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C H A P T E R 1 3 SUGAR The growing of sugarcane and the manufacture of sugar from it in south Louisiana goes back to at least 1795. Other cash crops were not suitable to the climate. After World War I, bitter competition forced most Louisiana refineries out of business. The surviving sugar plants concentrated on producing raw sugar for others to refine. However, the big refineries could import sugar from tropical countries where labor was cheaper, thus forcing down the price of raw sugar for domestic producers. In the early 1930s a U.S. Department of Agriculture study suggested that there would be a regional market of ‘‘direct consumption sugar,’’ a commodity cheaper than the granular sugar produced by the refineries but commanding a better price than raw sugar. Direct consumption sugar was used by canneries turning out sweetened food products and by makers of jellies and jams. The process of producing such sugar, however, was not well understood by Louisiana sugar plant operators. The Audubon Sugar School was established by Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1891. It evolved from the Sugar Experiment Station, the first such research organization in the hemisphere, which began work in 1885. A four-year course of study became available in 1896 and was expanded to a five-year curriculum leading to a B.S. degree in 1899. The school was moved from Audubon Park in New Orleans to the Baton Rouge campus in 1925. The Department of Chemical Engineering assumed its direction five years later. It became known throughout the hemisphere as a center for research and education in growing sugarcane and producing sugar products. It also attracted students from sugar-growing countries in Asia.1 It was therefore natural that area sugar producers, and indeed the entire sugar industry, would look to LSU for help as the Depression pushed them into further distress. 162 SUGAR 163 LSU responded in the form of a proposal to the Public Works Administration (PWA) for new milling and experimental equipment. At the center of the proposal was a report by Charles E. Coates, dean of the College of Pure and Applied Sciences, and Arthur G. Keller, dean of the College of Chemical Engineering.2 This report put forth the case for direct consumption sugar. It enumerated the contributions that the new equipment could make in researching the techniques to efficiently manufacture and deliver such sugar to the packagers of sweetened food products. Finally, it outlined the impact that a revitalized sugar industry would have on the region. A survey and census funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) had documented the amount of idle land in the sugar-producing area and found 70,000 people on relief in the twenty cane-producing parishes . It also found 5,000 idle farmers not on relief. Based on this information , Coates and Keller estimated that the 1934 sugar crop could be doubled. This would employ 30,000 extra regular workers along with 30,000 seasonal workers in the spring and 70,000 in the fall. It would not only absorb all the unemployed farm workers in the area but bring others in from outside the region.3 To make this project a success, sugar producers would have to learn how to control the manufacturing techniques and turn out a uniform product of higher quality than currently was reaching the market. They could also learn how to produce specialty sugars such as turbinado, used in making jams. This would free them from dependence on the large refineries. Research tasks to be undertaken by LSU sugar scientists included determining the sucrose content of various varieties of cane and finding optimum conditions for milling the various canes. Researchers would also be documenting the power requirements for sugar plants; testing a new milling diffusion process used in other countries; finding new uses for begasse, a cellulose cane by-product; testing juice clarification processes; and finding ways to control boiling to get uniform sugar crystal size.4 Solid support for this proposal came from the sugar producers. The American Sugar Cane League testified to the current lack of scientific data on cane milling. When it was discovered during bidding that the needed equipment was going to be more expensive than estimated, the league came up with $14,000 to help cover the difference.5 The existing LSU milling equipment was forty years old. The replacement included revolving cane knives, a two-roller crusher...

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