263 Account of the Hindu Method 



they begin to wither, and to tie them to the prop bamboos 

 higher up, during which time, if the weather is wet, they 

 keep the draiuvS open ; and it" a drought prevails they water 

 them occasionally from the river, cleaning and loosening 

 the ground every fjve or six weeks. Tying the leaves so 

 carefully round every part of the canes, they say, prevents 

 them from cracking or splitting by the heat of the sun, 

 helps to render the juice richer, and prevents their branch- 

 ing out round the sides : it is certain you never see a branchy 

 cane here. 



In January and February the canes are ready to cut, 

 which is about nine months from the time of planting ; of 

 course, I need not describe it. Their height, when stand- 

 ins: in the tield, will now be from eight to ten feet (foliage 

 included), and the naked cane from an inch to an inch and 

 a quarter in diameter. 



A mill or two, or even more, according to the extent of 

 the field, is erected, when wanted, in the open air, gene- 

 rally under the shade of large niangoe trees, of which there 

 are great abundance hereabout : the mill is small, exceed- 

 ingly simple, and at the same time efficacious. The juice, 

 as fast as expressed, js received in common earthen pots, 

 strained, and put into boilers, which are, in general, of an 

 oval form, composed of ill-made thick plates of country 

 iron riveted together. 



These boilers hold from 80 to 100 gallons ; in each they 

 put from 24 to 30 gallons of the strained juice; the boiler 

 is placed over a draft- furnace, which makes the fire burn 

 with great violence, being supplied with a strong draft of 

 air through a larnc subterranean passage, which also serves 

 for an ash-hole. At first the fire is moderate, but as the 

 scun.a is taken off, a point they are not very nice about in 

 these parts, as they look up to quantity more than quality, 

 the fire is bv degrees increased, so as to make the liquor 

 bnil very smartly : nothing whatever is added to help the 

 scum to rise, or the sugar to gain, except when the planter 

 wants a small quantity for his own or a friend's use : in 

 this case they add about 10 or 12 pints of sweet milk to 

 every 24 or 30 gallons, or boiler of juice, \\hieh no doubt 

 improves the quality of the sugar; the scum, with this ad- 

 dition, comes up more abundantly^ and is more carefully 

 removed. 



The liquor is never here removed into a second boiler, 

 but is in the same boiled down to a proper consistence, 

 which thev guess at by the eye and by the touch ; the fire 

 ^s then withdrawn, and in the same vessel sullcred to cool- 



a little: 



