1926_McMaster_Handling of Cane From

7/28/2019 1926_McMaster_Handling of Cane From

1/7

56

Third Day-Wednesday, 14th' April,

feeding and at the same time fool themselves thatthey had' peen growing green manuring crops, However, provided the all important question of greenmanuring is no t lost sight of I think the more foodcrops that are grown the better. There is perhapsone exeeption-s-Mr. Edelman referred to it althoughhe did not really advise i t ,-he mentioned the possibility of growing mealies. Our experience vhasbeen, .and the experience of many other countries is,that mealies and cane won't mix. You mieht growmealies and get 25/- a bag in Zululand-if you arelucky, or (you may grow cane, but you can't growboth of them. The experience we have had of thetransmission of both Streak and Mosaic diseases seemsto shed very gran suspicion on growing mealies anywhere near cane. Regarding the' question' of foodstuffs, for animals it a lways appears to me that wehave a very valuable foodstuff within easy reach ofmost planters, which is very largely neglected. thatis the molasses which can be had at a very 'cheaprate-considering its high food value, from almostanymill. A ration of molasses should form an essential. '

part of the feeding of any, plantationlivestock, and,also the native labour., .Mr. Rapson asked what Mr. Edelman would recommend on the Coast for feeding oxen ' assumingthey were in the cane cutting seasonwhen they fednothing practically bu t tops. What should be added'to make a balanced ration. 'Mr. Edelman replied: I know that is practicallywhat is used, bu t if that was to be 'bal anced properly it would be necessary to introduce .somelegume hay. I know even the stock farmers upcountry do not worry much about' feeding theiroxen on balanced rations. They give them as muchmealie s talks as they can- eat and other roughage.I think that to make up a balanced ration youwould need a little leguminous. hay-lucerne, velvetbean,.' or soya bean. " 'The Chairman on behalf of the members expressedtheir appreciat ion of Mr. Ed'elman's interesting ad- 'dress, it had been of great educational value to them.(Applause). ' ' ! IAt 5.30 p.m.' the Congress was adjourned until thefollowing' day at 10 a.m. '

1926.

.HANDLING" OF CANE, FROM FIELD .TO CRUSHER ..By M. McMASTER.

The Congress resumed at 10 a.m,The following report on "HANDLING OF CANEFROM FIELD TO CRUSHER," was given by Mr.M. McMaster, namely:- '" I have not had any time to do anything morethan make a few notes on this question as I havebeen very busy since I came back. But I think it issuch an important question, and so much can be

saved in the handling of cane, that it should bebrought up at the Congress. One of the most importantcosts in the Sugar Industry is the handl ingof cane from the field to the mill. Every countryhas its own peculiar conditions and' things that areappl icable in one country or one place in a countr y are no t of course necessar ily applicable to anyother. place, so that every local .condition has to beconsidered separately. I am personally of the opinion that the time ,is now ripe when a-great deal moremechanical methods should be used in the handlinzof cane. ,Of course the : f i ~ s t and most important wa;to cheapen the cost of handling. of .cane, that is rightfrom the cutting to. the delivery at the mill, and(me of the biggest economic factors. I believe in thewhole field of manufacture of sugaris to grow the

maximum tonnage possible to the acre. Now thereare some really wonderful concerns I have seen whichare really being crippled in Cuba by the distancethat cane has to be transported from the field's tothe mill. The old lands are getting' worn out andthe yield per acre is going down and down. Tokeep those mills full they have had to shoot therailways out further and further . ,The result hasbeen that the cost 'o f handl ing this cane has gone upand is one of the prime costs at these' big sugar producing factories to-day. And whether it is thecutting, transport, or handling, or anything else, theprime factor is to get the maximum amount of caneto the acre that can' possibly be obtained. I do notthink anybody can disagree with that. Now if westart to analyse each operation separately: I personally can't say anything about the cut ting of cane inthis country. I understand the average daily taskper cutter, pe r day, is about 2 tons for burnt and1112 or 1114 for trashed cane. That as a daily taskcompares. favourably with most countries, bu t ofcourse the . only way that can be reduced is by theefficiency and organisation of the labour. There isrro other method-I don't think fori many years at


2/7

57

'any 'rate that 'any ,mechanical cane cutter will beapplicable to thiseountry. So much of the cane isgrown,'on hillsides ,1:lJ1d so on, ' ~ , n d the groundTssoft, that I don't think it 'would besuccessful..Theyare cutting cane 'very widely in Louisiana withmechanical cutters' but that is on' land that is' justlike a billiard table. I think Mr. Dodds will bearmeout there. In Cuba they are .trying mechanicaleutters.tbut I don'tthirikthey have had much success with i t yet. The difficulties in the contour ofthe ground are too much.for it. So pro tern 1 shouldadvise people not to worry about mechanical canecl l t ters .The organisat ion and efficiency. of thelabour is the thing to worry about so fa r as we arenow concerned: ,When the cane is cu t the next 'operation is to loa-d

i t according to the position of the farm geographic~ l l y -iilto"wa'gonsor hask-et or'bogie trucks. '1'he;eseveral, mechanical' devices being used' to-day ,forloading: cane into these wagons or: t rucks . ' Onesystem I saw' which iR working satisfactorily inLouisiana-s-which. is .ziot. exactly applicable hereowing to the different way the cane is grown in thiscountry-,-is, a very light, trolley w ith four wheels,which is 'made very cheaply with a small grab likethe grabs at the mills and a small petrol engine. T h ~ sthing is .brought along into the field where the caneis lying and it just grabs the cane up and puts itinto, small .'trucks.' That is i n fa irly universal useand to watch i t working oneis very much impressedby it. They do away with a considerable amount oflabour, and it is the necessity for reducing labourcosts 'that has brought these mechanical means in.

c T ~ a t by the way costs about 130.. . ' ,There is another machine in common 118e in theH a ~ v a i i a n :Islands and that is the Corduroy CaneLoader. I t is rather an elaborate affair as it consists 'of a crane travelling on caterpillar wheels.Some men are employed to collect the cane into pilesof ' 2,000 to 4,000 Ibs. Under these piles two wirerope cables are placed', with which the cane is hoistedup. There is no danger of trash and dirt beingpicked up as with the grabs. I have illustrationsof these things if anyone would like to see them,and it seems as if it would be extremely 'useful fora lo t of our fields here, but the cost is rather high:about 2,000 as' you have really a steam crane.I don ' tknow much about c a ~ e wagons or ~ a r t s ,butin Cuba they have a two wheeled. cart which is'i n universal use and they can pull 2% .tons .throughvery bad ground, and up to four, tons with six oxenat the outside. Whether the oxen are any strongerthan the oxen in thi s count ry I don't know; theydo not look it at any rate. The wheels are about 7feet in diameter and' have about 8 in. tread. I don'tknow if they have been tried in this country, Thereare certain moderately hilly lands in Cuba, but it isnot the same as in this country. 'What the effect ofheavier gradients would be I do no t know, but Ithink it is well worth giving them atrial. Now theyhave done away, with wheels altogether in some

places and they buy caterpillar treads for thesecarts. Some of the cheaper ones are made in Ger-

uiany and .others, in the S t ~ t e s . The' ones from the'.States' cos t about 170.' 'I'hey jare extrordinarilysuccessful.' They must be because there is one bigCompany-s-the Cuban-American-i-whichIs investingover 35,000 to fit ali their carts with. these caterpil lar t reads. : I have i llustrat ions and cataloguesof all these things if anybody would l ike to see meabout them at any time. "Cane is .hauled in: .thesecarts up to five miles. Of course this method is al lmanhandling, there' is practically no, mechanical appliance to put the cane in the carts or trucks.Now there is nex t the operation-which is a verytedious one as carried out here-of transferring.thecane out of these small trucks into railway trucks orfrom cars or wagons into rai lway trucks. I believethere is a separate discussion going to take placeas_!egar

> "ide . for handling cane vis absolutely-wrong, --(-hear,hear);' and we have not been able to ' put' before themthe exact sor t of truck that is wanted. I have draw-.ings and specifications of trucks I have seen in 'use;so If the suga r industry thi nk they ,are suitable (Ipersonally think they are the .only ones) then wecan put these before the railway author it ies . Thecane in'Cuba is brought to the sidings, which areverysimilar to the sidings we 'have in this country;in 'these carts and rope slings are placed roundLhecane.' .. ' , ,i t is all cu t in 3 f e e t l e 1 1 - g t h ~ ana. i t is very, carefully packed. When ~ t c o m e s to fhis siding thereis what -is called a Cuban Cane Hoist , which is auniversal thing there. It can be made very cheaplyof gum poles and th ings like that. ,1 h a v e R o i r i ~

sketches of themhere if 'anybody cares,to see them.It is extraordinarily simple, and if you. have -ther ight type of truck it is extraordina-rily efficient andcosts practically nothing, to. run. (r. McMasterthen placed a drawing of the hoist on the blackboardand expla ined . its working in detail). ,The onlylabour required for that is one man 10Aking afterthe engirie and the driver of the cart. One of thesewill load iOO tons of cane in 24 hours, which has beenGone. So you will see your cost is practically nothing. I think one could be made here with ,gumpoles for something like 60, to 70, or it could bemade of steelwork. ' '

There again the whole thing depends on having anefficient type of S.A.R. truck. It is no good dumping it in and getting it lengthwise. There is alsodifficulty about the slings. as they don't always /comeback from the mill. It is more for the menhandling cane to say whether this would be suitable.Personally-T think it would be. That is a universalmethod which handles fifty million tons -"or cane ayear, and you have all your expert A ~ f ' r l c a n s thereand they can ' tfind a better method 8'0 I don't knowif anybody else can. These t r u c k ~ r e hinged alongthe top and ei the r tip end u.J:-,-05-:Siue;:vays. So far asthose trucks are, concerned:at-the mill they go on tothe tipplfrsand t h e y / a r ~ jiist tipped on to a carrierand you can put jus t, as/much cane on and regulateY O U l d e e _ d ~ a $ Y-,o,U l i k / ,it took eight men including. / " /

"./ ....,_ I


3/7

58

the weighbridge clerks to handle 8,000.tons of canepe r day at one mill. So fa r as the mills are, concerned in th is country with the present t rucks, I cansee that there is no method of overcoming the handling of cane at.present. I hope to get a trial of thismethod later.I have. no t goile int9 costs of handling cane aridthat kind of thing as it is very,difficlilt to get anyaccurate figures. In some ways, it , is immaterial toknow what their costs of handling' cane are becausewe know ours are too much and have to be reduced.As a matter of fact even in Cuba the costs are veryhigh because the g round ISs{) bad; they can't iayany light tracks in the fields. I t has all to be pu t inwagons and transported to the loading station. AsIi matter of fact the contract for cutting, loading and

delivering at s id ing averages 1.50 dollar s per tonwhich is about 6/- a ton. Since then I see oneauthority says it averages 1 dollar 75 cynts per ton,but I think 1.50 is the price .' With the price they getfor their cane it does not leave very muchmargin..I' have just put down rather' hurriedly what my

'views are on die subject. I think ' t l i a t ~ t ' isno goodcondemning anything until it has' been tried out.You can 't t el l what would 'be successful unless youdo give it a fair trial, and personally I thinkifsomearrangements could be made on certain farms to finance these experiments and to ,experime*t thoroughly with "these different mechanical methods of handling cane it would be for the benefit qf the wholeindustry, (Applause).

trucks. Should ' they turn ou t successful then theminimum load would have to be. l owered to givethem relief from the present ' loading charges. Asthey all knew at certain times of the year the canewas much lighter than others and v ~ r y often i twas difficult to get 22 to 23 tons in ar truck evenloading as they did by hand; 'To do it ,:by .nrechanical means, particularly as they-did not hut the caneinto' 3 feet lengths, would be very' difficult. Thecutting of the cane into three feet lengths woiild en;t.ai! fa r heavier field expense. But the idea of doing away with the wickets was excellent. He couldsee that the walls of the truck were higher and thatwould do away with the double wickets:Mr. McMaster replied that when in 'Cape Townhe had seen the Board of Trade and Indust ries andthey' were very keen on handling the' cane more by

machinery than was' done to-day. As:things wereat present something had to be done. ' I f the rail-ways refused or could not see their way to give themthe same sort of trucks then it would only be reasonable for them to lower the minimum rate. Theycould not have it both ways. Another interestingthing 'in Cuba was that the weight did not vary'practically during the crushing season. ' They allknew, th e difficulties in this country 'so fa r as the'allocation of trucks was concerned. In Cuba theyallocated their t rucks in the same way as was' donehere. They called for estimates and: the truckswere allocated on th e estimates. He had askedthem what happened in the middle of the seasonwhen the cane probably weighed 5% higher and thereply 'was" that is all right, it doesn't. " ,, 'The Chairman asked what the length d,f themillingseason was., Mr.' M c M a ~ t e r r e p l i ~ d that it varied, Last yearone mill had,worked 91j2 months. They had had astrike of planters owing to the price that was paid

for cane, (laughter) i but, he added, t he s tr ike hadbeen broken. '

DISCUSSION ON THE HANnLlNG OF CANE FROM FIELD to CRUSHER,Mr. John Murrav stated that he was in Cubatwelve years ' a g o a ~ d 'what Mr. McMaster had described was in use then. The man cutting the caneafter cutting the stalk from th e root, cut the cane illthree pieces, and by giv ing the cane knife a twist. tho first and second pieces flew a eonsiderahle distance and the third' piece was flung by hand to theheap where the .first twopieces had landed.The chains. were laid in the 'cart and the' pieces ofcane were put, on each chain. 'I'he art had fouroxen. At the end of each field a 4 ft. 8 l , 1 ~ in. or 3 ft.

6 in. track and weighbridge was placed. In somecases there was a concrete sump with the weighbridge attached. The cart was put Ol l top of theweighbridge and the ticket checked and that wasgiven to the man and he knew when his cart wasemptied how much cane he had got and he was paidon that. ' Mr. Murray s ta ted that if they had nolaltered the .system in twelve years it was evidentlya very good one and he considered it' ought to betried in this country. 'W.ith regard to the Technologists', Associationmeet ings he had only, seen, one engineer presentand he thought it was up to, the manag-ing directorsto have the Association ,better .recognised and .asktheir engineers to attend. After' all, it was ,all forthe good of the industry. (Hear, hear). Perhapssome of the mills might see the ir way to pay the .expenses of some of their men to help them to attendthe meetings. (Applause),Captain Greig stated that Mr. McM;a,ster's, description of the truck was very interesting, bu t he thoughtthe most Jnterest ing point would be, the maximumtonnage t h a t . , ~ l e tr?-ek ~ o u l d carry. With th e present form of t 1 ' 1 1 ~ I I I this country they were bounddown to 22 t o n s ~ ' ' v V , . i t h the, cane, as it is now-a-daysin the count ry a n d i o ~ d i ; l 1 g it by: mechanical meanshe was afraid they would never get anything hke 22tons in to th e truck; it , would probably be 17 to 18.He nn9-erstood Mr. McMaster w a s ' e n ~ e ~ v o u r i n g toget the Government to try"",out s e ; r e r ~ ~ of ~ t h e s e

. " , " , , - ~.> ~

- - - - . . . . . . " ' ~ " ; ~ -


4/7

o...,


5/7

60


6/7

61


7/7

Mr. Rapson asked if Mr. McMaster thought thetype of cart used in Cuba would be used beneficiallyover here. With the ordinary wagon here-a 14 ft .wagon-the average load was 3% to 4 tons, whereasthey appeared to ge t 4 tons on the two wheeled cartin Cuba. He asked if there was any superiority inthe method of loading or was it the quali ty of thecane and its weight.Mr. McMaster replied that he t hough t the canewas much easier to prick as it was cu t in three feetlengths. He pointed out that he had had no ~ x p e r i -ence of wagons or carts. The only suggestIOn hemade was that one of these carts be made" andthoroughly tried out here.In reply to a question from Capt. Greig Mr. M:Master stated that th e land "inLouisiana was practica lly al l flat, bu t that was not so altogether in Cubs iit was certainly not flatin the e"lStern province although it was not" so hilly as in Natal. 'I'hat ofcourse affected the question. The ground in manycases was so bad that they could no t lay .a l igl. ;line.Capt. Greig remarked that in that case it was extraordinary how they could ge t these heavily ladentwo wheeled carts over the land, bu t Mr. McMasterpointed out that t hey had 8 in. treads. "The Chairman also pointed out that even that hadbeen improved on by putting on tractor wheels. Hethought th e conditions there appeared to be alto-gether dissimilar. "Mr. Mc'Master stated that he would say they werealtogether dissimilar. I t was difficult to say if theywere worse than here. The" ground was certainlyvery heavy going. "Mr: Murrav stated that aset of eaternillar wheelshad been brought over here by a firin. He happenedto be at Verulam when they were" trying it. Theywent all through the r iver and did very well, butwhen they t ried in on the hill by Dykes' Mill it wasnot successful and they gave it up.The Chairman in thanking Mr. McMaster for hisremarks stated that it had been very instructive andilluminative to listen to him. That was the sort ofthing which was required in the industry-knowl edge and more knowledge was what they wanted.He hoped the Association would t" Ire up the matterand make use of the valuable information placedbefore them. (Hear, hear and applause).Mr. Murray in referring to his previous remarksas to the attendance of engineers at the meetinzsof th e Technologists' Association. stated that thepapers submitted involved a considerable amount of-trouble, and diseussion was what they wanted. I f-they did not get a good turn out it was very dis-

couraging to those who prepared the various papers.'I'he Chairman stated that he understood the Association also embraced the engineers. The Association had of course only jus t s tarted and he hopedthat the engineers and chemists would be able tomeet and go into the various mat ters and make recommendations through their body to the industry.Mr. Murray stated that he had been in Hawaii andhe t hought the mills ever there were very poor;they had not as good plant as they had here. Butthe whole secret of their success was that all themen belonging to the mill got together and adjustedas well as they could. In this country they had justas good plant, but the engineers did not collaborateand see what happened to each other. The plantwas good enough, it was the men who required tobe gingered up." The Chairman remarked tha t tha t was their greatfailing and he thought the time had come whenthey ought to remedy that state of affairs.

Mr. McMaster , who had been one of the moversin starting the Technologists' Association. statedthat they had had difficulty in starting it. 'I'hey hadonly just started and they had to rea lise that themills had been crush ing for a long period and hadto deal with a very heavy crop, with the resul t that "there had been a tremendous amount of work tobe clone in the off season. He did not know if thecircumstance was a peculiar one but there were verypr-actical difficulties in getting the mills to al low themen to get away at t he present time. In Aprilwhen the Congress was held it was usually a veryimportant time at the mills. A lo t of work had tohe done; the plant had to be got r eady for running .oarlv in May. He did not think A.oi'il was a verypoodinonth for hold ing these meetings so fa r asthe 'I'echnologists were concerned.

The Secretary stated that the matter could bereferred to the Technologists Association to dealwith this question and see if some reso lu tion couldnot be obtained.Mr. Murray suggested that the chemists and enr:ineers should meet at the same time. He thoughtit, would be as well to have these meetings so thatthey could collaborate.

" Mr. Dodds stated that the matter should certainlybe brought up. I t was of the greatest impor tancethat the Congress should be represenative, and itwas rather disappointing to the members of theTechnologists' Association who had gone to considerable trouble to prepare reports, to find such apo-ir attendance.At 10.55 a.m. the Congress adjourned for tea.

Documents

1926_McMaster_Handling of Cane From