MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR IN BARBADOES. 59 
to a greater or less extent in the juice, the production of 
molasses could never be entirely suppressed, although it 
might be greatly diminished in amount, and the quantity 
of crystallized sugar increased in the same proportion, its 
colour and quality being at the same time so far improved 
as to enable it to compete for many purposes with refined 
sugar. 
The imperfections of the common method of manufacture 
in use may now be noticed, and remedies suggested. 
In the first place, the crushing-mills are imperfect and do 
not express the whole of the juice separable by such means. 
The spongy substance of the cane, retaining liquid with 
great obstinacy, requires a very good and careful adjustment 
of the rollers, and the means of regulating the rapidity of 
motion, to yield the maximum of juice, and these conditions 
are very far from being fulfilled by the powerful although 
rude windmills of Barbadoes. The result is, that instead 
of a quantity of juice making up 70 or 75 per cent, of the 
weight of the canes, the quantity yielded by mills of better 
construction, that obtained rarely exceeds 50 per cent, and 
sometimes falls below it. The total quantity probably 
amounts to 85 or 90 per cent., the whole of which of course 
cannot be obtained by any degree of pressure however 
powerful. Every endeavour, however, should be made to 
approximate to this point as nearly as possible. A loss of 
20 or 30 per cent, of juice involves a loss of 20 or 30 per 
cent, of sugar. It will be wise economy, therefore, to spare 
no expense in providing a mill sufficiently perfect and 
powerful to do its duty. The power to be applied must de- 
pend upon circumstances, and will become a simple ques- 
tion of economy; provided it be sufficient and capable of re- 
gulation its nature matters little. 
The common defecation process, in careful hands, seems 
susceptible of little improvement. Many other substances 
than lime have been proposed and tried with more or less 
