26 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



ArcrST 3, 1936, 



jirocess is completed as soon as the f51anient breaks 

 abort, and the upper part, having tlie semi-trans 

 ■pareney of honi, curls itself into a spiral. This 

 niannir of trying the simp is known by the name 

 proving. 



2. The scrojid mode of judgin > of the com- 

 pletion of the process, is by observing the time 

 •when the sirnp ceases to moisten the sides of the 

 Ijoiler, and then blowing forcibly into a skimmer 

 whicli has jnst been immersed in it; if bubbles 

 'esca]«e through the holes of the skimmer which 

 ascend into tlie air in the same manner as soap 

 bubbles do, tlie liquor is considered to be suffi- 

 ■ciently boiled ; the fjre is therefore immediately 

 extinguished, and the sirup in a few minutes after 

 conveyed to a great copper boiier, which is called 

 ihe cooler. 



The cooler is ])iaced in an apartment of the 

 inanufaetory near the boilers ; its capacity should 

 be such as to allow of its receiving the product of 

 the four successive boilings. The cooling which 

 the sirup experiences in this vessel, quickly pro- 

 duces crystallization ; the crystals form first at 

 the bottom, where they collect in a thick bed, hav- 

 ing however no union of particles. Grailnally 

 tlie sides become covered with solid crystals, and 

 at length there is formed upon the surface a crust 

 of sugar which thickens insensibly. At this time 

 the contents of the cooler are taken out to fill the 

 moulds in which the process of crystallization is 

 to be cotnpleted. 



The mo.dds used in this operation are known 

 in refineries by the name of grandes hatardes. 

 They are large conical vessels of baked earth, 

 w th a small opening at the apex, and capable of 

 containing about 100 pounds of the evai)orated 

 sirup. '1 he difierent sizes are distinguished in 

 the manufactories as grandes et petites hatardes, 

 according to their different capacities ; they are 

 numbered 1, % 3, 4, &c. Moulds made of resin- 

 ous wood liave supplied the place of these in 

 some manufactories ; this change was proposed 

 by M. Blathieu de Dombasle, anil in those coun- 

 tries where wood is abundant, it is a good one in 

 point of economy. 



The moulds must be soaked in water and then 

 drained, before the sirup is put into them ; the 

 opening at the point is stopped with old linen, and 

 the vessels themselves supported against the walls 

 to receive the liquor. 



The contents of the cooler are first tlnu-oughly 

 stirred and mixed, and then thrown gradually in- 

 to the nioulds, a portion being put into each in 

 turn, so as to fill them all equally : an interval of 

 an inch is left between the surface of the sirup 

 and the top of the mould. 



Crystallization is hactcned by carrying the 

 moulds, as soon as they are full, into the coolest 

 apartment of the nuiuufactory. 



The sirup arising from the employment of 

 10,000 pounds of beet roots, if the operations are 

 ■\\e\\ conducted, will fill nine grandes latardcs, 

 each batarde containing from 85 to 90 pounds of 

 evaporated sirup. 



When the difiVrenl boilings are made slowly, 

 or experience any interruption, the moidds are 

 partially filled from the cooler, without waituig 

 for the last product; otherwise crystallization 

 ■would be comi Icte.l in the cooler, and all the con- 

 tents of it would form a mass which could not be 

 poured into the moulds to extract from it the mo- 

 lasses. 



Cooling causes the formation of crystals upon 



the sides of the moidds and the surface of the li- 

 quor. As soon as this crust of crystals has ac 



quired some degree of consistency, it must be 

 broken with a wooden spatula, and the whole con- 

 tents of the niouhl carefully stirred, so as to col- 

 lect in the centre the crystals that have formed 

 upon the sides. When this has been done the 

 crystallization is allowed to go on undisturbed. 



Three days are more than enough for the for- 

 mation of all the crystals. 



The opciatioii may be known to be good, — 



1. When the surlaoe of the crystallized mass is 

 dry, so that in | assing the hand over it neither 

 moisture nor adhesiveness is perceived. 



2. When the crust settles and breaks in the 

 centre: in this case the refiners say the sugar 

 makes a fountain. 



3. The yellow color of the crystal is generally 

 a good indication, but in this case of beet sugar it 

 is unimportant, because the color may have been 

 blackened by the animal charcoal employed when 

 the filtration of the clarified liquor has not been 

 carefully executed ; and this'color is easily made 

 to disappear by clarification and refinement. 



The plugs that close the points of the moulds 

 are then taken out, and the mouldc are placed in 

 earthen pots, that the molasses may flow from 

 them. These pots should be large enough to con- 

 tain five or six galls, of liquor. 



The crystals will be deprived of the molasses 

 which unites them in about eight days ; the nioulds 

 are •then carried into an a[iartment which, by 

 means of a stove, is kept constantly heated to 18 

 or 20'^ of Ueaumer, (=72.5=' and 77° Fahr.) and 

 there jdaced in licsh jiots. 



The next operation is that of leaching the con- 

 tents of the moulds, in order to obtain from them 

 that portion of molasses which refused to How 

 out. For this purp >se the surface of the loaves 

 is carefully broken and scraped with a blade of a 

 knife, so as to smooth it, and then there is thrown 

 upon each one about half a pound of a white sir- 

 up, marking from 27 to 3^ (=specific gravity of 

 1.231 to 1.261.) This sirup is ouly a portion of 

 that which is prepared for boiling. 



This sirup i)enetrates into the loaves, diluting 

 and carrying off the molasses, which is three or 

 four degrees more concentrated than itself. If the 

 concentration of the sirup were less, it would dis- 

 solve the sugar ; if it were more, it would render 

 the sugar adhesive. This operation is renewed 

 two or three times at intervals of two days. 



When the loaves have remained a month in 

 the stove-room, they can bo taken out of the 

 moulds ; they are then found to be dry and en- 

 tirely deprived of molasse.s, and are piled up in 

 the storehouse, where they are kept to be re- 

 fined. 



(To lie continued.) 



bre:a.kiivg vicious cows. 



Mu Tucker : 



1 noticed an article in the 22tli No. of the Gen- 

 esee Farmer, describing the manner in which a 

 •' vicious cow " was reclaimed. I think such in- 

 stances very rare, for I have known many men to 

 possess vicious cows for years, who never read 

 nor never thought of their being reclaimed ; it was 

 the same thing year after year, 'i hey thought as 

 much before hand of the job of attending to them, 

 as of any other work they had to do. Milking, as 

 far as my experience has extended, is considered 

 oneof the most, if not the most, unpleasant chores 



there is to be performed about afimiily, an I above 

 all things a kicking cow is to be dreaded. Sho 

 is always worst in the worst weather, and one 

 is in danger at every milUing-time of losing all the 

 prof ts of his labor, unless he can content himself 

 to go through with some operation of making her 

 secure where she can do no injury. 



I should be very much in favor of breaking vi- 

 cious cows when it is practicable, but I lieliev* 

 the attempt is seldom successful. I think it is the 

 best way generally to dispose of them for beef, 

 unless a man has a very valuable one, which will 

 well recompense the labor of k'eping her. But 

 such an animal as a vicious cow a man never 

 ought to raise — there is no need of it. If one 

 necessarily comes upon his hands already made 

 vicious, he is not to blame. I have long thought 

 that there was a great defect in the mode which 

 some farmers use to break their young cows. We 

 never should undertake to milk a heifer out in 

 the lot, or in the corner either of the open field or 

 of the barn-yard, where there is any chance for 

 her to escape, and oblige us to have a race before 

 we can again go on with the operation of milking. 

 One such attempt may spoil her for a gentle cow, 

 for she will long recollect it, and will be doubly 

 worse to manage the next time. I have hereto- 

 fore passed l>y farm-house.s, and seen two or three 

 great lusly fellow? at work in this way, paraded 

 around a corner of the yard, each holding some 

 sort of a cudgel in his hand, raised over the ap- 

 parently harmless young heifer, while she stands 

 to be milked, half scared, and tremliling prodig- 

 ously for fear of the expected blow. Now this is 

 all wrong, and entirely unnecessary. They very 

 much mistake the nature of the creature — she Is 

 not so to be tamed. It is the regular course to 

 make her vicious and ungovernable, and it will 

 need but a few such opeiations. 



1 will suggest a plan which I invariably follow- 

 ed for four or five years with triumphant success, 

 and when I changed my occupation, transmitted it 

 to my successor with a special charge not to de- 

 part from it — during which time, and since which, 

 (for I have been an eye witness of its faithful ful- 

 fih;ient,) I did not know, nor have not known, 

 one single subject of its operation but what was or 

 has been of the most harmless and peaceful dispo- 

 sition, so that a man and boy, woman and girl, all, 

 could jierform the task of milking with equal ease 

 anil in equal security, either as it respects them- 

 selves or their jmil of milk. And in such a case, 

 every cow must not have her particular milker, 

 whom when he is necessarily absent, or in any 

 wise rendered incapable of performing this his 

 ordinary labor, it requires two or three a half of an 

 hour with clubs and stone-!, racing to and fro 

 across the yard, to obtain her milk, or else she 

 must go unmilked until her former master returns, 

 or is sufliciently recovered to again enter upon his 

 task. Some may have been acquainted with the 

 plan loug ago, but many to my knowledge do not 

 now know it, or if they do, do not practise it : — 

 Drive the heifer and her calf carefully into the 

 shed or stable, tie one end of a rope loosely around 

 her horns, fasten tlie other "nd firmly to some 

 |)ost or staple, giving her a short play, and there 

 let her stand- Mind and not take her into any 

 strange jilace, where the cattle are not used to 

 goin". If she was accustomed to he led when a 

 calf she will stand still, if not she will flounce 

 around very briskly a short time at the length of 

 the rope, but soon finding by experience that all is 



