The validity of the three and five formulae for the analysis of cane in the 1980's

The purpose of this paper is to put forward some data which have been known to the authors for a long time but which until now have been unpublished. This is being dome to assist the current debate on whether the use of the 3 and 5 formulae is outdated for the analysis of cane. The previously unpublished material concerns CSR's data on juice scales from 1959 to 1973 at Victoria and Goondi mills and the study of direct cane analysis at Goondi in 1970 and 1971. It has frequently been stated that changes in technology over the past thirty years have affected the composition of first expressed juice with respect to absolute juice in a way which alters traditional equities (Wilkinson 1987, Cannavan 1987). The authors have long been of the opinion that this is not the case and the reasoning behind that view is presented here.