.138 



MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR. 



atmosphere of the curing house, (which is usually the 

 coldest and darkest place on the estate.) Much of the 

 melasses is retained with the sugar, which has the effect of 

 producing an unceasing delequescence, very much increased 

 when exposed to the heat of the ship's hold. Veins and 

 dark streaks and spots are also observable in the sugar, 

 produced by the surfaces of the layers formed by the 

 different strikes in the coolers. The melasses, as it leaves 

 the hogshead, usually marks 37° Beaume, requiring only a 

 farther evaporation of 20 per cent, of water to bring it 

 again to the crystallizing point, but being exposed to the 

 free action of the atmosphere over the extended surface of 

 the stancheons and drains, it loses a portion of its water, 

 and deposits crystals of sugar which form nuclei for farther 

 depositions as fresh melasses passes over them, till the 

 melasses becomes poor in sugar, fermentation goes on in 

 the cistern, acidity commences, and the crystallizing power 

 is lost. 



The above is a faithful description of the method at 

 present almost universally practised in the West Indies, 

 which I have merely detailed with a view of indicating the 

 losses sustained by its operation, and of contrasting it with 

 the more rational and profitable process before described ; 

 and when it is apparent what vast losses are sustained by 

 the planters individually, and what an enormous quantity 

 of sugar is annually sacrificed after the canes have been 

 brought to perfection, which, if preserved, would by its 



