Rum. 83 



Alcoholic fermentation is the change a saccharine 

 solution undergoes when the yeast plant developes in it. 

 Being a plant, yeast wants food very much the same as 

 other plants, and unless the foods are there it will not 

 develope. But every variety of plant has one special 

 soil best suited to it ; and if it is our obje6l to cultivate 

 any particular plant, it is to our advantage to give it the 

 food on which it flourishes best. Yeast requires carbo- 

 hydrates such as glucose, mineral matter in the form of 

 potassium phosphate with a little of the phosphates of 

 lime and magnesia, and albumenoid bodies which must 

 be in the soluble state. The reason why these foods 

 must be in the soluble state, is that the yeast only feeds, 

 as it were, through its skin. 



In molasses, we have the carbohydrates and probably 

 sufficient alkaline phosphates, but the soluble albumenoids 

 are altogether wanting. It is owing to their absence that 

 fermentation is not readily started in molasses. In cane 

 juice, on the other hand, these albumenoids are in the best 

 assimilable state, and hence the rapid fermentation 

 that is so easily set up. We have here a very easy means 

 then of establishing fermentation in molasses. 



A little "cush-cush" can be made at a moment's 

 notice, which, when once fernj^nted, will serve to start 

 the vat. The yeast when once started has the power to 

 render soluble the insoluble albumenoids that exist in the 

 molasses, so that the fermentation will then proceed of itself. 



The advantage of establishing a vigorous and healthy 

 fermentation cannot be too strongly recommended. It 

 alone produces a pure alcohol. The languid insipid vat 

 is produ6live of fusel oil, besides becoming an easy prey 

 to the a6lion of deleterious ferments. 



L2 



