H. S. OLCOTT ON THE SOKGIIO AND IMPIIEE. 417 



It is a matter of importance with those who have never boiled 

 sirup to know when the juice is boiled enough. There being noth- 

 ing like experiments, I would advise such to procure a cupful of 

 molasses, heat it, and, taking up a small quantity on a spoon, to 

 watch how it runs down, and when the drops come, how they . 

 elongate and break in the middle, the upper half springing back 

 with a jerk, and the lower forming a ball and falling into the cup 

 again. Three cents in money, and the expenditure of five min- 

 utes' time in this way, will go farther in educating the eye to a 

 good judgment than an elaborate series of directions. I will give 

 one other method, however, of knowing when sirup is cooked 

 enough. Dip your skimmer into the boiling liquid ; take it out, 

 and allow the sirup to run off it ; a few drops will remain on the 

 edge, falling at intervals. If these break with a long string be- 

 tween, which at the break jerks back into the dipper again, and 

 which, when taken between the finger and thumb, feels like mo- 

 lasses^ it is fair to suppose your sirup is sufficiently boiled, and you 

 may take it from the fire. 



Reducing to Sugar. 



For making sugar, it will be necessary to boil this same sirup 

 down till the steam escapes from it in little pufis, and when the 

 skimmer is dipped into it, the falling drops break short and fall 

 solid. These simple tests, and perhaps a few failures, will enable 

 one to make good sugar. When enough has been boiled, pour it 

 into a wooden box or tub to cool slowly, standing it in a warm 

 place. Let the box be large enough to allow of the sugar stand- 

 ing only 1^ inches deep ; boil another lot, and pour over the top 

 of the first, and a third over the top of the second ; mix them all 

 together, and allow the contents to cool. If, by the next morn- 

 ing, there should be no signs of erj^stals, take a handful of raw 

 sugar and stir it in ; in all probability it will start crystallization ; 

 but if it should not do so immediately, do not despair, for it may 

 stand for an entire fortnight, and then suddenly strike into sugar. 



Mr. Wraj/s Patent. 



Leonard Wkat, of London, England. Letters Patent, No. 17, 713, Dated June 30, 

 1857. Patented in Belgium, June 20, 1854. 



To all 7cJwm it may concern : 



Be it known unto all men, that I, Leonard Wray, of the City of 

 London, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 have discovered a new process or method of making crystallized 

 sugar, sirup, and molasses from all the African and Chinese vari- 

 eties of the "Jw^^/iee" or '■'■Holcus saccliaratus'^ of Linnaeus, often 

 denominated " Sugar millet" " Sorghum saccharatum" " Sorgho 

 sucre^" etc.; which process is also applicable to the manufacture 

 of the same products from the juice of the maize, broom-corn, the 

 sugar-maple, etc. 



Dd 



