38 TIMEHRI. 
improvement. In the first place when the teach or last 
copper is emptied of its contents, a small quantity is left 
behind to prevent the burning of the teach—in the inter- 
val of charging up the copper—now, however short this 
interval, the portion of sugar left is twice boiled, oxided 
and discoloured, and communicates its bad qualities to 
the next strike or boiling, In the next place, by throwing 
a hot layer of sugar over the cold one already in the 
cooler, crystallization is disturbed, and the colouring 
matter of the molasses of the second strike mingles with 
the crystal of the first and must have a very deleterious 
effet—the mixing up of all the strikes together in the 
cooler, only tends to make bad worse, and the obvious 
alternative is to cure or drain every strike of sugar 
separately ; for every hhd. of sugar in the market shews 
a difference between the tops and the bottoms of nearly 
50 per cent in quality. 
There is in Demerary sugar a foreign compound which 
is hardly to be got rid of, but which keeps it far behind 
the sugar of the West India Islands—the muriate of 
soda or the marine salt. This is imbibed by the cane 
from the soil, which is strongly impregnated with it and 
communicates an evident saltness to the sugar, especially 
from the first crops of canes, causing it to deliquesce in 
the passage home, and though it is evident that the 
refiners have found out the means of getting rid of it, 
the planters as yet have not. 
It reduces the value of our sugars in the retail market 
fully 15 per cent. 
The skimming of the impurities of the cane juice whilst 
boiling, being mixed with a portion of the molasses and 
water, is put up in vats of about 500 gallons each, and 
