity of the mill, the 

 extraction, the quality of the juice and the jaggery produced. Your mill, I am 

 glad, successfully stood the test, and as the last minute of the hour expired the 

 last cane of the ton experimented upon came out of the mill crushed. The extent 

 of my cane fields was 25 acres and contained 8,000 shoots to the acre, giving an 

 average of 28 tons of cane to the acre. 



A ton of cane yielded 3| pansful of juice of 180 seers each, which on boiling 

 yielded 14 maunds of 27 lb. of jaggery. I sold the jaggery at Rs. 120 per ton 

 exclusive of commission, etc. My expenses for the conversion of cane to jaggery 

 came up to 4 as. per maund or Rs. 100 per acre, including cost of establishment, 

 cutting and carting of cane to mill, oil, fuel, etc. I did not use the pith as fuel but 

 used nearly 200 tons of good firewood. The cost of fuel could be cut short by using 

 the pith, and I wish you will kindly suggest the use of some machinery for evaporat- 

 ing the juice using the pith as fuel. 



The news had spread far and wide that a cane crushing mill driven by au 

 engine was for the first time to be brought to Ooraghally and worked there, so 

 on the day the machinery actually arrived and was transhipped from Bidadi 

 Railway Station, quite a crowd of people followed the carts carrying the machinery 

 all the way from Bidadi to my estate, and very good naturedly rendered me not a 

 little assistance. The noise caused by the lamp used for heating the vaporiser 

 created not a little surprise, as no steam issued out as when a steam engine blows 

 out, and many questioned me why the engine did not whistle. Most of them 

 studied intently the different parts of the engine and the mill and their working. 



Every day brought hundreds of persons from all the country round, and 

 many came from distances of 30 and 40 miles. The ryots were not at all apathetic 

 in this matter, as it is usual with them to be in other matters. More than the 

 Sudras I found the Pariahs were eager to learn all about the machine- Some whom 



