BOOK III. CHAP. VII. 677 



and {hew a tinge of very dufky blue. Great nicety Is required, as 

 well in not fuffering the tender tops to run into putrefaction, which 

 might fpoil the whole, as in drawing off the water at the critical 

 moment ; for, if it is drawn two hours too foon, great part of the 

 pulp will be loft ; and, if the fermentation is kept on as much too 

 long, the labour will be loft. 



To avoid thefe difafters, a handful of the weed is frequently taken 

 out ; and, when the tops are oblerved to become very tender and 

 pale, and the ftronger leaves to change their colour to a lefs lively 

 pale, this is known to be the proper point j and the liquor muft be 

 Ipeedily drawn off into the fecond vat, there to be thoroughly beaten 

 and incorporated [/j] ; to perform which operation, a variety of ma- 

 chines have been invented. In Jamaica, they formerly lliffered the 

 liquor to ftand twenty-four hours in this fecond vat, and then 

 cluirned it for three or four hours with paddles, or pieces of board, 

 drilled full of holes, and faftencd on the end of long poles. The 

 French made ufe of a kind of buckets, without any bottom, fixed to 

 poles, which refted on pivots, and were pulled up and let fall agaui 

 alternately with a jerk. But far more convenient machines are now 

 conftrudted, with a cog-wheel, which moves the levers, or beaters, 

 with greater regularity, and faves the labour of many Negroes; the 

 whole being kept in motion with a fingle horfe, or mule; and one of 

 them will perform more work in half an hour, than fix Negroes are 

 able to do in fix hours; fo that they fully anfwer the expence of 

 erecting them, and frequently reduce an imperfect tindure to grain, 

 which could hardly othervvife be brought about. When the liquor 

 has, by means of fuch a machine, or any other method, been well 

 churned for the fpace of fifteen or twenty minutes, a little of it being 

 taken up in a plate will appear curdled, or as if full of a fmall grain. 

 A quantity of clear lime-water, always kept ready for the occafion,, 



[i] Some have ufed the following fitnple contrivance on this occafion with fiicceft. A fmall 

 fquare ftick, painted white, and graduated with black lines, of fix or eight to an inch (the inches 

 being numer'cally marked from the bottom), is fixed conveniently within the llceper in a perpen- 

 dicular pofition. Tliis is carefully obfcrvcd, from time to time, to note with exaiftnefs the highell 

 rde of the fcum ; and immediately, when it begins to fubfide, the plug is to be drawn out, and the 

 liquor difcharged into the next vat. A limilar method is praftifed in Egypt, to difover the increafc 

 or. fall of the Nile by a graduated column, called the mohkuis ; from whence perhaps the hint was 

 taken. 



is 



