on proper land, such as the red soil of Trelawney, in Jamaica, is 7 hogsheads, of 16 cwts. each, to 10 acres of rattoons cut annually: and such a plantation lasts from 6 to 10 years. When the planted canes are ripe, they are cut close above the ground, by an oblique section, into lengths of 3 or 4 feet, and transported in bundles to the mill-house. If the roots be then cut off, a few inches below the surface of the soil, and covered up with fine mould, they will push forth more prolific offsets or rattoons, than when left projecting in the common way.* The manufacture of sugar is that train of operations by which the juice is extracted from the canes, and brought to a granulated state. In the West India sugar mills employed for crushing the canes, a negro applies the canes in a regular layer or sheet to the interval between two rollers, which seize and compress them violently as they pass between them. The ends of the canes are then turned, either by another negro on the opposite side to the feeder, or by a framework of wood called a dumb returner, so that they may pass back again between two other rollers placed closer together. Channels are made to receive the liquor expressed from the canes, and conduct it to the vessels in which it is to undergo the succeeding operations. Improved sugar mills have been lately brought into use. Cane-juice as expressed by the mill, is an opaque slightly viscid fluid, of a dull grey, olive, or olive-green color, and of a sweet balmy taste. The juice is so exceedingly fermentable that in the climate of the West Indies it would often run into the acetous fermentation in twenty minutes after leaving the mill, if the process of clarifying were not immediately com menced. The processes followed in the West Indies for separating the sugar from the juice are as follows. The juice is conducted by channels from the mill to large flat-bottomed clarifiers, which contain from three hundred to a thousand gallons each. When the clarifier is filled with juice, a little slaked lime is added to it; and when the liquor in the clarifier becomes hot by a fire underneath, the solid portions of the cane-juice coagulate, and are thrown up in the form of scum. The clarified juice, which is bright, clear, and of a yellow wine-color, is transferred to the largest of a series of evaporating coppers, or pans, three or more in number, in which it is reduced in bulk by boiling; it is transferred from one pan to another, and heated until the sugar is brought to the state of a soft mass of crystals, imbedded in molasses, a thick, viseid, and uncrystallizable fluid. The soft concrete sugar is removed from the coolers into a range of casks, in which the molasses gradually drains from the crystalline portion, percolating through spongy plantain-stalks placed in a hole at the bottom of each cask, which act as so many drains to convey the liquid to a large cistern beneath. With sugar of average quality three or four weeks is sufficient for this purpose. The liquid portion constitutes molasses, which is employed to make rum. The crystallized portion is packed in hogsheads for shipment, as Raw, Brown, or Muscovado Šugar; and in this state it is commonly exported from our West Indian colonies. The sugar loses usually about 12 per cent in weight by the drainage of the remaining molasses from it while on shipboard. Refining. The refining of sugar is mainly a bleaching process, conducted on a large scale in the United States. There are two varieties produced • Ure's Dictionary of Arts, &c., &c. by this bleaching, viz. clayed and loaf sugar. For clayed sugar, the sugar is removed from the coolers into conical earthen moulds called formes, each of which has a small hole at the apex. These holes being stopped up the formes are placed, apex downwards, in other earthern vessels. The sirup, after being stirred round, is left for from fifteen to twenty hours to crystallize. The plugs are then withdrawn, to let out the uncrystallized sirup; and, the base of the crystallized loaf being removed, the forme is filled up with pulverized white sugar. This is well pressed down, and then a quantity of clay, mixed with water is placed upon the sugar, the formes being put into fresh empty pots. The moisture from the clay, filtering through the sugar, carries with it a portion of the colouring matter, which is more soluble than the crystals themselves. By a repetition of this process the sugar attains nearly a white color, and is then dried and crushed for sale. But loaf sugar is the kind most usually produced by the refining processes. The brown sugar is dissolved with hot water, and then filtered through canvas bags, from which it exudes as a clear, transparent though reddish sirup. The removal of this red tinge is effected by filtering the sirup through a mass of powdered charcoal; and we have then a perfectly transparent and colorless liquid. In the evaporation or concentration of the clarified sirup, which forms the next part of the refining process, the boiling is effected (under the admirable system introduced by Mr. Howard) in a vacuum, at a temperature of about 140° Fahr. The sugar-pan is a large copper vessel, with arrangements for extracting the air, admitting the sirup, admitting steam pipes, and draining off the sugar when concentrated. In using the pan a quantity of sirup is admitted; and an air-pump is set to work, to extract all the air from the pan, in order that the contents may boil at a low temperature. The evaporation proceeds; and, when com pleted, the evaporated sirup flows out of the pan through a pipe into an open vessel beneath, called the granulating vessel, around which steam circulates, and within which the sirup is brought to a partially crystallized state. From the granulators the sirup or sugar is transferred into moulds of a conical form, which were formerly made of coarse pottery, but are now usually of iron; in these molds the sugar crystallizes and whitens, the remaining uncrystallized sirup flowing out at an opening at the bottom of of the moulds. This sirup is reboiled with raw sugar, so as to yield an inferior quality of sugar; and when all the crystallizable matter has been extracted from it, the remainder is sold as treacle. The loaves of sugar, after a few finishing processes, are ready for sale. The improvements introduced into the processes of sugar-refining allow loaf sugar to be now sold at a price so little exceeding that of raw sugar, that the manufacture has of late vastly increased. Sugar-Candy is a kind of crystallized sugar made in China and India. The crystals are formed around small strings or twigs, from which they are afterwards broken off. When heated to 365° Fahr., sugar melts into a viscid colorless liquid which when cooled suddenly, becomes barley-sugar. The manufacture of Beet Root Sugar is not in a flourishing state, as it cannot well compete commercially with that from the sugar-cane. There is a project at present on foot for establishing the beet-sugar manufacture in Ireland. It is proposed to establish a company with a capital of half a million sterling; and to buy Irish beet root with a view of extracting sugar from it by processes which have recently been patented, and the patents for which are to be held by the company. The projectors start upon the basis that the climate, soil, and labor-supply of Ireland are highly favorable to the culture; and that the patent processes are calculated to perform the extraction of sugar well and cheaply. It remains to be shown how far these anticipations are capable of being borne out; if commercially advantageous at all, Ireland must unquestionably be benefited by it. The company's calculations give 400 tons of sugar and 100 tons of molasses for 6,000 tons of beet-root and shadow forth a flattering rate of prospective dividend. So do the calculations of the Irish Peat Company; and we can only at present express a wish that the anticipations may be realized. (April 1851.) It has just been announced that there are now 303 beet-sugar manufactories in France; and that the produce of French beet-sugar in 1850 was 74,628,607 kilogrammes-about 160,917,900 lbs. Sugar-Trade.-Before the discovery of America, sugar was a costly luxury used only on rare occasions. About 1459 Margaret Paston, writing to her husband, who was a gentleman and land owner in Norfolk, begs that he will "vouchsafe" to buy her a pound of sugar. The consumption has gradually but steadily increased throughout the world. The sugar trade of the world has, in the last ten or fifteen years, undergone a great change, on account of the changed commercial policies of our own and other governments, the improved prosperity of the people of England and Europe, as well as of the United States, leading to larger consumption, on the one hand, while the development of the culture of the cane in Louisiana, and of beet sugar in Europe, has tended to enhance the general supply, which again has been checked by the course of the British and French Governments in respect to their sugar colonies. The great reduction of the sugar duties of Great Britain has had the effect of increasing the consumption of raw sugar in the British islands 50 per cent. The duty on foreign brown sugar in England, which was 66s. per cwt. prior to July. 1846, has been but 14s. since July, 1851, and in 1854 the duties on raw and refined will be equalized. While the British demand for sugar was thus enhanced, the colonies produced less, and the extra demand from England fell on the markets of the world. In the same period, although the aggregate consumption of sugar on the continent increased, the demand for cane sugar was checked by the extended production of beet-root sugar, which has reached 150,000 tons per annum. Of this, in the German Customs Union, the increase has been from 15,000 to 62,000 tons, forming now one-half of the whole consumption of sugar in the Zollverein. In France, a great increase in the production of beet sugar took place under the protective policy of the government, which discriminated in its favor against the cane sugar of the colonies, until the growth became large, and then it reversed its policy, discriminating in favor of cane sugar. Nevertheless, the course of the Provisional Government in 1848 towards its colonies diminished the receipt of colonial cane sugar in France from 120,000 to 60,000 tons. It would seem to be the case, however, that notwithstanding the diminished supply of cane sugar from the British and French West Indies, the growth of beet sugar in Europe has so far supplanted its use, as to more than meet the aggregate increased demand for consumption in both England and Europe, and to throw larger supplies of Cuban sugar upon the United States markets, to compete with the swelling production from Louisiana cane. The import of brown sugar into the United States has been, according to official returns, as follows: POUNDS OF IMPORTED RAW BROWN SUGAR INTO THE UNITED STATES. 70,286,903 9,848.738 86,681,537 15,783,149 66,093,202 9,597,781 139,200,705 182,540,327 1840. 1841. 1842. 1843. 1844. 1845. 51,699,108 1846. 61,624,973 4,926,304 50,057,329 48,127,706 5.413,316 45,576,480 8,838,531 107,155,033 155,414,946 69,434,331 1847... 169,274,024 1848. 6,896,447 45,366,660 174,979,362 6,003,609 54,035,761 127,767,543 7,033,366 49,530,181 13,320,729 Under the term of West Indies is included Porto Rico and some of the South American countries, other than Brazil. It will at once be seen that the supply from Cuba, from being one-third only of the whole import in 1837, has gradually risen until it is become two-thirds of the whole importation of raw sugar into the Union. The supplies from Brazil fluctuate more in proportion to the European demand and prices than do those from Cuba. The figures, however, embrace only the brown sugar. If we add the aggregate of white sugar in each year, and also the crops of Louisiana, we arrive at the supply of raw sugar in the United States for each fiscal year. The figures for the year 1843 are for nine months only. It was in that year that the date of the the fiscal year was changed. IMPORTS OF RAW SUGAR AND LOUISIANA CROPS. Such has been the annually increased supply of raw sugar. Since 1842, the trade has undergone a change in refining. Thus the tariff of 1833 charged a duty of 2 cents upon raw sugars, but in order to encourage refining it allowed a drawback of 5 cents per pound on refined sugar exported. It is ascertained that 100 pounds, one-third white Havana and two-thirds brown, will yield 513 pounds refined. Hence, refunding 5 cents of the refined sugar was giving back a little more than the duty on the raw sugar. That is to say, 100 pounds raw sugar, $2 60 duty, and produced 51 pounds refined, on which the drawback was $2 683; and further, as under the terms of the compromise act, the duty on the raw sugar underwent biennial reductions, while the drawback was unaltered, the drawback became a direct bounty, and the business was increased as follows :— In these figures we have taken no account of maple sugar, because, although that article is a valuable product in the new States, it does not conflict with the cane sugars where the latter are introduced through the operation of the public works, the returns, of which all show an increasing market for the cane sugar, as the districts through which they run become more settled. The prominent fact in the above table is, that while Louisiana aud Cuba afford equal supplies for the consumption of the Union, the former has far outrun Cuba, notwithstanding that the latter has become so much more dependent upon the United States for a market. 1846. 3,350,517 2,215,517 1,185,000 1,794,039 253,379 185,878 1,539,415 1,725,293 1,089,477 638,816 439,220 3,370,773 3,817,993 2,121,628 1,696.365 100 1,956,895 1,956,995 400,015 2,356,880 286,078 2,786,022 3,072,100 796,217 2,275,883 1,107,295 2,689,541 3,796,836 12,077,726 4,785,396 1851. The great increase in the import of refined sugar in 1851 was from Belium and Holland, stimulated by the low price of raw sugars there. Under the operation of the falling duty upon raw sugar, and the unchanged rate of drawback, the export of refined sugars rose from 2,000,000 pounds in 1937, to nearly 14,000,000 pounds in 1841. With the close of that fiscal year, the drawback was reduced from 5 cents to 3 cents, and after January, 1842, to 2 cents. The effect was the instant cessation of the trade, making a difference of near 27,000,000 pounds in the quantity of brown sugar reexported in the shape of refined sugar. This was a very important item, and its effect upon the market was by no means properly estimated. We |