SYRUP. 137 
BOILING DOWN. 
“The fires should be so arranged that they may be 
under good control, to be forced or withdrawn, as occasion 
may require. When the juice is placed in the boiler, the 
fire should be gradually increased to a simmering heat, 
(not to active boiling,) and maintained at this tempera- 
ture until a thick green scum rises to the surface, and 
forms into puffs, seeming ready to crack. This scum, 
when fully formed, should be removed clean from the 
surface. The heat may now be raised to boiling, and 
kept in an active state of ebullition until the bulk is re- 
duced one half. The fire may be removed from one 
kettle, and its contents be transferred to the other, when 
the heat must be gradually moderated, as the syrup be- 
comes more concentrated, to avoid the danger of scorch- 
ing, which injures the color and flavor. Should more 
dirty green scum rise to the surface after the first skim- 
ming, it should likewise be removed. 
“In regard to the precise degree of concentration to 
which the syrup should be brought, it is exceedingly dif- 
ficult to lay down any precise and simple rule which 
shall meet every case. The plan for determining it, in use 
on the sugar plantation, and which was adopted by Gover- 
nor Hammond and Mr. Peters, is based upon the judg- 
ment of the eye, in respect to the consistence of the syrup, 
when poured from the ladle, and cooled as it drops from 
its edge. This test is evidently very defective, since the 
temperature of the atmosphere regulates the consistence 
which the syrup must assume on cooling down—so that 
a syrup boiled on a cold day will necessarily be thin and 
