20 SUGAR. 
three centuries ago, it was first introduced from China, 
or some other parts of the East, and where it flourishes 
with great luxuriance, particularly in moist and rich 
ground. 
The season for planting it commences about the be- 
ginning of August. This operation is performed by 
laying the canes in rows, in trenches formed for the 
purpose. Roots issue from each joint ; and, in the 
course of nine or ten months, the sterns which rise from 
these respective roots, and constitute the sugar crop, 
attain their perfect state. The saccharine juice is con- 
tained in a spongy pith with which the interior of the 
plant is filled. 
When cut down, the leaves are thrown aside as of 
no use in the manufacture of sugar, and the stems or 
canes are divided into pieces, each about a yard in 
length. These are tied together in bundles, and con- 
veyed to the sugar-mill ; where they are bruised be- 
twixt three upright wooden rollers covered with iron. 
The juice, which flows from them, is conducted, by 
canals, into a large vessel formed for receiving it. The 
quantity of juice prepared by some of these mills is 
upwards often thousand gallons in a day. 
The next operation is called clarifying. For this 
purpose the juice is conducted, along a wooden gutter 
lined with lead, to a place called the boiling house, 
where it is received into copper pans, or caldrons, 
each placed over a separate fire. A certain proportion 
of powdered lime is now added to it, for the purpose 
of taking up any acid which the juice may happen to 
contain. The heat is then increased until the liquor is 
nearly in a boiling state. By this process the greatest 
part of the impurities that were contained in the juice 
rise to the surface in a scum. The purified liquor is 
then carefully drawn off, either by a syphon or a cock, 
leaving the scum at the bottom of the pan. 
From these pans it is conveyed, by another gutter, 
or channel, to the grand copper, or evaporating boiler, 
where the scum, which rises to the surface, is skimmed 
