100 THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 
down through the loaf, and thus wash the crystals free 
from their mother liquor, or molasses.. When the water 
has all left, the clay may be lifted off the mould like a 
large brown cake of gingerbread, without soiling the 
hands or injuring the sugar. This is what is termed 
‘“claying,” and produces the “clayed” sugar of com- 
merce. 
If the sugar is desired to be very white, claying may 
be repeated two or three times, but each time at the ex- 
pense of the crystal, which is washed away just in pro- 
portion as the sugar whitens. When well purged, the 
sugar is got out of the moulds by knocking them upside 
down on a clean floor. The loaf of sugar will be found 
of three grades—white at the top, yellow in the middle, 
and brown towards the bottom, whilst the tip or extreme 
end remains a “magma” of sugar and molasses. 
DRYING—BOXING—SHIPPING TO MARKET. 
As the moulds are knocked out, the different grades of 
sugar are separated, by breaking the loaves across by a 
blow with a machéte, which is the instrument of all work 
in the hands of the negro; the broken loaves of sugar are 
then either passed between rollers, or pounded with mal- 
lets, to break up its consistence. After which, it is either 
spread over hot tiles, in a room prepared for the purpose, 
with fires underneath, or exposed, on boards, to the rays 
of the sun. Here it is dried to powder, and afterward 
packed in oblong boxes of rough pine board, held 
together by strips of raw hide; which being nailed on 
the box when moist, contract on drying, and bind the 
