SACCHARUM. M7 
cane, as far as it is iff Consequence to the sugar, this does not 
■depend on the age, but on the season. In February, March, 
and April, all the canes, whatever be their age, are as ripe as 
the nature of the soil ever allows them to be. The dryness 
of the weather (and not the age of the canes), which in¬ 
creases from January to April, is the cause, that in January 
four hundred gallons of juice commonly yield forty-eight 
gallons of sugar and molasses one with another; in Febru¬ 
ary, from fifty-six to sixty-four; in March, from sixty-four 
to seventy-two; in April, sometimes eighty; after which 
period the sugar ferments, and even burns when the refiner is 
not very expert at his business. The greatest relative maturity 
of canes, is when the juice of them is made up of four parts 
Of water, and one part of sugar and molasses: and in canes 
perfectly ripe, the quantity of sugar is equal to that of the 
molasses. After a trial of this plan for five years, there is 
found a difference of above one-sixth in its favour. 
The best soil for the production of sugar of the finest 
quality, and in the largest proportion, is the ashy loam of 
St. Christopher’s. Next to that is the soil, which in Jamaica 
is called the black-mould, containing a due mixture of clay 
and sand. Plant-canes in this soil (which are those of the 
first growth), have been known, in very fine seasons, to yield 
two tons and a half of sugar per acre. After this may be 
reckoned the black mould of several varieties. The best is 
the deep black earth of Barbadoes, Antigua, - and some other 
of the Windward islands; but there is a species of this mould 
in Jamaica, that is little, if at all, inferior to it, which abounds 
with lime-stone and flint, on a substratum of soapy marie. 
We shall not enumerate the varieties of soil proper for this 
kind of culture, but content ourselves with mentioning a 
peculiar sort of land on the north side of Jamaica, chiefly in 
the parish of Trelawney, as few soils produce finer sugars, or 
such as answer so well in the pan, or which yield a greater 
return of refined sugar. This land is of a red colour, vary¬ 
ing by different shades; but every where remarkable, when 
first turned up, for a glossy or shining surface, and, if wetted, 
for staining the fingers like paint. This soil seems to consist 
of a native earth, or pure loam, with a mixture of clay and 
sand. It is easily wrought, and at the same time so tena¬ 
cious, that a pond dug in this soil in a proper situation, with 
no other bottom than its own natural texture, holds water 
like the stiffest clay. The system of husbandry in sugar 
plantations, which abound with this, chiefly depends on 
what are called rattoon-eanes. 
In most parts of the West Indies, it is usual to hole and 
plant a certain proportion of the cane-land (commonly one- 
third), in annual succession. The common yielding of this 
land, on an average, is seven hogsheads of 16 cwt. to ten 
acres, which are cut annually. In the cultivation of other 
lands, especially in Jamaica, the plough has been introduced 
of late years, and in many cases to great advantage; 
but the use of the plough is not adapted to every soil or 
situation. The most prevalent system of ploughing in 
the West Indies, is to confine it to the simple operation of 
holing; which is much more easily and expeditiously per¬ 
formed by the plough than by the. hoe, and which affords, 
in the case of stiff and dry soils, great relief to the negroes. 
The method of holing has been already described. The 
proper season, generally speaking, for planting, is in the in¬ 
terval between August and the beginning of November. By 
having the advantage of the autumnal season, the young 
canes become sufficiently luxuriant to shade the ground be- 
fhre the dry weather sets in: thus the roots are kept cool, 
and the earth moist. J3y these means, they are ripe for the 
mill in the beginning of the second year, so as to enable the 
overseer or manager to finish his crop by the latter end of 
May. It has been justly remarked, that there is not a 
greater error in the system of planting, than to make sugar, 
or plant canes, in improper seasons of the year; for by mis¬ 
management of this kind, every succeeding crop is put out 
of regular order. However, neither prudence in the ma¬ 
nagement, nor favourable soils; nor seasonable weather, will 
-exempt the planter at all times from misfortune in the culture 
Vot. XXII. No. 1519. 
of his sugar canes. They are subject to a disease called the 
“ blast,” which consists of many myriads of little insects of 
the aphis genus, said to be invisible to the unassisted eye, 
whose proper food is the juice of the cane; in pursuit of 
which they wound the tender blades, and destroy the vessels. 
The circulation is thus impeded, and the growth of the plant 
is checked, until it withers or dies in proportion to the degree 
of the ravage. In some of the Windward islands, the cane 
in dry weather is liable to be destroyed by a species of grub, 
called the “ borer.” In Tobago they have another destruc¬ 
tive insect, called the “ jumper-fly.” It is said that the 
“ blast” never attacks those plantations, where colonies have 
been introduced of the little animal, called the carnivorous 
ant; the “ formica omnivora” of Linnaeus, and the “Raffles” 
ant of Jamaica. 
When the rattoons or canes are ripe, as they ordinarily are 
in eleven or twelve months, they are cut, and carried in 
bundles to the mills. The mills consist of three wooden 
rollers, covered with steel or iron plates; and have their 
motion either from the water, the wind, cattle, or even the 
hands of slaves. These rollers, or cylinders, are from 30 to 
40 inches in length, and from 20 to 25 inches in diameter; 
and the middle one, to which the moving power is applied, 
turns the other two by means of cogs. Between these rollers 
the canes, being previously cut, are twice compressed; for 
having passed the first and second rollers, they are turned 
round the middle one by a circular piece of frame-work, or 
screw, called the “ dumb-returner,” and forced back through 
the second and third; an operation which squeezes them 
completely dry, and sometimes even reduces them to pow¬ 
der. The juice from the mill ordinarily contains eight parts 
of pure water, one part of sugar, and one part made of gross 
oil and mucilaginous gum, with a portion of essential oil. 
Some juice, however, has been so rich as to make a hogshead 
(16 cwt.) of sugar from 1300 gallons; and some so watery 
as to require more than double that qnantity. A pound of 
sugar from a gallon of raw liquor, is reckoned very good 
yielding. 
In preparing the sugar, the juice or liquor runs from the 
receiver to the boiling-house, along a wooden gutter lined 
with lead. In the boiling-house it is received into one of 
the copper pans or cauldrons, called clarifiers. Of these, 
there are commonly three; and their dimensions are gene¬ 
rally determined by the power of supplying them with 
liquor. There are water-mills that will grind, with great 
ease, canes sufficient for thirty hogsheads of sugar in a week. 
On plantations thus happily provided, the means of quick 
boiling are indispensably requisite, or the cane-liquor will 
unavoidably become tainted before it can be exposed to the 
fire. The purest cane-juice will not remain twenty minutes 
in the receiver without fermenting. As cane-juice is so very 
liable to fermentation, it is necessary also that the canes 
should be ground as soon as possible after they are cut, and 
great care taken to keep and throw aside those which are 
tainted, which may afterwards be ground for the still-house. 
Clarifiers, therefore, are sometimes seen of one thousand gal¬ 
lons each. On estates that make on a medium, during crop¬ 
time, from fifteen to twenty hogsheads of 3ugar a week, 
three clarifiers of three or four hundred gallons each are suf¬ 
ficient. With pans of this size, the liquor, when clarified, 
may be drawn off at once; and there is leisure to cleanse the 
vessels every time they are used. Each clarifier is provided 
either with a syphon or cock for drawing off the liquor. It 
has a flat bottom, and is hung to a separate fire, each chim¬ 
ney having an iron slider, which being shut, the fire goes 
out for want of air. The clarifiers are commonly placed in 
the middle or at one end of the boiling-house. Where the 
darifiers are in the middle, there is usually a set of three 
boilers on each side, which constitute, in effect, a double 
boiling-house. On very large estates, this arrangement is 
found useful and necessary. The objection to so great a 
number, is the expense of fuel; to obviate which, in some 
degree, the three boilers on each side of the clarifiers are 
sometimes hung to one fire. 
The 
