64 TlMEHRI. 
naturally be asked, ' can the same proportion be recov- 
ered as dry crystals as from mill juice ?' 
It must be admitted that in the trials at La Belle 
Alliance the yield of dry sugar from the massecuite was 
far less than it should have been, viz., only 50 per cent., 
while that from massecuite obtained from mill juice and 
treated in the same boiling house was 57 per cent. 
Fortunately a sufficient explanation of this is given. It 
appears that the diffusion battery produced juice more 
rapidly than the pan could take it off. The boiling 
house was thus always behind hand, and the syrup 
always stale. Mr. E. D. Seghers, who was watching 
the operations complains in his report of his inability 
to prevent this ' suicidal policy of trying always to 
work up old syrup.' It is reassuring to find that 
later on the vacuum pan, having run night and day, 
and Sunday too, at last did succeed by Monday, 
December 21st, in catching up, so as to have fresh 
syrup to boil down on Monday and Tuesday ; and on 
those two days the strikes granulated as well as any 
made this season, and the sugar equal to any yet made.' 
Again it is stated that at Mon Repos, in Guadeloupe, a 
yield of 12J per cent, of white sugar was obtained from 
the cane by diffusion. Supposing, as is doubtless the 
case, that this was got in three grades, and that the canes 
were exceptionally good, it is still evident that the yield 
of first crystals must have been very satisfactory. It is 
a very striking fa6l that in the La Belle Alliance 
trials in Louisiana, in spite of the very much smaller 
proportion of dry sugar recovered from the massecuite 
of diffusion than from that of the mill, the percentage of 
dry sugar from the cane was nevertheless greater for 
