SUGAR HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. 207 



which is called cane trash, in contradistinction to field trash, serves for fuel to boil the 

 liquor. The juice, as it flows from the mill, taken at a medium, contains eight parts 

 of pure water, one part of sug ir, and one part consisting of coarse oil and mucilagin- 

 ous gum. with a portion of essential oil. 



As this juice has a strong disposition to fermentation, it must be boiled as soon as 

 possible. There are some water mills that will grind, with great ease, canes sufficient 

 for thirty hogsheads of sugar in a week. It is necessary to have boiling vessels, or cla- 

 rifiers, that will correspond in dimensions to the quantity of juice flowing from the re- 

 ceiver. These clarifiers are commonly three in number, and are sometimes capable of 

 containing one thousand gallons each ; but it is more usual to see them of three hundred 

 or four hundred gallons each. Besides the clarifiers, which are used for the first boil- 

 ing, there are generally four coppers or boilers. The clarifiers are placed in the middle 

 or at one end of the boding house. If at one end, the boiler called the teache is placed 

 at the other, and several boilers (generally three) are ranged between them. The 

 teache is ordinarily from seventy to one hundred gallons, and the boilers between the 

 clarifiers and teache diminish in size from the first to the last. Where the clarifiers are 

 in the middle, there is usually a set of three toilers on each side, which constitute, in 

 effect, a double boiling house. On very large estates this arrangement is found useful 

 nnd necessary. The objection to so g.-'eat a number is the cxpence of fuel ; to obviate 

 which, in some degree, the three boilers on each side of the clarifiers are commonly 

 hunir on one fire. 



The juice runs from the receiver along a wooden gutter lined with lead, into the 

 boiling house ; where it is received into one of the clarifiers. When the clarifier is 

 filled, a fire is lighted, and a quantity of Bristol quick-lime in powder, which is called 

 temper, is poured into the vessel. The use of the lime is to unite with the superabund- 

 ant acid, which, for the success of the process, it is necessary to get rid of. The 

 ouantitv sufficient to separate the acid must vary, according to the strength of the 

 quick-lime, and the quality of the liquor. Some planters allow a pint ot lime to every 

 hundred gallons ol liquor ; but Mr. Edwards thinks that little more than half the quan- 

 tity is a better medium proportion, and even then, that it ought to be dissolved in boil- 

 ino- water*, that as little as possible may be precipitated. The boat is suffered gradually 

 to increase till it approaches within a few degrees of the heat of boiling water, that 'he 

 impurities may be thoroughly separated But if the liquor were suffered to boil with 

 uolence, the impurities would again incorporate with it. 



It 



* Mr. Char'rs Blackford, of St. Mary's, lias lately discovered a new method of clarifying raw cane juice, for 

 which he received a reward from the House of Assembly. It consists in clarifying the juice in its ra v state, 

 which he says not only improve- The quality of sugar but renders it nmcii purer, and sooner to lie b uled to 

 granulation. Far less fuel is consumes!, ami labour reduced, by this siaiple prices?, which is merely (o apply 

 as much temper lime to the raw cane-juice iu the receiver a., to cuse a curdle, which separates the mucila- 

 ginous substance from the saccharine juice, and is effected in about ten minutes A glas, -ay a pint or a 

 half-pint tumbler, dipped immediately after tempering in the receiver, is a Lmde ; for when the precipitation 

 takes place in the glass it will in the receiver. Gene a ly speaki ig, lie found one quart of :;ood temper lime 

 necessary for one hundred gallora of liquor, allowances to be made for canes of different qualities. Here* 

 commends two c.eks to the rece^er, one in the middle ami the other two inches fiom its botletn, the liquor 

 mav he frequently drawn ofFby die middle pi c, and the receiver as nti. , replenished. By this means the 

 linuoi was found to come up sooner in the boi ers, and had n t one-tenth ot the usual skimmings; and tne li- 

 quor in a few minutes was cleaner i'l Lhe grand copper, than it was bef< ic in the second, or even first, tache. 

 Whin !'e came to skip th< sugar it was as different from what was in;'k : v>n before as possible, and greatly su- 

 perior in quality. I" 01 1 instance Mr Blackford found one hundred and iwtnty ounces of tewpei lime ne 

 cessary to effect his p iposc on four uuuiud gallons of cane-liquor. 



