OATS. 23 
The juice of the sugar-cane is so palatable, and at 
the same time so nutritive, that, during the sugar 
harvest, every creature which partakes freely of it, 
whether man or animal, appears to derive health and 
vigour from its use. The meagre and sickly negroes 
exhibit, at this season, a surprising alteration ; they 
now become fat and healthy. The labouring horses, 
oxen, and mules, being allowed, almost without re- 
straint, to eat of the refuse plants, and of the scum- 
mings from the boiling-house, improve now infinitely 
more than they do at any other season of the year. 
Rum is a spirituous liquor distilled from molasses, 
scummings of the hot cane juice from the boiling 
house, or raw cane liquor from canes expressed for 
that purpose, lees (or, as it is called in Jamaica, dunder}, 
and water. The dunder answers the purpose of yeast 
for the fermentation. 
Sugar-canes, as large and juicy as those of the West 
Indies, are cultivated in several parts of Spain, but par- 
ticularly in the country betwixt Malaga and Gibraltar. 
They were originally introduced, by the Moors, several 
centuries ago ; and the sugar made from them is of 
excellent quality. There are sugar mills, in more than 
twelve different places, on the coast of Grenada, all of 
which are fully employed : in one village there are 
four, which cost at least 5,000/. sterling each. 
28. OATS are the seeds or grain of an annual plant 
(Avena saliva, Fig. 14), too well known, and too much cul- 
tivated throughout every part of Europe, to need any de- 
scription. 
The country from which they were originally imported is 
not known. 
The principal use of oats in this country is for the 
feeding of horses. In the northern parts of England, 
and in Scotland, they are applied also to the nutriment 
of man. When simply freed from their husks they are 
called groats or grits ; and, in this state, are much used 
in broths, and other kinds of nutriment for sick and in- 
