The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Science
The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.
Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Botany, Economic
By this, according to Mr. Fownes, a gain of from 20 to 30 per cent.,
equivalent to as much marketable sugar, may be obtained without any
additional expense; but as, from Mr. Fownes' own showing, there is a
residuum of 10 to 15 per cent of liquor obstinately retained by the
megass, or cane trash, after the most powerful pressure to which it
can be subjected; much, if not all, even of this loss might be
prevented by subjecting the megass, on issuing from between the
rollers, to the action of water for a brief time, passing it once more
through the mill, and adding the saccharine solution so obtained, or
that obtained directly from the cane on its first crushing. The water
thus employed would serve for many successive portions of megass,
until at length it became so richly loaded with saccharine matter as
to be worth attention in the boiling-house; or, at all events, it
would be serviceable for the cattle, who would fatten rapidly upon it.
By this additional process a further gain of at least five per cent.
might be expected, raising the total gain from improvements in this
_first_ stage of the process, to from 25 to 35 per cent.
2. "To clarify and filter this juice with expedition, and to evaporate
it rapidly, either over the open fire or by steam heat, as far as it
can be done with safety."
By the use of steam, not only is a vast economy of fuel effected, but
the temperature is maintained at a uniform and sufficient standard,
and the liquor effectually guarded against the risks of carelessness
or ignorance. Coal may be obtained on far cheaper terms, in exchange
for produce, from the United States or from Cape Breton, than from
England; and as colliers from those quarters would find it their
interest to bring cargoes at their own risk, and take return cargoes
of sugar, rum, or molasses, at the market price, the planter will be
doubly a gainer by the system, obtaining his fuel at a reduced rate,
and having his trash and megass left free as manure for the use of his
cane fields.
3. "To complete the concentration in a vacuum pan, or by other means,
at a moderate temperature, not hurtful to the sugar, and facilitate
the natural process of crystallisation, so as to obtain sugar of a
large and distinct grain."
4. "To drain and dry the sugar perfectly, and to save all the
molasses."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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