SUGAR PRODUCTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3733, 9 February 1875, Page 3

SUGAR PRODUCTION.

(From the Planters' Gazette ) The recent rise in the sugar market did not take place a moment before it was reahy wanted. The causes of this improvement maj be briefly summed up as—first, a dimieish'd supply from certain important centres of population ; and second, the considerable diminution of the stocks in the United Kingdom The low prices which have prevailed for a long time pa t and which threatened to become chronic, have no doubt affected the sugar from the beet as well as that from the cane. At the same time the English importer had not those artificial means which are so much in vogue on the Continent, of keeping open outlets for exportation, and having, Ssate subsidies or bounties, a partial command of different market?, The severe crisis through which the sugar industry has just passed has directed practical, if not painful attention to the cjue-tioa of extracting a greater quantity of jnice from the cane, as well as to that of promoting a .greater economy in production and manufacture generally. If by inquiries and experiments the tropical sugar industry is based upon a surer footing, the hard times which seem now to be passing will not have been without their advantage, however difficult they may have been for sugar producers to hear. We propose to in licate certain measures w Inch se m to have prominently forced themselves upon the attention of tropical producers. First, as to the extraction of a greater quantity of juice fr >m the cane. If this improvement could be effected, it would probably settle the relative merits of the cane and beet. It is estimated, though of c mrse nob demonstratively proved, that something approaching to twenty per cent of crystal usable matter is left in the cane afier being squeezed by the rollers The mo-t perfect grinding machines, as far as scientific attention has up to the present time b en directed to their construction, have been fitted up without, obtaining the detired Jesuit. The cane has ocoasjpaa'ly been passed a second time through the mill, but the a Iditional quantity of juice obtained has been uncertain, and scarcely sufficient to justify a permanent adoption of the proc s-!. The application of moisture to the crushed cane, and a final squeeze by hsdrauhe pr asure, ha been suggested and probably tried, but the doubt in this ca-<e is, whether the amount of juice obtained is sufficient, or of sufficiently good quality to warrant the expense of this process. The most obvious suggestion would be to obtain the boat scientific attention available. The beet industry has always had the highest chemical and mechanical skill of Europe at its command, and to this fact is owing its enormous progress during the last t<n or fifteen years. "Tim Guadaloupo Chamber of Agriculture, which is, of course, interested only in the cam*, has recognised the necessity for taking acdon in this reaped,, and has offered a substantial premium lor a process that drill permanently secure a ■ reater quantity of juice. Whether any of the British Colonies, whose weifaiv depends upon the same stap'e, will follow the example, of their neighbors, remains to be seen. But the proceedings of the French Chamber of 'grienFure prove that, in the opinion of practical sugar planters and makers, an increased yield of thu cane is feasible and nob unlikely to be obtained • and they also show that the beat scientific skill of the day must bo invoked to this cud. The system of central factories has been tried in the French C lonies with euoh suecess as to induce the Colonists of Trinidad the Leeward Islands, and Jamaica, to take i steps towards their establishment. Now i that the English sugar duties have been

abolished, and sugars of an inferior class have no longer the advantage of a scale graduated to their quality, it follows that the better the sugar is made and imported into the Home market, the greater becomeits chance of a profit able sale. But many holders ©f small e-tates have not the capita! necessary to obtain the machinery for the improvement of their produce, ami choi-e who have the capital keeping in view tiie uncertain prospects of the market, fear to risk it at a vent ure. Central factor tsarIvised upon the principle that th - business of the planter is distinct, and ought to be kept apart from that of the manufacturer. In the production of bread,-for instance, there are different and distinct industries, such as the farmer, the miller, and the baker. nd as the miller buys the raw material from the farmer, so the manufacturer should buy ins stuff from the planter, and having a large and permanent supply of his material from the nlr bating estates, he cau afford to employ a large amount of capital in the purchase of the Inst machinery, and in bringing together a sk ; lied staff. This principle of central factories is sound enough, especially as applied to a number of small estates which, working each for itself, would not lie able to employ the best means for economically turning out the superior qualities of sugar.