S 8 HISTORY OF THE [book. v. 
the still may be twice charged and drawn off in one 
day. The method of adding all the mellasses at 
once, which is done soon after the fermentation 
commences, renders the process safe and expedi¬ 
tious ; whereas by charging the mellasses at differ¬ 
ent times, the fermentation is checked, and the 
process delayed. 
Let us now complete the process according to 
the Jamaica method. The low-wines obtained as 
above, are drawn off into a butt or vessel, and as 
opportunity serves, are conveyed into the second 
still of six hundred gallons, to undergo a further 
distillation. The steam begins to run in about one 
hour and a half, and will give, in the course of the 
day, two hundred and twenty gallons, or two pun¬ 
cheons, of oil-proof rum, (i. e.) of spirit in which 
olive oil will sink ; and thus the manufacture, if it 
may be so called, is complete. There will remain in 
the still a considerable quantity of weaker spirit, 
commonly about seventy gallons, which is return¬ 
ed to the low-wine butt. Thus, two hundred and 
twenty gallons of proof rum are, in fact, made 
from five hundred and thirty gallons of low-wines ; 
or about one hundred and thirteen of rum from one 
thousand two hundred of wash.* 
* Proof spirit of any kind weighs seven pound twelve ounces per 
gallon. According to the English hydrostatical table, the cubic inch 
of proof spirit weighs 9 p. wt. 19 73 gr. troy, or 8.62 dr. avoirdu¬ 
pois. But it has been found, tint a cubic inch of good brandy is ten 
grains heavier in winter than in summer, and that 32 gallons of spi¬ 
rits in winter will make 33 in summer. 
