JlLOESf 



HORTUS JAMATCENSIS!. 13 



best for the aloe plant. The stoTies, at least the greater ones, are Rrst piclvcd up, and 

 cither packed in hc.nps, upon the most shallow barren spots, or laid round the field as 

 a dry wall. The land is then lightly ploughed and very carefully cleared of all noxious 

 weeds, lined at one fool distance from row to row, and the young plants set like cab- 

 bages, about five or six inches from each other. This regular mode of lining and set- 

 ting the plants is practised only by the most exact planters, in order to facilitate the 

 Tvecding of them by the hand very frequently ; because, if they are not kept perfectly 

 clean and free from weeds, the produce will be but very small. They will bear being 

 planted in any .season of the year, even in the driest, as they will live on the surface 

 of the earth for many weeks without a crop of rain. The most general time, however, 



of planting them is from April to June. In the March following, the labourers carry a 

 parcel of tulis and jars into the field, and each takes a slip or breaddi of it, and begins 

 by laying hokl of a bunch of the blades, as much as he can conveniently grasp with one 

 hand, while, v\ith the other, he cuts it just above the surface of the earth, as quickly 

 6 possible, that the jnice may nob be wasted, and then places the blades in the tub, 

 bunch by bunch. When the first tub is thus packed quite full, a second is begun, 

 (each labourer having two) and, by the time the second is filled, all the juice is gene- 

 rally drained out of tlie blades in the first tub. The blades are then lightly taken out, 

 and thrown over the land by way of manure, and the juice is poured into a jar. The 

 tub is then filled again with blades, and so alternately until the labourer has produced 

 his jar full, or about four gallons and a half of juice, which is often done in six or se- 

 ven hours, and he has then the remainder of the day to himself^ it being his emploj'er's 

 interest to fret each day's operation as quickly done as possible. It may be observed, 

 that, although aloes are often cut in nine, ten, or twelve, months after being planted, 

 they are notin perfection till the second or third year, and that they will be productive 

 for a length of time, say ten or twelve years, or even for a much longer time, if good 

 dung, or manure of any kind, is strewed over the field once in three or four years, or 

 oftener, if convenient. 



The aloe juice will keep for .several weeks without injury. It is therefore not boiled 

 -until a sufficient quantity is procured to make it an object for the boiling-house. In 

 the large way three boilers, either of iron or of copper, are placed to one fire ; though 

 some have but two, and the small planters only one. The boilers arc filled with the 

 ^aice ; and, as it ripens, or becomes more inspissated, by a constant bat regular fire, 

 It- is ladled forward from boiler to boiler, and fresh juice is added to that farthest from 

 the fire, till the juice in that nearest to the fire, (by much the smallest of the three, and 

 commonly called by the name oi tache, as in the manufactory of sugar) becomes of a 

 proper consistency to be skipped or ladled out into gourds, or other small vessels, used 

 for its fii.al reception. The proper time to skip or ladle it out of the tache is when it 

 is arrived at what is termed a resin height, or when it cuts freely, or in thin flakes, from 

 the edges of a small wooden slice, that is dipped from time to time into the tache for 

 that purpose. A little lime water is used by some aloe boilers, during the process, 



^when the ebullition is too great. 



As to the sun-dried aloes (which are most approved for medicinal purposes) very 

 little is made in Barbadoes. The process is however very simple, tliough extremely 

 tedious. The raw juice is either put into bladders, left quite open at top, and suspended 

 in the sun, or in broad shallow trap's of wood, pewter, or tin, exposed also to the sun, 

 every drv day, until all the fluid parts are exhaled, and a perfect resin formed, which 

 is then packed up for use, or for exportation. 



The 



