80 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. VlL 



to dry. The juice (^guaropo) running from the crushers is caught 

 in a trough, and carried down to a series of* large cauldrons^ 

 heated beneath by means of furnaces. The fuel priricipalljr 

 used to heat these furnaces is the dry, crushed cane, which has^^ 

 been spread out in the yard around the buildings of the estate ,- 

 but wood and other kinds of fuel are also used. As the cane- 

 juice is concentrated by boiling in the kettles, it is frequently 

 skimmed to remove impurities, and is clarified with lime. As it 

 continues to thicken it is passed onward from one kettle to an- 

 other, till, in the last, it reaches the granulating point, and is theu 

 pumped out into the cooling pans. In these large shallow vats 

 the syrup is left for a while to cool and solidify into moist sugar. 

 When sufficiently cool to be handled, a gang of negroes, shovel 

 in hand, step into the pan and throw it out into little wooden box- 

 cars, which carry it along a tramway to the purging house. 

 Here it is put into casks, in which several sticks are set upright 

 to aid the molasses in its passage to the bo':tom of the cask. 

 These casks rest on poles, beneath which is a sloping floor od 

 which the molasses runs down to gutters leading into a general 

 receptacle or tank. On some estates there is a distillery attached 

 to the purging house, and the molasses, skimmings of the kettles, 

 &c., are converted into rum (cigiia ardiente). Where there is 

 no distillery, the waste products of the sugar houses are conducted 

 by a drain to some point at a distance from the buildings. In 

 the neighborhood of the little black pond at the discharge of such 

 a drain, an odor pervades the air, which may be appeciated by 

 opening the hatch of a sugar-laden vessel on her arrival from a 

 long sea-voyage. When the sugars are sufficiently drained, they 

 are packed in casks and sent to the port of shipment : here the 

 merchant takes charge of them and packs them afresh at his 

 warehouse, iu the casks in which they are sent to Europe and 

 North America, and are delivered for consumption. 



The, molasses also is pumped from the vats in the purging 

 houses on the estates into casks, and forwarded to the consignees 

 at the port of shipment. The best modern appliances for im- 

 proving the qualities of the sugars produced are not universally 

 applied in the district of Cienfuegos. Vacuum-pans are to be 

 seen on some estates, but the process of sugar making in general 

 use is the more primitive one which I have described. 



The prosperity which for many years has attended sugar cul- 

 tivation in Cuba has greatly increased the population and wealth. 



