BEVEEBEBATINQ FUBTTACES. 255 



of Cana de Otahiti, recognised at a distance by a fresher 

 green, has the advantage of furnishing, on the same extent 

 of soil, one-fourth more juice, and a stem more woody, 

 thicker, and consequently richer in combustible matter. 

 The refiners (maestros de azucar), pretend that the vezou 

 (guarapo) of the Cana de Otahiti is more easily worked, 

 and yields more crystallized sugar by adding less lime or 

 potass to the vezou. The South Sea sugar-cane furnishes, no 

 doubt, after five or six years' cultivation, the thinnest 

 stubble, but the knots remain more distant from each other 

 than in the Cana creolia or de la tierra. The apprehension 

 at first entertained of the former degenerating by degrees 

 into ordinary sugar-cane is happily not realized. The sugar- 

 cane is planted in the island of Cuba in the rainy season, 

 from July to October; and the harvest is gathered from 

 February to May. 



In proportion as by too rapid clearing the island has become 

 unwooded, the sugar-houses have begun to want fuel. A 

 little stalk (sugar-cane destitute of its juice) used to be 

 employed to quicken the fire beneath the old cauldrons 

 (tachos) ; but it is only since the introduction of rever- 

 berating furnaces by the emigrants of Saint Domingo, that 

 the attempt has been made to dispense altogether with 

 wood, and burn only refuse sugar-cane. In the old con- 

 struction of furnaces and cauldrons, a tarea of wood, of one 

 hundred and sixty cubic feet, is burnt to produce five arrobas 

 of sugar, or, for a hundred kilogrammes of raw sugar, 278 

 cubic feet of the wood of the lemon and orange trees are 

 required. In the reverberating furnaces of Saint Domingo, 

 a cart of refuse-cane of 495 cubic feet produced 640 pounds 

 of coarse sugar, which make 158 cubic feet of refuse-cane 

 for 100 kilogrammes of sugar. I attempted, during my 

 stay at Guines, and especially at Eio Blanco, with the Count 

 de Mopex, several new constructions, with the view of 

 diminishing the expense of fuel, surrounding the focus with 

 substances which do not powerfully conduct the heat, and 

 thus diminish the sufferings of the slaves who keep up the fire. 

 Along residence in the salt-producing districts of Europe, and 

 the labours of practical halurgy, to which I have been devoted 

 since my early youth, suggested to me the idea of those con- 

 structions, whicn have been imitated with some success. Cu?er 



