SEPARATION' OF THE SUGAE FROM MOLASSES. 363 



that the drippings from them could be received in a large tank. In 

 the bottom of the hogsheads holes were bored, which were kept open, 

 and, in time, a large portion of the molasses would slowly drain off, 

 leaving always a considerable portion still adhering to the crystals of 

 sugar. It was thus sent to market as a soft-grained, moist, yellow or 

 brown sugar, the color being due almost entirely to the adhering dark 

 colored molasses. Another method suitable for the extraction of sugar 

 upon a small scale, is to put the " mush sligar,"as the mixture of sugar 

 and molasses may be termed, into strong bags of a somewhat loose ma- 

 terial, and subjecting them to pressure, at times taking out the bags to 

 work over their contents, and pressing again. 



Clayoig. 



The fact that the color of the raw sugar was found to be due to the 

 film of molasses adhering to each crystal, which neither draining nor 

 pressure could entirely remove, led to the washing of the sugar with 

 water. This was accomplished by placing the concentrated svrup or 

 mush sugar in earthen molds, shaped like an inverted cone. At the 

 bottom a hole, which was stopped until crystallization of the contents 

 was completed, allowed the molasses to drain away. When this was 

 completed, a layer of straw was spread on the sugar, over which a stiff 

 paste of clay was put, the moisture from which, slowly percolating 

 through the mass of sugar crystals, washed off the coating of molasses 

 and left the cr}-stals nearly white. Instead of clay, a piece of felt or 

 other heavv^ cloth was often used. 



Of course, much of the sugar was dissolved by this process, and the 

 claying was discontinued before the entire contents of the cone was 

 made white ; so there came to be recognized in the trade different 

 brands of clayed sugars, according to the portion of the cone from 

 which they were taken. The dried cones were cut into portions hori- 

 zontally, the upper and whiter being termed in French trade premier, 

 next second, then troisieme. petit, comraun, and tete, the latter being 

 the still black sugar from the apex of the cone. 



The-e sugars have been largely made in the French colonies, China, 

 and Cuba ; and the "Havana sugar," so common in our own markets 

 twenty years ago, was a clayed sugar. 



At one time, it is said that there were four hundred plantations, in 

 St. Domingo alone, which made clayed sugars. 



Centrifugals. 

 The most convenient (and, at present, almost universal) method for 

 the separation of the molasses from the sugar, is the centrifugal ma- 



