SUGAR AND SUGAR MAKING. GS 
So far, neither of the defecators have come into play, 
enough juice has been collected in the receiver to fill one 
of them. The cock of the receiver is opened, and while 
it is running in, the sugar master takes a little of the 
juice in a glass, and tests it with litmus paper, which, 
from a deep blue, changes in an instant to a deep red, 
when dipped into the juice, should an excess of acid be 
present. The juice is always acid, more or less, therefore 
the question is not whether he will add lime or not, but 
how much. Having before prepared lime water, or mixed 
some cream lime on the spot, the damper being raised, and 
the fire playing on the bottom of the defecator, he stirs in 
small portions of the lime water or cream of lime, till the 
litmus paper, which at first became bright red on being 
immersed, now shows only a faint rose color. Here he 
stops, the juice is nearly neutral, neither too acid nor too 
alkaline, requiring but heat to make a good defecation, 
or separation of its albuminous and other feculencies, 
which, as the heat increases, rise to the top in the form of 
a thick, dirty crust, leaving the clear juice underneath. 
The moment the first signs of ebullition are perceived, 
the damper is let down, and the juice allowed to rest for 
fifteen or twenty minutes, when it may be drawn off un- 
derneath, clear and bright, leaving the dirty scum to be 
cleaned out when the defecator is washed for the next 
charge. After the train has been started, one or other 
of the defecators is always full, while the other is being 
cleaned out, and so on during the crop. 
Figure 7, represents the section of a train, such 
as has been described, viz., four pans and two defe- 
cators. 
