CRYSTALLIZATION AND CURING OF SUGAR. 125 



sugar has become solid in these trays, they are placed 

 diagonally over zinc-lined gutters, the lower angle resting 

 on the gutter, and leaning against one another so as to 

 occupy as little space as possible. In this position the 

 melasses rapidly drains off ; and in a short time, if the tem- 

 perature of the room has been kept up to the degree men- 

 tioned before, the sugar becomes perfectly dry, except the 

 lower angle, which is knocked off, and can be reboiled with 

 the melasses, and is ready to be packed in any convenient 

 form for shipment. No loss is sustained on the voyage, as 

 there will be no drainage; and indeed if it has been rendered 

 very dry before packing, it will weigh more when sold in 

 this country than when it leaves the curing house. Sugar 

 being hygrometic, will absorb any moisture to which it 

 may be exposed from the humidity of the atmosphere, and 

 thus notably increase its weight, without any deliquescence 

 taking place. 



The melasses being reboiled from day to day as it drains 

 from the sugar, will prevent the destruction of the large 

 proportion of crystallizable sugar wdiich, when new, it con- 

 tains ; and if it should not be thought necessary to syrup 

 or blanch this secondary sugar, after crystallization it will 

 afford an abundant supply of brown sugar for the refiners; 

 and the uncrystallizable melasses from it can be all con- 

 verted into rum, by being fermented with the refuse from 

 the filters. 



The temperature of the room in which the crystallization 

 of sugar from melasses takes place should be higher than 



