336 CHYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



eration is renewed two or three times at intervals of two 

 days. 



When the loaves have remained a month in the stove- 

 room, they can be taken out of the moulds ; they are then 

 found to be dry and entirely deprived of molasses, and are 

 piled up in the store-house, where they are kept to be re- 

 fined. 



ARTICLE VII. 



On Boiling the Molasses and Leaching Sirups. 



I MIX the molasses obtained from the brown sugar with 

 the sirups which have been filtrated through the loaves, 

 and proceed to boil the mixture. The molasses marks 23° 

 or 24°, (=z specific gravity of 1.190 to 1.199,) the sirup 21° 

 or 22°, {— 1.171 to 1.180,) and the mixture 22° or 23°, 

 (= 1.180 to 1.190.) I throw from 32 to 35 gallons of this 

 mixture into the boiler, and when the heat approaches to 

 ebullition, I add about one pound of animal charcoal, 

 which I mix carefully with the liquor. 



The boiling of this liquor is more difficult than that of 

 the sirup which produces the brown sugar, but with care 

 and patience it may be done to very good advantage. This 

 liquor yields at least one sixth of the quantity of sugar that 

 has been procured by the first operation ; this product is 

 sufficiently important to render it advisable to boil down the 

 molasses, instead of disposing of it, as is almost everywhere 

 done, for distillation. 



If the molasses procured from beets was of the same 

 quality as that obtained from the sugar cane, it could be 

 sold with advantage, but it has a bitter taste which renders 

 it unsalable ; it is best then to exhaust it of crystallizable 

 matter, and to subject the remainder to distillation. The 

 difference in the quantity of alcohol obtained from the two 

 kinds of molasses is almost nothing. 



Instead of depositing the product of this last boiling in 

 moulds, I throw it, from day to day, into a hogshead open 

 at one end, and thus gradually fill the cask ; the sugar 

 crystallizes wonderfully in these vessels, so that they be- 

 come half full of it. 



