Sugar 



101 



constituents. The best molasses obtained in the West 

 Indies in muscovado manufacture contain between fifty 

 and sixty per cent, of crystallisable sugar, ten per cent, 

 or more of glucose. This molasses is a valuable 

 product. It is a good foodstuff, of deservedly high 



reputation in confectionery as a sweetmeat, etc. Barbados, Antigua, Porto Rico, and 

 other West Indian Islands export large quantities of molasses in huge casks or 

 puncheons to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, and in 

 certain circumstances molasses is more remunerative than sugar; but of course there 

 is a comparatively small market. With the adoption of improved processes for 

 extracting the sugar the amount remaining in the molasses is reduced, and in vacuum pan 

 molasses it is about thirty and thirty-five per cent, of sucrose with an approximately equal 

 amount of glucose. Such molasses are of little value for table use and confectionery, they do 

 not yield a palatable spirit if fermented and distilled, and cannot be employed like higher 

 grade molasses in the manufacture of rum. They will, however, yield an alcohol which can be 

 used for industrial purposes. In other cases they are used as fuel, the megass being sprinkled 

 with molasses before being fed to the furnace, or the molasses are burnt in specially con- 

 structed furnaces, so made that the potash salts which the molasses contain can also be 

 recovered. 



Manufacture of Rum 

 Molasses will undergo fermentation exactly as other saccharine substances which offer 

 conditions suitable to the life and activity of the yeast plant. ' In temperate climates much 

 scientific research has been devoted to the study of the yeast plant, and cultivated races are 

 bred which can be relied on, when placed under proper conditions, to bring about certain results. 

 In the tropics, as a general rule, this has up to the present been neglected, and everything 

 left to chance. Recently, however, in Jamaica, long famous for its rums, a special fermentation 

 chemist has -been appointed and the whole industry of rum manufacture in the colony is being 

 carefully studied with the object of improving the quality of the product, and of formulating 

 reliable rules for procedure. The usual practice in sugar-cane countries is to dilute molasses 

 with water, and in some cases sugar-house skimmings, fresh cane juice, and various other 

 materials are added. The yeast is left to chance, but yeasts are omnipresent, and there is 

 little likelihood of some of these minute plants not falling from the air into the " wash," 



