chap* it.] WEST INDIES. 47 
But, before we follow it into the curing-house, 
it may be proper to notice the rule for judging 
when the subject is sufficiently evaporated for stri¬ 
king , or become fit for being laded from the teache 
to the cooler. Many of the negro boilers guess 
solely by the eye, (which by long habit they do with 
great accuracy), judging by the appearance of the 
grain on the back of the ladle; but the practice 
most in use is to judge by what is called the touch; 
(i. e.) taking up with the thumb a small portion of 
the hot liquor from the ladle; and, as the heat di¬ 
minishes, drawing with the forefinger the liquid 
into a thread. This thread will suddenly break, 
and shrink from the thumb to the suspended finger, 
in different lengths, according as the liquor is more 
or less boiled. The proper boiling height for 
strong muscovado sugar, is generally determined 
by a thread of a quarter of an inch long. It is evi¬ 
dent that certainty in this experiment can be at¬ 
tained only by long habit, and that no verbal pre¬ 
cepts will furnish any degree of skill in a matter 
depending wholly on constant practice.*' 
* It is probable, that from this practice of try iiVg by the touch (factio), 
the vessel called the teache derives its name. A method more certain 
and scientific was recommended some years ago to the public, by my 
learned friend John Procuius Baker, Esq. Barrister at Law, in the 
island of Jamaica, in a treatise published by him in 1775, intituled. 
An Essay on the Art of making Muscovado Sugar. It is as follows 
a Provide a small thin pane of clear crown glass, set in a frame, 
i( which I would call a tryer\ on this drop two or three drops of the 
“ subject, one on the other, and carry your tryer out of the boiling 
e< house into the air. Observe vour subject, and more particularly 
whether it grains freely, and whether a small edge of mell'asses se- 
