20  Development  of  the  Sugar  Industry,  {^nu^m™' 
Previous  to  that  time,  the  juice  of  the  beets  had  been  removed  by 
pressing  the  ground  pulp ;  the  diffusion  battery  accomplished  the 
extraction  so  much  better  and  cheaper  that  its  adoption  became 
universal  within  a  few  years. 
In  1884  Wulff  perfected  the  crystallizer,  a  machine  in  which 
thick  mixtures  of  sugar  and  molasses  could  be  slowly  rotated  while 
cooling.  The  sugar  crystals  were  in  this  way  brought  constantly 
into  contact  with  fresh  portions  of  liquid  and  were  thus  built  up 
at  the  expense  of  the  sucrose  dissolved  in  the  molasses.  Previous  to 
this  invention,  crystallization  took  place  by  allowing  the  mixture 
of  sugar  and  molasses  to  stand  for  weeks  and  months. 
The  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  Cuba,  Louisiana, 
and  other  tropical  sugar-producing  countries,  and  the  consequent 
loss  of  cheap  labor,  at  first  caused  the  cane-sugar  industry  a  serious 
setback.  This  loss  was  aggravated  by  the  favoring  bounties  and 
protection  which  the  beet-sugar  industry  received.  In  order  to  com- 
pete with  its  younger  rival  the  cane-sugar  industry  found  it  necessary 
not  only  to  avail  itself  of  all  the  improvements  which  the  beet-sugar 
industry  had  developed,  but  to  strike  out  in  new  directions  of  its  own. 
The  greatest  loss  in  cane-sugar  manufacture  has  always  been 
the  inability  of  the  mills  to  express  all  of  the  sugar  from  the  cane. 
Attempts  to  apply  the  diffusion  process  to  the  cane  industry  had  to 
be  abandoned,  simply  for  the  reason  that  the  residue  of  cane  fibre 
was  left  in  so  wet  a  condition  that  it  could  not  be  used  for  fuel. 
The  lack  of  coal  and  cheap  fuel  in  the  tropics  makes  it  necessary  for 
the  cane-sugar  industry  to  depend  upon  the  extracted  fibre,  or  bagasse, 
for  generating  steam  for  engines  and  evaporators. 
The  two  great  improvements  which  the  cane  industry  had  to 
develop  for  itself  were  better  bagasse  burners  and  better  mills,  and 
these  two  appliances  stand  in  most  intimate  relationship,  since  the 
better  the  mills  the  drier  and  more  combustible  the  bagasse.  In  the 
old  days  of  weak  mills,  and  before  blowing  engines  were  used,. the 
bagasse  was  so  moist  that  it  had  to  be  dried  in  the  sun  before  it 
could  be  used  for  fuel ;  in  case  of  rain  it  had  to  be  raked  under  shelter 
and  spread  out  again  when  conditions  were  favorable.  This  process 
is  still  followed  in  primitive  countries.  In  the  most  modern  fac- 
tories the  bagasse  is  transported  by  carriers  directly  from  the  mill 
to  the  boilers,  where  it  is  burned  by  a  forced  draught  from  blowing 
machines ;  the  combustion  is  perfect  and  the  supply  of  bagasse  is 
sufficient  to  supply  all  the  fuel  for  operating  the  factory. 
