NECESSITY OF IMPROVEMENT. 



65 



which the negro sugar-boilers, by longer habit, become 

 better acquainted with than those who superintend them. 

 In fact, the difference in quality of most of the sugar at 

 present made, depends more upon the care and attention 

 of the head boiler than on any superior knowledge possessed 

 by the manager. 



Both in France and England, attention has been drawn 

 to the necessity of improvement in this process ; and 

 men of science and zeal have been busily investigating 

 the subject. Dr. Evans, especially, has become emi- 

 nent, and his valuable work on sugar manufacture has 

 done much to diffuse information on the subject. Dr. 

 Mitchell of Trinidad has also been zealously engaged, and 

 his researches and information are of the most valuable 

 description, not only on the proper treatment of cane- 

 juice when obtained, but also on the method of procuring 

 the largest possible quantity from the canes by crushing 

 — an operation very imperfectly performed by the mills 

 commonly used. 



I shall take the liberty of quoting in the following pages, 

 some valuable suggestions from the works of these gentle- 

 men, which are very far from being so generally known 

 as they ought to be, and I shall consider the subject under 

 the following heads : — 



First, — The nature of the cane, and the state in which 

 the sugar naturally exists in it. 



Second, — The manner of procuring its juice in the 

 greatest abundance by the ordinary method of crushing. 



