804 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June 1, 1900. 
though the maigin of profit may not be large enough 
in comparison with crops like paddy, jute and 
potatoes. Yours faithiuHy, 
JOGENDRA NaIH MiTRA 
Proprietor, Pioneer Agricultural Par/ii, 
Ajhapur. 
21, Steand Road, 
Calcutta, 5th Match, 1900. 
Statement of outlay on pioduction nf sugarcane 
in the undersigned farm at Ajhapur, Biirdwan. 
Expenses. 
R. a. p. R. a. p. R. a. p, 
CMt<i)i</S"" Shamshara "... 6 2 0 
"Khari" ... . . ... 3 8 0 
9 10 0 
Manure— 10 mds. Castor 
Cake 19 0 0 , 
450 1b. Bonemeal ..15 0 0 
2mds. Rapeseed Cake.. 2 4 0 
Bli 4 0 
Fencing — 12 0 0 
Cultivation— Induiing 
ploughing, planting, 
hoeing, irrigating and 
tying up of leaves ..79 3 9 
Crushing— Bhe of Mills ... 8 0 0 
Hire of Bullocks ..780 
15 8 0 
Fuel— 19 6 
Earthern Vessels— ior boil- 
ing and keeping juice 
and gur 3 19 
Lahow — for making gur... 27 4 0 
184 9 0 
Returns. 
B. mds, 29-20 0, at 
R. ...147 8 0 
Cuttings— 1 Kahons at R3 21 0 0 
-168 8 0 
L033 R. 
16 1 0 
Aiea cultivated, 26 cottahs. Mill used — Thompsjn 
and Mylnes 2 roller. 
(Sd.) Jogendra Nath Mitha. 
Calcutta, Isth Febiuarii 1895. 
[Note]. — We have much pleasure in publishing the 
above, as it goes to show that agricultural experi- 
ments are conducted by the sons of the soil in an 
intelligent spirit of enquiry. Our figures were taken 
as a inliole from the report on the Cawnpore Ex- 
perimental Farm for 1898-99. The detailed figures 
will be found at page 12 of the report. Here are 
the figures for one plot, 9''>8 square yards : — Rent, 
R12; ploughing, RG-4 ; manures. R18-5-3 ; wages of 
weighing, cariing and spreading, R2-8 ; seed, R68-14; 
wages of sowing, R4.12 ; weeding, hoeing, etc., R18-14-6 ; 
irrigation; canal dues, R3 5-4 ; labour, R14-2 ; cutting, 
crushing and gur-making, Rlb9-7 3 ; total, R338.8-10 ; 
estimated price of gur per acre, R151-9 ; loss, 
R181-15-10. It is added that " the actual price of 
gur sold in tlie market, including commission of the 
auctioneer at 5 per cent., haa been distributed accor- 
ding to the outturn of gur from each plot."— Ed. /.(?.] 
SUGAR CULTIVATION IN AUSTRALIA. 
The cultivation of sugarcane is largely carried on in 
the northern coast districts of New South Wales, 
where soil and climate are admirably adapted for 
that purpose. In a recent issue of ihe Afiricu/tni-al 
Gazette, published by the New South Wales Depart- 
ment ot Agiicnkure, some details of the cutting and 
latter nrocesses of th-i industry are given, and sugar- 
planters in the West Indies and India may thus com- 
pare these with their own methods. As regards cane- 
cutting, it is said a gang of good men can each 
cut, top, and load nbout six tons of cane a day. 
After the cnne has been hauled to the nearest mill, 
of which Ihcie a-e several, the largest being owned 
by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, which 
virtuallv has contiol of the Australian tugar supply, 
it is taken to tlie carrier— a great endless belt made 
of wooden battens — about 5 feet wide, running from 
a sort of trough to the shredding and crashing machin- 
ery. On each side of the trough a cane laden drogher 
is moored, and men throw the canes evenly on the 
belt, which revolves slowly, and is at times stopped 
to prevent checking of the shredding appliances. "As 
the cane is carried up it is toppled on to the shred- 
der, and falls from there, commingled with water, 
on to a crusher. The juice flows away beneath, and 
the woody matter is elevated to a macerating tank, 
and again passed through powerful rollers, which 
crunch out the last possil.Ie vestige of juice. Then 
the megass is carried away by means of an elevator 
to a loft from which it is fed — down shutes — to the 
furnaces, whi;h it assists in feeding. The juice from 
the rollers pours down channels — The stream from 
the first crushing being far more copious than from 
the second — and into a reservoir, whence it is raised 
to vats in the next storey. Here it is heated to 
boiling-point, and lime is added to precipitate organic 
matter mechauically suspended in the juice. A quan- 
tity of waste matter is also cast to the surface, and 
this is skimmed off by the men in charge of the 
vats. After a couple of skimmings, the hot juice runs 
into the subsidtr, a huge vat on the ground floor. 
It is left in the subsider a little while to enable any 
dirt to settle down to the bottom. Meanwhile, the 
refuse from the skimmings and precipitation, with a 
little more lime added, is parsed through the filter 
presses, contiivances in which enormous pressure is 
effected by means of screw turned by wheels. The 
presses are not unlike concertinas in construction, 
and at each bugle or segment there is a tap — a re- 
gular regiment of taps — opening over a little gutter, 
from which any juice extracted runs into the sub- 
sider. The residue is a dark, slightly moist mass of 
material, called filter-press muck, which, on ac- 
count of the lime it contains in the first place, and 
of the organic matter, is a comparatively useful fer- 
tiliser and source of soil humus. The juice is 
taken from the subsider to the evaporators (on the 
top floor). These are huge vats, in which the juice 
is raised to boiling-point again, with the object of 
driving off in the form of steam, the water tiiat has 
been added in maceration and is contained in the 
juice itself. The juice (or solution as it is called) 
goes into the evaporator at a certain temperature to 
an appliance for determining the density or per- 
centage of sugar, and passes through a series of four 
evaporators. In each evaporator there is a sort of 
window, in which the solution can be observed 
boiling furiously. On emerging from the fourth and 
last evaporator the solution has become a fairly thick 
syrup, and is passed up into the vacuum pans and after- 
wards to ti'C centrifugals. When cooled the sugar 
is removed to a funnel, through which it passes in 
a brownish yellow stream into bags holding about 
two hundred-weight each. Each bag is sewn up with 
twine, each mill employing a distinctive colour, and 
shipped to the refineries in Sydney, from which it 
finds its way into every part of the Southern 
Hemisphere. 
China Tea: A Hopeful Outlook.— In his 
report of the Foreign trade of (jhina in 1S99, 
Mr. Taylor, the Statistical Secretary at Hong- 
kong, states that, the black tea export trade is 
reviving, in spite of the hold of Indian and 
Ceylon teas on the English market. Mr. Taylor 
derives comforts, not dissatisfaction, from (.•oini)ari- 
son of Chinese and Indian exports. If, he says in 
effect, India with her excellent roads, her railway 
system, and iier light taxation, can show a total 
export trade three 1 inie.s the size of China's, has 
he not reason to be optimistic about the future 
of China, larger in extent, naturally licher, in- 
habited by a more numerous and more industrious 
population, when she shakes off the burden of a 
lack of roads, absence of railways and a crushing 
taxation t— Pioneer, April 27. 
