METHOD PRACTISED 01 TIIE WEST INDIES. 135 



brokers in the mother country give to our sugar, it is the 

 fact that our liquor is not properly cleansed/" 



The syrup is concentrated in the tayche, and the strike 

 or skip is taken off at a temperature of from 234° to 238° 

 F. In most cases this is effected by ladling it out of the 

 tayche into a gutter which conveys it to the coolers. The 

 operation of striking lasts two or three minutes, according 

 to the size of the tayche. . The last portion of the strike 

 being necessarily most highly concentrated, and at the 

 same time exposed to the most elevated temperature, not 

 only receives much injury, but leaves a portion adhering to 

 the tayche in the form of caramel, which increases the 

 colour of, and otherwise injures the succeeding strike. In 

 some cases a dipper is used, which is a copper vessel with 

 a valve in the bottom, made to fit the inside of the tayche, 

 into which it is lowered by a crane or other contrivance, 

 and thus the whole of the sugar is at once removed. A 

 small quantity is, under any circumstances, left adhering to 

 the sides of the tayche, and is caramelized before it can be 

 refilled with liquor. It is evident that the smaller the 

 tayche, the more rapidly will its contents be concentrated, 

 and the shorter will be the exposure of the syrup to the 

 high temperature which is so productive of injury, and it 

 has been found in practice, that the smaller the tayche, 

 other things being equal, the better is the quality of the 

 sugar. Some planters who remarked the injury done to 

 sugar by the excessive heat generated by high boiling, 

 endeavoured to remedy the evil by striking then sugar very 



