54 MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR IN BARBADOES. 
degree of heat to occasion the separation of an abundant 
coagulum of insoluble matter, part of which rises to the 
top in the form of scum, while the remainder subsides as a 
thick muddy deposit to the bottom of the vessel. The clear 
liquor is drawn off by a cock into one of the larger evapo- 
rating pans, and rapidly boiled down until its bulk is consi- 
derably reduced. From thence it is transferred to asmaller 
pan, and still further concentrated. The scum which con- 
stantiy arises during the boiling, is removed by skimming, 
and reserved, together with the feculencies, separated in the 
clarifying vessel, for the manufacture of rum ; it forms in 
fact, the ferment to the saccharine liquid, and replaces the 
yeast employed by the distillers of Europe. The concen- 
tration of the cane-juice is completed in the smallest of the 
series of pans, whence it is emptied or "skipped" by an 
ingenious contrivance, first into a copper cooler, and after- 
wards into a large shallow wooden crystallizing vessel, and 
stirred from time to time. In a few hours, the dark pasty 
mass of crystallized sugar and fluid molasses is found suffi- 
ciently firm for "potting" or "curing ;" it is put into hogs- 
heads perforated with a few holes, and there allowed to 
drain for a period of time varying from two or three days 
to a fortnight, the molasses being received into an open cis- 
tern beneath, covered with a strong framing of joists, upon 
which the hogsheads rest. The sugar is lastly "headed 
up" for shipment, and sent into commerce.. 
In the arrangement of the boiling-house plan, the eva- 
porating and clarifying vessels are ranged in a row, and 
heated by a single fire, which is made immediately under 
the last and the smallest, the series of four or five terminat- 
ing with the clarifier ; they are usually made of copper, 
and surmounted with leaded slopes to retain the boiling and 
frothing liquor, which is transferred from one to the other, 
partly by means of a sluice in the slope, and partly by 
baling. The fuel is the " megass " or crushed cane of the 
preceding year, dried in the sun, and carefully preserved in 
