2Q0 TlMEHRI. 
are in Sangerhausen, and who have had very great 
experience in the most approved system of extracting 
sugar from the beet. That visit has, I am glad to inform 
members, resulted in a contra6t to furnish a complete 
diffusion plant for Mr. Hogg, to be ere6ted and worked 
by specialists from Germany ; so that before another 6 
months are over our heads, I hope diffusion may be 
added to the many successful improvements which have 
marked the advance of our main industry. 
As the question of slicing has given rise to the idea of 
its being the right thing to adopt for preparing canes for 
a mill, my friend Mr. McConnell, through Messrs. Aitken 
McNeil & Co., has sent me an improved slicing machine 
somewhat on the lines of those at work in Aska Works, 
Madras, and I have it erected at Uitvlugt for experimen- 
tal purposes. The machine is vertical with a heavy 
faced wheel, 6 feet in diameter for holding the cutting 
knives. Motion is given to it by the same engine which 
works the dynamo for electric lighting, and which works 
up to 14*1 H P. In a trial, working the slicing machine, 
this engine exerted fi H.P. cutting 2 tons of canes per 
hour, into most suitable chips for diffusing, thus; for 12 
tons of canes calculated to make a ton of sugar by diffu- 
sion process, this represents 42.6 H.P. or just half the 
power called for to crush a similar quantity of canes by 
mill, extraction being 63 per cent, of juice from the weight 
of the canes representing 2,000 pounds of sugar. 
To feed the machine kept a man hard at work feeding 
while the canes were placed to his hand. This is almost 
exactly the same man power as is required to throw canes 
on to a cane carrier, so that with our water carriage, I 
estimate that a slicing machine will call for double the 
