120 THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 
down, and when the drops come, how they elongate and 
break in the middle, the upper half springing back with 
a jerk, and the lower forming a ball and falling into the 
cup again. Three cents in money, and the expenditure 
of five minutes’ time in this way, will go farther in edu- 
cating the eye to a good judgment, than an elaborate 
series of directions. 
I will give one other method, however, of knowing 
when syrup is cooked enough. Dip your skimmer into 
the boiling liquid, take it out and allow the syrup to run 
off it; afew drops will remain on the edge, falling at in- 
tervals. If these break with a long string between, which 
at the break jerks back to the dipper again, and which 
when taken between the finger and thumb feels lke 
molasses, it is fair to suppose your syrup is sufficiently 
boiled, and you may take it from the fire. 
REDUCING TO SUGAR. 
For making sugar, it will be necessary to boil this 
same syrup down till the steam escapes from it in little 
puffs, and when the skimmer is dipped into it, the fall- 
ing drops break short and fall solid. These simple tests, 
and perhaps a few failures, will enable one to make good 
sugar. When enough has been boiled, pour it into a 
wooden box or tub to cool slowly, standing it in a warm 
place. Let the box be large enough to allow of the 
sugar standing only 14 inches deep; boil another lot, 
and pour over the top of the first, and a third over the 
top of the second, mix them all together, and allow the 
contents to cool. If, by the next morning, there should 
