CULTURE OF THE SUGAR-CANE.—NO. II. 
205 
India’s betler day* that with this rude but dilato¬ 
ry process, they made 4,000 lbs. to the acre ; the 
sugar is, however, very bad. And if human labor 
was worth anything, and in any way voluntary, 
cane would not be grown, and sugar sent 2,000 
miles down the Ganges, to be shipped to England, 
and there sold for 15 or 16 shillings per cwt. in 
bond. But the man has as little volition as the 
buffalo that draws his water, or turns his stone 
mill. Perhaps you may ask me, what do I say of 
the Mauritius? Fifteen years ago, every valley in 
the mountains of the island heard the roar of the 
water-mill; every plain had its steam engine; 
there was gladness and hospitality in every coun¬ 
try hall; there was festivity, and commerce, and 
prosperity, in every port. But the spoiler and his 
mandate have gone forth from England ; master 
and servant have been stricken down; all is mis¬ 
ery and ruin, from one end to the other of the 
Isle of France. Nor is the day very distant when 
the owl will nestle her young in her engine houses, 
and her water-mills, and be only disturbed when 
the pirate returns from roaming the sea, to hide his 
spoils in the desolate and solitary places of the 
Mauritius, of Jamaica, and the Caribbee Islands. 
The Manufacture of Sugar .—The process of 
sugar-boiling has greatly changed since I began to 
grow cane in the year 1806. At that time Jamai¬ 
ca produced the best raw sugar that was grown, 
a bright yellow, strong-grained sugar; it was pre¬ 
ferred fey the sugar refiners ; they used Bristol 
lime or coarse marble in the clarification of the 
juices. The French of St. Domingo had generally 
used alkalies, which gave a lighter color, but a 
smaller and softer-grained sugar. Bryan Higgins, 
one of the Rumford school, at an expense of five 
thousand pounds to the colony, was kept in Ja¬ 
maica for two years in arranging their boiling ap¬ 
paratus ; his great object was the economy of fuel, 
as much of this was English coal. The boilers of 
Jamaica were of copper, and, as arranged by Bry¬ 
an Higgins, consisted of two clarifiers, square, 
standing beside each other, with cocks in each, 
and upon separate flues of the same fire; so that 
while the fire was acting upon one, allowing the 
fecula to rise to the surface, where it formed a 
thick, leathery coat, this process was going on, 
while the other clarifier was filling from the mill. 
The juice in these clarifiers should not boil, but be 
•brought to a simmer, and remain for a short time 
at 160 to 170 of Fahrenheit. When the fecula 
has apparently all risen, as the clarifier above the 
first boiler in the range contains as much juice as 
will fill the first boiler, the cock is turned, and the 
clarified juice is discharged into the boiler, the 
fecula subsides to the bottom; as the purified juice 
runs off, in an unbroken surface, and is then taken 
out of the clarifier, and the kettle cleaned for a 
renewed operation, while the other kettle beside 
it is going on with the same process, to be ready 
for a renewed charge for the evaporating kettle. 
At that time there was no means of determining 
the point at which the sugar would crystallize, but 
the negro boiler’s eye, or the touch of his hand; 
for I never saw any manager from Jamaica who 
either knew the quantity of lime to be given, or 
when the process of sugar boiling should termi¬ 
nate ; these matters were altogether left to the ne¬ 
gro operator; for they had in use on the planta¬ 
tions neither the hydrometer, for determining the 
quantity of sweets contained in the cane juice, nor 
the thermometer, to tell when the process of boil¬ 
ing should cease. Both of these instruments were 
introduced by Mr. Constance, from France, into a 
refinery at New York—the thermometer certain¬ 
ly—and these instruments simplify the process 
greatly. 
My growing cane and manufacturing sugar in 
Georgia, drew the attention of many persons at a 
distance; among others, Dr. Mitchell alluded to it 
in one of his books, and Mr. Pitkin in his work 
upon the statistics of the United States, and every 
one was disposed to lend me a helping hand. A 
friend sent me Beaume’s hydrometer, intimating 
that water was the unit. After hundreds of ex¬ 
periments, I ascertained that when the raw cane 
juice rose to 7 on the scale, the juice would granu¬ 
late; below that it would not; here was a useful 
end gained. Cut your cane a little lower, or shorter 
for the mill. After securing enough of the upper 
portion of your cane for planting, feed the rest to 
your oxen, horses, mules, or other cattle; no feed 
is equal to it in equal quantities. 
The sugar cane was once cultivated in Spain 
and Italy, but was found to produce so much of 
the molasses sweets, and so little of the sweets that 
would crystallize, that the cultivation was given 
up, and yet the molasses sweet is the more in¬ 
tense, and will probably go further in nourishing 
either man or animal, as it produces more alcohol 
in distillation in the ratio of quantity. 
In the year 1821, being in New York, and still 
anxious to learn if the refining houses afforded any¬ 
thing new upon sugar-making, Mr. John Bolton 
carried me for that purpose to Mr. Strong’s refine¬ 
ry, who readily accompanied us through his works. 
I was surprised to see a very large thermometer 
standing in the last boiler in his range, in the 
midst of the boiling syrup; I asked him for what 
purpose ; he replied, turning to a young man that 
stood beside us, that his foreman had made a 
great discovery, that the instrument indicated, and 
uniformly, the point at which the syrup should be 
taken from the fire, to wit, 242° to 243°, depend¬ 
ing, in some degree, upon the depth of the kettle, 
and the quantity of sugar refining. Taking Mr. 
Strong’s direction, I purchased a thermometer be¬ 
fore I returned to my lodgings, and this instru¬ 
ment was the first ever employed in boiling or pre¬ 
paring raw sugar. 
Gen. Hampton republished, in Louisiana, some 
of my letters upon sugar, and this carried both the 
instruments into use there. I notice one or two 
of your correspondents mention the crystallizing 
point of syrup being intimated at 238° or 239°, but 
they mention their last kettle being but 14 inches 
deep, without adverting to the fact, that if the 
quicksilver rises above the surface of the boiling 
syrup the instrument no longer measures the tem¬ 
perature of the syrup; but the ratio of heat be¬ 
tween the steam around the upper tube, and the 
boiling sugar around the bulb and lower part of 
the tube. Thus the thermometer, under experi- 
[ ments carefully made, must be adjusted to the 
