64 
Appraisement oe an Estate. 
then led into the boiling vat: this lias to be done fairly rapidly, because 
the juice quickly starts to ferment, a process that has to be prevented at 
all costs. Along the tire walls stands a row of four to live copper vats 
in decreasing sizes in which by pouring out from the first into the second 
etc., room is made for the juice rushing down from the tub. In the last 
and smallest of the vats this is thickened to the consistency of syrup, and 
is conveyed from there to the Trays or Vacuum Pan. The scum rising 
during the boiling process runs off in a gutter leading to the distillery. 
The vacuum-pan now generally employed is placed either immediately 
opposite or somewhat farther away from the vats: in the latter case the 
syrup is pumped into them. After the sugar has completely separated 
into individual crystals, the crystalline mass still mixed with the non- 
crystalline fluid molasses is crammed into large square air-tight iron boxes 
across which at about a third of their depth from below is stretched 
another wire-mesh false bottom upon which the stuff rests. The empty 
lower space is exhausted of its air by means of two steam-power pumps 
opening into it, by which means the whole of the molasses is extracted 
from the crystals lying above almost absolutely pure, and led into a cis- 
tern near by. Through these simple improvements and simplifications 
of the whole boiling process there is a saving of three tenths in time 
alone, because at present the whole process, which formerly required 
eight days, in addition to undivided attention and labour, is now com- 
pleted within 15 hours. After the molasses is extracted, the raw crys- 
tals are immediately packed in large casks, which nowadays do not re- 
quire to be pierced with holes to drain off the molasses since none re- 
mains behind among the crystals. After running off the molasses from 
the iron boxes and completing the fermentation of the scum the whole 
is brought into the distillery. The captains ranch prefer this form of 
sugar to that crystallised by earlier methods, when during the voyage 
the molasses escaping into the ship’s hold, whither it trickled from 
hogsheads that had been drilled, had to be pumped out daily, a proce- 
dure which in the case of large vessels, meant on an average an hour's 
loss per diem. 
--6. V indsor Castle, a sensibly arranged and intelligently conducted 
sugar-estate of 750 acres on the Arabian Coast, together with the attach- 
ed buildings and working plant was legally appraised at the following 
value, the subjoined particulars of the property giving the necessary de- 
tails : — 
411 acres cultivated land for sugar-cane at $200 per acre .$ 82,200 
40 acres for cultivation of plantains at $84 per acre 3,300 
250 acres for later cultivation, but not yet cleared, at $30 
per acre ' 7,500 
3 Megass Logies, with the log-carts and rails belonging 
thereto ‘ 14,000 
Steam Engine and Steam Mill, together with Vessels for 
Juice etc. 18.000 
Tloiler House, with Vats, Clarifiers, Coolers etc., 
Manager’s House, Cisterns for Molasses, Distilling Rooms 
and Distillery Apparatus 10,000 
F.onts and Cane Punts 2,000 
