OTHER MODES OF DRAINING. val 
“3d. That the crystallization in the moulds be regular 
and not too compact; and to this end, that it commence 
and terminate in the same vessel. 
“Ath. That the temperature of the room in which the 
liquoring is performed should not vary much, and be at 
Teast 70° F.”* 
The practice of forcing out the molasses by mechanical 
pressure has commonly been resorted to by sorghum man- 
ufacturers, but the necessity of adopting this mode of 
drainage is an evidence of an inferior crystallization, result- 
ing from unripeness of the cane, imperfect defecation, 
injury by heat, or other like causes. Natural drainage will 
not take place with facility in such cases, and the choice of 
the operator lies between the production of a dark, clammy 
and inferior sugar by the application of the press, or the 
melting and reboiling of the refractory mass to form syrup. 
In such cases, a better quality of sugar can be made on 
a small scale by intimately mixing with the plastic mass of 
sugar and molasses, after pressure has been applied, a 
small quantity of water, which dissolves the molasses and 
coloring matter more readily than the crystals of sugar. 
Pressure is then quickly applied a second time, and the 
liquid part being thinner and less viscid than before, is 
more readily driven out. The objections to this mode of 
drying the sugar are that asingle repetition of this process 
is seldom sufficient to produce a fair sugar from a mass 
which would not naturally drain, that in the successive 
washings and pressings a great quantity of the sugar is 
dissolved, and is rendered comparatively worthless by being 
mixed with the very impure molasses from which it cannot 
again be recovered, and that this operation involves a great 
* Quoted by McCulloh, Report, p. 290, from “Cours de Chimie Ele- 
mentaire et Irdustrielle, par M. Payen.” 
11 
