224 TlMEHRI. 
Mr. E. E. H. Francis read the following paper on 
" Cane Crushing" in which he gave the results of some 
Laboratory experiments as to the proportional quantities 
of juice and fibre contained in certain samples of Sugar 
Cane, as compared with the quantity of juice expressed : 
As a contribution to the discussion on cane mills raised by Mr. 
Skekel, I beg to call attention to what appears to me to be a remark- 
able, and an important point bearing on the subjedt ; namely, that the 
percentage of juice obtained by crushing, is not altogether a function 
of the power of the mill, as it is usually assumed to be ; nor, a fixed 
power being given, is it wholly dependent on the proportion of fibre (or 
juice) existing in the cane. At any rate, those are the conclusions that 
I have arrived at from the results of a large number of experiments 
made at the Government Laboratory — a table * of which I have the 
honour herewith to present to the Society. 
The mill used in the experiments was specially made for the 
laboratory at the Demerara Foundry. It has three rollers of dimensions 
6x4 inches, which are turned by two powerful cranks a6ting 
dire6lly on the upper or middle roller — motion being communicated to 
the two lower ones by means of cogs. I submit a drawing for 
inspection. 
For feeding the mill the canes are cut into three or four lengths, each 
of these being then split in halves lengthways. The pieces are first run 
through the mill singly, then placed in pairs and passed through again 
with the rollers set closer, and so on a third or fourth time until no 
more juice can be obtained. By first weighing the cut canes and then 
the megass, the proportion of juice extracted is ascertained and the 
whole operation occupies about ten minutes. To determine the amount 
of fibre, the megass is alternately soaked in water and then passed 
through the mill, until all remaining sugar and other soluble matters 
are removed. The fibre, squeezed as dry as possible, is then tied up 
like a parcel in a sheet of filtering paper, and kept in a hot air oven at 
a temperature of ioo° to 105 C. until it ceases to lose weight. This 
takes about four days. Finally, the fibre is completely burnt, and the 
weight of the ash deducted. 
The procedure is pradtically the same in all cases, nevertheless, it 
will be seen from the table that the expression varied from 50.4 per 
* See page 226. 
