142 THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 
to impart to others what little knowledge and experience 
I may possess in regard to this most important manutfac- 
ture. 
TILE CEREALS NO LONGER NEED BE EMPLOYED TO MAKE ALCOHOL. 
Hitherto molasses from the cane, and the cereals, corn, 
barley, and rye, have furnished the bulk of the spirit so 
extensively needed, but a new era seems about to dawn 
upon us; the cereals may return to more legitimate chan- 
nels of consumption, while a new plant, useful it would 
seem, besides, for other purposes, supplies their place— 
the discovery of which, and introduction to our country, 
deserves to be classed among the most important events 
of the age, while every endeavor ought to be used to 
develop, rather than to retard, through a mistaken and 
narrow-minded philanthropy, its application to the manu- 
facture of spirit, which, I have shown, has now become 
an article of large consumption among us. 
WHAT IS ALCOHOL? HOW MADE? 
Alcohol may be termed, practically, pure spiriz, the 
result of vinous fermentation in certain bodies capable of 
assuming this condition, from which it is obtained by dis- 
tillation. A few of these bodies are wine, cider, beer, 
and cane juice. When either of these liquids has under- 
gone the vinous fermentation, and is subjected to vapor- 
ization in a close vessel with a suitable condenser, alco- 
hol is obtained as a result, more or less pure according to 
the apparatus employed and the skill of the operator. 
Rum, gin, brandy, and whiskey, are nothing but alco- 
hol more or less dilute and flavored with the essential 
