+----------------------+------------------+--------------------+
|Horse-power of Engine.|Length of Rollers.|Diameter of Rollers.|
+----------------------+------------------+--------------------+
| | _ft._ _in._ | _inches._ |
| 8 | 4 0 | 25 |
| 10 | 4 6 | 27 |
| 12 | 4 8 | 28 |
+----------------------+------------------+--------------------+
The surface speed of the rollers is 3·4 or 3·6 feet per minute; and to
provide for the varying resistance arising from irregular feeding, or
the accidental crossing of the canes, by which the engine is often
_brought up_ so suddenly as to break the fly-wheel shaft, it is
necessary to make both the shaft and the fly-wheel of unusual strength
and weight.
Sugar is manufactured in the East Indies by two distinct classes of
persons; the _ryots_, who raise the sugar cane, extract its juice, and
inspissate it to a syrupy consistence; and the _goldars_, who complete
the conversion into sugar.
The _ryots_ are the farmers, or actual cultivators of the soil; but,
properly speaking, they are merely peasants, toiling under oppressive
landlords, and miserably poor. After they cut the canes, they extract
the juice by one or other of the rude mills or mortars presently to be
described, and boil it down to an entire mass, which is generically
called _goor_, without making any attempt to clarify it, or separate the
granular sugar from the uncrystallizable molasses. This goor is of
various qualities; one of which, in most common use for making sugar, is
known amongst the English settlers under the name of _jaggery_. There is
a caste in Ceylon, called _jaggeraros_, who make sugar from the produce
of the _Caryota urens_, or Kitul tree; and the sugar is styled
_jaggery_. Sugar is not usually made in Ceylon from the sugar cane; but
either from the juice of the Kitul, from the _Cocos nucifera_, or the
_Borassus flabelliformis_ (the Palmyra tree).
Several sorts of cane are cultivated in India.
[Illustration: 1079]
The _Cadjoolee_ (_fig._ 1079.) is a purple-coloured cane; yields a
sweeter and richer juice than the yellow or light coloured, but in less
quantities, and is harder to press. It grows in dry lands. When eaten
raw, it is somewhat dry and pithy in the mouth, but is esteemed very
good for making sugar. It is not known to the West India planter. The
leaves rise from a point 6 feet above the ground. An oblique and
transverse section of the cane is represented by the parts near the
bottom of the figure.
The _Pooree_ is a light-coloured cane, yellow, inclining to white,
deeper yellow when ripe and on rich ground. West India planters consider
it the same sort as one of theirs. It is softer and more juicy than the
preceding, but the juice is less rich, and produces a weaker sugar. It
requires seven parts of pooree juice to make as much goor as is produced
from six of the cadjoolee. Much of this cane is brought to the Calcutta
market, and eaten raw.
The _Cullorah_ thrives in swampy lands, is light-coloured, and grows to
a great height. Its juice is more watery, and yields a weaker sugar also
than the cadjoolee. However, since much of Bengal consists of low
grounds, and since the upland canes are apt to suffer from drought, it
deserves encouragement in certain localities.
It is only large farms that cut an acre of cane in a year; one mill,
therefore, and one set of the implements used in inspissating the juice,
although very rude and simple, serve for several farms, and generally
belong to some wealthy man, who lets them out for hire to his poorer
neighbours, the whole of whom unite to clear each other’s fields by
turns; so that though many people and cattle are employed at one of
these miserable sets of works, very few indeed are hired, and the
greater part of the labour is performed by the common stock of the
farms.
The inspissated juice, or extract of cane, called by the natives _goor_,
is of two kinds; one of which may be termed cake extract, and the other
pot extract; both being often denominated _jaggery_, as above stated, by
the English residents.
One-third of an acre of good land in the southern districts, is reckoned
by the farmers to produce 18,891 pounds of cane, and 1,159 pounds of pot
extract. Its produce in cake extract is about 952 pounds.
[Illustration: 1080]
I shall now describe the primitive rude mill and boiler used in
preparing the extract of sugar cane, and which are usually let to the
ryots by the day. The mill in Dinajpur, _fig._ 1080. is on the principle
of a pestle and mortar. The pestle, however, does not beat the canes,
but is rubbed against them, as is done in many chemical triturations;
and the moving force is two oxen. The mortar is generally a tamarind
tree, one end of which is sunk deep in the ground, to give it firmness.
The part projecting _a_, _a_, _a_, _a_, may be about two feet high, and
a foot and a half in diameter; and in the upper end a hollow is cut,
like the small segment of a sphere. In the centre of this, a channel
descends a little way perpendicularly, and then obliquely to one side of
the mortar, so that the juice, as squeezed from the cane, runs off, by
means of a spout _b_, into a strainer _c_, through which it falls into
an earthen pot, that stands in a hole _d_, under the spout. The pestle
_e_, is a tree about 18 feet in length, and 1 foot in diameter, rounded
at its bottom, which rubs against the mortar, and which is secured in
its place by a button or knob, that goes into the channel of the mortar.
The moving force is applied to a horizontal beam _f_, about 16 feet in
length, which turns round about the mortar, and is fastened to it by a
bent bamboo _b_. It is suspended from the upper end of the pestle by a
bamboo _g_, which has been cut with part of the root, in which is formed
a pivot that hangs on the upper point of the pestle. The cattle are
yoked to the horizontal beam, at about ten feet from the mortar, move
round it in a circle, and are driven by a man, who sits on the beam, to
increase the weight of the triturating power. Scarcely any machine more
miserable can be conceived; and it would be totally ineffectual, were
not the cane cut into thin slices. This is a troublesome part of the
operation. The grinder sits on the ground, having before him a bamboo
stake, which is driven into the earth, with a deep notch formed in its
upper end. He passes the canes gradually through this notch, and at the
same time cuts off the slices with a kind of rude chopper.
[Illustration: 1081]
The _boiling apparatus_ is somewhat better contrived, and is placed
under a shed, though the mill is without shelter. The fireplace is a
considerable cavity dug in the ground, and covered with an iron boiler
_p_, _fig._ 1081. At one side of this, is an opening _q_, for throwing
in fuel; and opposite to this, is another opening, which communicates
with the horizontal flue. This is formed by two parallel mud walls _r_,
_r_, _s_, _s_, about 20 feet long, 2 feet high, and 18 inches distant
from each other. A row of eleven earthen boilers _t_, is placed on these
walls, and the interstices _u_, are filled with clay, which completes
the furnace-flue, an opening _v_, being left at the end, for giving vent
to the smoke.
The juice, as it comes from the mill, is first put into the earthen
boiler that is most distant from the fire, and is gradually removed from
one boiler to another, until it reaches the iron one, where the process
is completed. The fireplace is manifestly on the same model as the
boiler range in the West Indies, and may possibly have suggested it,
since the Hindostan furnace is, no doubt, of immemorial usage. The
execution of its parts is very rude and imperfect. The inspissated juice
that can be prepared in 24 hours by such a mill, with 16 men and 20
oxen, amounts to no more than 476 lbs.; and it is only in the southern
parts of the district, where the people work night and day, that the
sugar-works are so productive. In the northern districts, the people
work only during the day, and inspissate about one-half the quantity of
juice. The average daily make of a West India sugar-house, is from 2 to
3 hogsheads, of 16 cwts each.
The Indian manufacturers of sugar purchase the above inspissated juice
or goor from the farmers, and generally prefer that of a granular honey
consistence, which is offered for sale in pots. As this, however, cannot
conveniently be brought from a distance, some of the cake kind is also
employed. The boilers are of two sizes; one adapted for making at each
operation about ten cwt.; the other, about eight and a half. The latter
is the segment of a sphere, nine feet diameter at the mouth; the former
is larger. The boiler is sunk into a cylindrical cavity in the ground,
which serves as a fireplace, so that its edge is just above the floor of
the boiling-house. The fuel is thrown in by an aperture close to one
side of the boiler, and the smoke escapes by a horizontal chimney that
passes out on the opposite side of the hut, and has a small round
aperture, about ten feet distant from the wall, in order to lessen the
danger from fire. Some manufacturers have only one boiler; others as
many as four; but each boiler has a separate hut, in one end of which is
some spare fuel; and in the other, some bamboo stages, which support
cloth strainers, that are used in the operation. This hut is about
twenty-four cubits long, and ten broad; has mud walls, six cubits high;
and is raised about one cubit above the ground.
For each boiler, two other houses are required: one in which the cane
extract is separated by straining from the molasses, is about twenty
cubits long by ten wide; another, about thirty cubits long, by eight
wide, is that in which, after the extract has been strained, boiled and
clarified, the treacle is separated from the sugar by an operation
analogous to claying.
Each sugar manufacturer has a warehouse besides, of a size proportional
to the number of his boilers.
About 960 pounds of pot extract being divided into four parts, each is
put into a bag of coarse sackcloth, hung over an equal number of
wide-mouthed earthen vessels, and is besprinkled with a little water.
These drain from the bags about 240 lbs. of a substance analogous to
West Indian molasses. The remainder in the bags is a kind of coarse
muscovado sugar; but is far from being so well drained and freed from
molasses as that of the Antilles. The 720 lbs. of this substance are
then put into a boiler with 270 pounds of water, and the mixture is
boiled briskly for 144 minutes, when 180 additional pounds of water are
added, and the boiling is continued for 48 minutes more. An alkaline
solution is prepared from the ashes of the plantain tree, strewed over
straw placed in the bottom of an earthen pot perforated with holes.
Ninety pounds of water are passed through; and 6 pounds of the clear
lixivium are added to the boiling syrup, whereby a thick scum is raised,
which is removed. After 24 minutes, four and a half pounds of alkaline
solution, and about two-fifths of a pound of raw milk, are added; after
which the boiling and skimming are continued 24 minutes. This must be
repeated from five to seven times, until no more scum appears. 240
pounds of water being now added, the liquor is to be poured into a
number of strainers. These are bags of coarse cotton cloth, in the form
of inverted quadrangular pyramids, each of which is suspended from a
frame of wood, about 2 feet square. The operation of straining occupies
about 96 minutes. The strained liquor is divided into three parts: one
of these is put into a boiler, with from half a pound to a pound and a
half of alkaline solution, one-twelfth of a pound of milk, and 12 pounds
of water. After having boiled for between 48 and 72 minutes, three
quarters of a pound of milk are added, and the liquor is poured, in
equal portions, into four refining pots. These are wide at the mouth,
and pointed at the bottom; but are not conical, for the sides are
curved. The bottom is perforated, and the stem of a plantain leaf forms
a plug for closing the aperture. The two remaining portions of the
strained liquor are managed in exactly the same manner; so that each
refining pot has its share of each portion. When they have cooled a
little, the refining pot is removed to the curing-house, and placed on
the ground for 24 hours; next day they are placed on a frame, which
supports them at some distance from the ground. A wide-mouthed vessel is
placed under each, to receive the viscid liquor that drains from them.
In order to draw off this more completely, moist leaves of the
_Valisneria spiralis_ are placed over the mouth of the pot, to the
thickness of two inches; after 10 or 12 days, these are removed; when a
crust of sugar, about half an inch in thickness is found on the surface
of the boiled liquor. The crust being broken and removed, fresh leaves
are repeatedly added, until the whole sugar has formed; which requires
from 75 to 90 days. When cake extract is used, it does not require to be
strained before it be put into the boiler.
On the above-described operose and preposterous process, it is needless
to make any remarks. While it is adhered to with the tenacity of Hindu
habit, the West Indies has no reason to fear the competition of the
East, in the manufacture of sugar, provided the former avail themselves
of the aids which chemical and mechanical science are ready to supply.
In every part of the Behar and Putna districts, several of the
confectioners prepare the coarse article called _shukkur_, which is
entirely similar in appearance to the inferior Jamaica sugars. They
prepare it by putting some of the thin extract of sugar cane into coarse
sackcloth bags, and by laying weights on them, they squeeze out the
molasses; a process perfectly analogous to that contemplated in several
English patents.
[Illustration: 1082]
The sugar-mill at Chica Ballapura is worked by a single pair of
buffaloes or oxen, _fig._ 1082., going round with the lever A, which is
fixed on the top of the right-hand roller. The two rollers have endless
screw heads B, which are formed of 4 spiral grooves and 4 spiral ridges,
cut in opposite directions, which turn into one another, when the mill
is working. These rollers and their heads are of one piece, made of the
toughest and hardest wood that can be got, and such as will not impart
any bad taste to the juice. They are supported in a thick strong wooden
frame, and their distance from each other is regulated by means of
wedges, which pass through mortises in the frame planks, and a groove
made in a bit of some sort of hard wood, and press upon the axis of one
of the rollers. The axis of the other presses against the left-hand side
of the hole in the frame-boards. The cane juice runs down the rollers,
and through a hole in the lower frame-board, into a wooden conductor,
which carries it into an earthen pot. Two long-pointed stakes or piles
are driven into the earth, to keep the mill steady, which is all the
fixing it requires. The under part of the lowermost plank of the frame
rests upon the surface of the ground, which is chosen level and very
firm, that the piles may hold the faster. A hole is dug in the earth,
immediately below the spout of the conductor, to receive the pot.
The mill used in Burdwan and near Calcutta, is simply two small wooden
cylinders, grooved, placed horizontally, close to each other, and turned
by two men, one at each end. This simple engine is said completely, but
slowly, to express the juice. It is very cheap, the prime cost not being
two rupees; and being easily moved from field to field, it saves much
labour in the carriage of the cane. Notwithstanding this advantage, so
rude a machine must leave a large proportion of the richest juice in the
cane-trash.
It is curious to find in the antient arts of Hindostan exact prototypes
of the sugar-rollers, horizontal and upright, of relatively modern
invention in the New World.
[Illustration: 1083]
The sugar-mill of Chinapatam, _fig._ 1083., consists of a mortar, lever,
pestle, and regulator. The mortar is a tree about 10 feet in length, and
14 inches in diameter: _a_ is a plan of its upper end; _b_ is an outside
view; and _c_ is a vertical section. It is sunk perpendicularly into the
earth, leaving one end two feet above the surface. The hollow is
conical, truncated downwards, and then becomes cylindrical, with a
hemispherical projection in its bottom, to allow the juice to run freely
to the small opening that conveys it to a spout, from which it falls
into an earthen pot. Round the upper mouth of the cone is a circular
cavity, which collects any of the juice that may run over from the upper
ends of the pieces of cane; and thence a canal conveys this juice, down
the outside of the mortar, to the spout. The beam _d_, is about sixteen
feet in length, and six inches in thickness, being cut out from a large
tree that is divided by a fork into two arms. In the fork an excavation
is made for the mortar _b_, round which the beam turns horizontally. The
surface of this excavation is secured by a semicircle of strong wood.
The end towards the fork is quite open, for changing the beam without
trouble. On the undivided end of the beam sits the bullock-driver _e_,
whose cattle are yoked by a rope which comes from the end of the beam;
and they are prevented from dragging out of the circle by another rope,
which passes from the yoke to the forked end of the beam. On the arms
_f_, a basket is placed, to hold the cuttings of cane; and between this
and the mortar sits the man who feeds the mill. Just as the pestle comes
round, he places the pieces of cane sloping down into the cavity of the
mortar; and after the pestle has passed, he removes those that have been
squeezed.