ALCOHOL. 145 
has been brought successfully to a close, the wash, which 
before fermentation was commenced marked 8° to 10° 
Beaumé, will now be found to mark little over 19 
Beaumé, showing that nearly all the saccharine matter 
has been changed into alcohol. If left twelve hours after 
this, the acetic or vinegar fermentation commences, and 
the alcohol gradually disappears, to the serious loss of 
the distiller. 
In the West Indies, the mixture of the materials, or 
what is termed setting the wash, varies with the season. 
When crop has just commenced, or just finished, it is 
different from what itis in winter, as the rainy season is 
called; besides, the scientific distiller varies his mixtures 
to suit circumstances. ‘'he same proportions that are 
suitable for one state of the atmosphere may be unsuit- 
able for another, and it is the capacity to judge what is 
best for the season that constitutes the valuable overseer 
to the still house. 
Owing to its lability to conflagration, the still house 
is generally set apart, but in the vicinity of the boiling 
house, so that too much labor may not accrue from 
having to carry to it the scum of the kettles and molasses 
for conversion into alcohol. 
Hf the still be a small one, the planter usually contents 
himself with a mere shed for a still house, and a few 
rum puncheons, with asquare hole cut on the side where 
the bung-hole has been, for fermenting vats. Butif rum 
is intended to be one of the regular products of the estate, 
the matter is gone into more carefully. A regular stone 
still house is built, and proper fermenting tuns of oak or 
white pine provided. 
7 
