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Edible Products. 



THE SUGAR MAKING INDUSTRY 

 IN INDIA. 



(From tb e Louisiana Planter and Sugar 

 Manufacturer, Vol. XL VI., No. 17, 



April 29, 1911.) 

 India is the greatest cane sugar-pro- 

 ducing country in the world, but not- 

 withstanding this fact, its sugar market 

 has been captured first by the beet 

 sugar, and later by cane sugar from 

 Mauritius and Java. This condition of 

 affairs has been brought about by the 

 backward state of the Indian sugar caue 

 industry in the matter of machine ap- 

 pliances. It is estimated that with 

 modern machinery and better organi- 

 zation of the industry, India could pro- 

 duce 50 per cent, more sugar. Sugar 

 cane is a crop particularly well-suited 

 to the country, and, in the matter of 

 sugar production, India ought to be an 

 exporting rather than an importing 

 country. The native mills are, accord- 

 ing to the American Consul in Bombay, 

 either the "kolhu," a mortar and pestle 

 arrangement, in which the cane is 

 bruised and pressed, or else wooden 

 roller mills, of which there are two 

 kinds— the "gundi," consisting of two, 

 sometimes three, upright wooden rol- 

 lers, and the " belna," used in the Pun- 

 jab, and made of two horizontal wooden 

 rollers. These mills are made locally at 

 a cost of from twenty-six to forty shil- 

 lings. They are hard to work, and do 

 the pressing very ineffectually. In many 

 parts of India these old, clumsy wooden 

 mills are being replaced by the iron 

 sugar mill. This improvement, how- 

 ever, was only effected after a close 

 study had been made of native ways and 

 requirements, and after the machines 

 had been adapted to these. The culti- 

 vators had experienced a great deal of 

 trouble in procuring an efficient machine 

 for crushing purposes, as, owing to their 

 lack of knowledge about machinery, the 

 imported machine soon got out of order, 

 with the result that the cane was imper. 

 fectly crushed. Most of the sugar pro- 

 duced in India is consumed in the form 

 of "gur," or unrefined sugar (correspond- 

 ing to the " Muscovado " of the West 

 Indian planters), because of its adapta- 

 bility to native sweetmeats and native 

 cookery. The establishment of large 

 central factories has been urged as a 

 means of increasing the sugar yield of 

 the country, and meeting the formid- 

 abla competition of the imported article, 

 Although there are a few factories of 

 considerable size, most Indian cane is 

 grown and manufactured by small cul- 

 tivators. Under present conditions the 

 large central factory is hardly prac- 



40 [July, 1911. 



ticable. The system of land tenure 

 which obtains practically throughout 

 the country is not adapted to such a 

 system. The soil is divided into a num- 

 ber of small holdings, which produce a 

 variety of crops, according to the fancy 

 of the cultivator. It is practically im- 

 possible, therefore, to secure a concen- 

 tration of sugar plantations around a 

 factory, and so long as cane is only 

 grown in small and isolated patches 

 through a radius of many miles, the cost 

 of handling and carriage, added to the 

 loss of sugar in transit, handicaps the 

 factory so much that success is out of 

 the question. The portable iron mill, 

 therefore, has been more practical, the 

 cheapness of Indian labour counter- 

 balancing the economies practicable in 

 the large central factories. About half 

 the sugar cane produced in India is 

 grown in the United provinces. The 

 American Consul states that Mr. W. H. 

 Moreland, Director of Land Records and 

 Agriculture, Lucknow, has given much 

 time and attention to the study of the 

 Indian sugar industry, and would, the 

 Consul believes, be interested to learn 

 of any new crushing machine which 

 would be adaptable to the needs of the 

 Indian cultivator. It is often through 

 the agricultural departments of the 

 various provinces that such things are 

 brought into the country. It is not 

 easy to introduce an article of this des- 

 cription into India, and unless firms are 

 prepared t<i go to a good deal of trouble, 

 and perhaps some expense, in learning 

 the exact needs of India in respect to 

 such machines, it will be useless to make 

 any such attempt. 



DOMESTIC RICE CULTURE 

 INCREASES RAPIDLY. 



(Prom the Louisiana Planter and Sugar 

 Manufacturer, Vol. XLVL, No. 17, 

 April 29, 1911.) 



The United States Department of 

 Agriculture has completed a report on 

 rice culture in the United States in 

 which, after an elaborate technical 

 survey of the subject, the Department 

 calls attention to the great changes in 

 the methods of cultivation as follows :— 



"In 1884 and 1885 a few farmers from 

 the North-western prairie States settled 

 on the great southern prairie which 

 extends along the coast from the parish 

 of St. Mary in Louisiana to the Texas 

 line about 140 miles. Finding that rice, 

 which had been grown for many years 

 for home consumption, but by Oriental 

 methods, was well-suited to conditions 

 of agriculture here, thev commenced 



