a solid sweet substance obtained from the juice of the sugar-cane; or, according to chemists, an essential salt, capable of crystallization, of a sweet and agreeable flavour, and contained in a greater or less quantity in almost every species of vegetables, but most abundant in the sugar-cane.

As the sugar-cane is the principal production of the value of West Indies, and the great source of their riches; as it sugar is so important in a commercial view, from the employment which it gives to seamen, and the wealth which it opens for merchants; and besides now is become a necessary of life—it may justly be esteemed one of the most valuable plants in the world. The quantity consumed in Europe is estimated at nine millions sterling, and the demand would probably be greater if it could be sold at a reduced price. Since sugar then is reckoned so precious a commodity, it must be an object of desire to all persons of curiosity and research, to obtain some general knowledge of the history and nature of the plant by which it is produced, as well as to understand the process by which the juice is extracted and refined. We will therefore first inquire in what countries it originally flourished, and when it was brought into general use, and became an article of commerce.

From the few remains of the Grecian and Roman authors which have survived the ravages of time, we can find no proofs that the juice of the sugar-cane was known- Sugar.

at a very early period. There can be no doubt, however, that in those countries where it was indigenous its value was not long concealed. It is not improbable that it was known to the ancient Jews; for there is some reason to suppose, that the Hebrew word kené, which occurs frequently in the Old Testament, and is by our translators rendered sometimes calamus, and sometimes sweet cane, does in fact mean the sugar-cane. The first passage in which we have observed it mentioned is Exod xxx 23, where Moses is commanded to make an ointment with myrrh, cinnamon, kené, and cassia. Now the kené does not appear to have been a native of Egypt, nor of Judea; for in Jeremiah vi. 20, it is mentioned as coming from a far country. "To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country?" This is not true of the calamus aromaticus, which grows spontaneously in the Levant, as well as in many parts of Europe. If the cinnamon mentioned in the passage of Exodus quoted above was true cinnamon, it must have come from the East Indies, the only country in the world from which cinnamon is obtained. There is no difficulty therefore in supposing that the sugar-cane was exported from the same country. If, any credit be due to etymology, it confirms the opinion that kené denotes the sugar-cane; for the Latin word canna and the English word cane are evidently derived from it. It is also a curious fact, that sachar or sheker*, in Hebrew signifies inebriation, from which the Greek word οξύς, "sugar," is undoubtedly to be traced.

The sugar-cane was first made known to the western parts of the world by the conquests of Alexander the Great. Strabo† relates that Nearchus his admiral found it in the East Indies in the year before Christ 325. It is evidently alluded to in a fragment of Theophrastus, preserved in Photius. Varro, who lived A. C. 68, describes it in a fragment quoted by Ididorus ‡ as a fluid pressed from reeds of a large size, which was sweeter than honey §. Dioscorides, about the year 35 before Christ, says, "that there is a kind of honey called sacharom, which is found in India and Arabia Felix. It has the appearance of salt, and is brittle when chewed. If dissolved in water, it is beneficial to the bowels and stomach, is useful in diseases of the bladder and kidneys, and, when sprinkled on the eye, removes those substances that obscure the sight." This is the first account we have of its medical qualities. Galen often prescribed it as a medicine. Lucan relates, that an oriental nation in alliance with Pompey used the juice of the cane as a common drink.

Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab arundine succos. Lib. iii. 237.

Pliny says it was produced in Arabia and India, but that the best came from the latter country. It is also mentioned by Arrian, in his Periplus of the Red sea, by the name of oxys (sachar) as an article of commerce from India to the Red sea. Aelian*, Tertullian†, and Alexander Aphrodiseus‡ mention it as a species of honey procured from canes (A).

That the sugar-cane is an indigenous plant in some parts of the East Indies, we have the strongest reason to believe; for Thunberg found it in Japan, and accordingly mentioned it as a native of that country in his Flora Japonica, published in 1784. Olbeck also found it in China in 1751. It may indeed have been transplanted from some other country; but as it does not appear from history that the inhabitants of Japan or China ever carried on any commerce with remote nations, it could only be conveyed from some neighbouring country. Marco Polo, a noble Venetian, who travelled into the east about the year 1250, found sugar in abundance in Bengal. Vasco de Gama, who doubled the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, relates, that a considerable trade in sugar was then carried on in the kingdom of Calicut. On the authority of Dioscorides and Pliny, too, we should be disposed to admit, that it is a native of Arabia, did we not find, on consulting Niebuhr's Travels, that that botanist has omitted it when enumerating the most valuable plants of that country. If it be a spontaneous production of Arabia, it must still flourish in its native soil. Mr Bruce found it in Upper Egypt. If we may believe the relation of Giovan Lioni, a considerable trade was carried on in sugar in Nubia in 1500: it abounded also at Thebes, on the Nile, and in the northern parts of Africa, about the same period.

There is reason to believe that the sugar-cane was introduced into Europe during the crusades; expeditions into Europe which, however romantic in their plan, and unsuccessful probably in their execution, were certainly productive of many advantages to the nations of Europe. Albertus Aquensis, a monkish writer, observes, that the Christian soldiers in the Holy Land frequently derived refreshment and support during a scarcity of provisions by sucking the canes. This plant flourished also in the Morea, and in the islands of Rhodes and Malta; from which it was transplanted into Sicily. The date of this transfection it is not easy to ascertain; but we are sure that sugar was cultivated in that island previous to the year 1166; for Laftau the Jesuit, who wrote a history of the Portuguese discoveries, mentions a donation made that year to the monastery of St Bennet, by William the Second, king of Sicily, of a mill for grinding sugar-canes, with all its rights, members, and appurtenances.

From Sicily, where the sugar-cane still flourishes on the sides of Mount Hybla, it was conveyed to Spain, Madeira, the Canary and Cape de Verd islands, soon after they were discovered in the 15th century.

An opinion has prevailed, that the sugar-cane is not supposed a native of the western continent, or its adjacent islands by some the West Indies, but was conveyed thither by the Spaniards or Portuguese soon after the discovery of America or by Columbus. From the testimony of Peter Martyr, in the West the third book of his first decade, composed during Co. Indies lumbus's second voyage, which commenced in 1493 and ended in 1495, it appears, that the sugar-cane was known at that time in Hispaniola. It may be said, that it was brought thither by Columbus; but for this assertion we have found no direct evidence; and though we had

(a) For a more minute account of the history of sugar in the early and middle ages, a paper of the Manchester Transactions, in vol. iv. by Dr Falconer, may be consulted. had direct evidence, this would not prove that the sugar-cane was not an indigenous plant of the West Indies. There are authors of learning who, after investigating this subject with attention, do not hesitate to maintain, that it is a native both of the islands and of the continent of America.

P. Labat has supported this opinion with much appearance of truth*; and, in particular, he appeals to the testimony of Thomas Gage, an Englishman, who visited New Spain in 1625. Gage enumerates sugarcanes among the provisions with which the Charaibes of Guadaloupe supplied his ship. "Now (says Labat) it is a fact that the Spaniards had never cultivated an inch of ground in the smaller Antilles. Their ships commonly touched at those islands indeed for wood and water; and they left swine in the view of supplying with fresh provisions such of their countrymen as might call there in future; but it would be absurd in the highest degree to suppose, that they would plant sugar-canes, and at the same time put hogs ashore to destroy them.

"Neither had the Spaniards any motive for bestowing this plant on islands which they considered as of no kind of importance, except for the purpose that has been mentioned; and to suppose that the Charaibes might have cultivated, after their departure, a production of which they knew nothing, betrays a total ignorance of the Indian disposition and character.

"But (continues Labat) we have surer testimony, and such as proves, beyond all contradiction, that the sugar-cane is the natural production of America. For, besides the evidence of Francis Ximenes, who, in a Treatise on American Plants, printed at Mexico, affirms, that the sugar-cane grows without cultivation, and to an extraordinary size, on the banks of the river Plate, we are assured by Jean de Lery, a Protestant minister, who was chaplain in 1556 to the Dutch garrison in the fort of Coligny, on the river Janciro, that he himself found sugar-canes in great abundance in many places on the banks of that river, and in situations never visited by the Portuguese. Father Hennepen and other voyagers bear testimony in like manner to the growth of the cane near the mouth of the Mississippi; and Jean de Laet to its spontaneous production in the island of St Vincent. It is not for the plant itself, therefore, but for the secret of making sugar from it, that the West Indies are indebted to the Spaniards and Portuguese; and these to the nations of the east."

Such is the reasoning of Labat, which the learned Lafitau has pronounced incontrovertible; and it is greatly strengthened by recent discoveries, the sugar-cane having been found in many of the islands of the Pacific ocean by our late illustrious navigator Captain Cook.

The sugar-cane, or saccharum officinarum of botanists, is a jointed reed, commonly measuring (the flag part not of the included) from three feet and a half to seven feet in height, but sometimes rising to 12 feet. When ripe it is of a fine straw colour inclining to yellow, producing leaves or blades, the edges of which are finely and sharply ferrated, and terminating in an arrow decorated with a panicle. The joints in one stalk are from 40 to 60 in number, and the stalks rising from one root are sometimes very numerous. The young shoot ascends from the earth like the point of an arrow; the shaft of which soon breaks, and the two first leaves, which had been inclosed within a quadruple sheath of femal leaves, rise to a considerable height (b).

As the cane is a rank succulent plant, it must require soil most strong deep soil to bring it to perfection, perhaps indeed no soil can be too rich for this purpose. The soil which experience has found to be most favourable to the cultivation of it in the West Indies is the dark gray loam of St Christopher's, which is so light and porous as to be penetrable by the lightest application of the hoe. The under stratum is gravel from 8 to 12 inches deep. Canes planted in particular spots in this island have been known to yield 8000 pounds of Muscovado sugar from a single acre. The average produce of the island for a series of years has been 16,000 hogsheads of 16 cwt. which is one-half only of the whole cane-land, or 8500 acres. When annually cut, it gives nearly two hogsheads of 16 cwt. per acre for the whole of the land in ripe canes.

Next to the ashly loam of St Christopher's is the soil which in Jamaica is called brick-mould; not as resembling a brick in colour, but as containing such a due mixture of clay and sand as is supposed to render it well adapted for the use of the kiln. It is a deep, warm, and mellow, hazel earth, easily worked; and though its surface soon grows dry after rain, the under stratum retains a considerable degree of moisture in the driest weather; with this advantage too, that even in the wettest season it seldom requires trenching. Plant canes, by which is meant canes of the first growth, have been known in very fine seasons to yield two tons and a half of sugar per acre. After this may be reckoned the black mould of several varieties. The best is the deep black earth of Barbadoes, Antigua, and some other of the windward islands; but there is a species of this mould in Jamaica that is but little, if any thing inferior to it, which abounds with limestone and flint on a substratum of foamy marle. Black mould on clay is more common; but

(b) "A field of canes, when standing, in the month of November, when it is in arrow or full blossom (fays Mr Beckford in his descriptive Account of the Island of Jamaica), is one of the most beautiful productions that the pen or pencil can possibly describe. It in common rises from three to eight feet or more in height; a difference of growth that very strongly marks the difference of soil or the varieties of culture. It is when ripe of a bright and golden yellow; and where obvious to the sun, is in many parts very beautifully streaked with red: the top is of a darkish green; but the more dry it becomes, from either an excess of ripeness or a continuance of drought, of a russet yellow, with long and narrow leaves depending; from the centre of which shoots up an arrow like a silver wand from two to fix feet in height; and from the summit of which grows out a plume of white feathers, which are delicately fringed with a lilac dye; and indeed is, in its appearance, not much unlike the tuft that adorns this-particular and elegant tree." Sugar. but as the mould is generally shallow, and the clay stiff and retentive of water, this last sort of land requires great labour, both in ploughing and trenching, to render it profitable. When manured and properly pulverized, it becomes very productive. It is unnecessary to attempt a minute description of all the other soils which are found in these islands. There is, however, a peculiar sort of land on the north side of Jamaica, chiefly in the parish of Trelawney, that cannot be passed over unnoticed, not only on account of its scarcity but its value; few soils producing finer sugars, or such as answer so well in the pan; an expression signifying a greater return of refined sugar than common. The land alluded to is generally of a red colour; the shades of which, however, vary considerably from a deep chocolate to a rich scarlet; in some places it approaches to a bright yellow, but it is everywhere remarkable, when first turned up, for a glossy or shining surface, and if wetted stains the fingers like paint.

As in every climate there is a season more favourable for vegetation than others, it is of great importance that plants for seed be committed to the ground at the commencement of this season. As the cane requires a great deal of moisture to bring it to maturity, the properest season for planting it is in the months of September and October, when the autumnal rains commence, that it may be sufficiently luxuriant to shade the ground before the dry weather sets in. Thus the root is kept moist, and the crop is ripe for the mill in the beginning of the ensuing year. Canes planted in the month of November, or later in the season, lose the advantage of the autumnal rains; and it often happens that dry weather in the beginning of the ensuing year retards their vegetation until the vernal or May rains set in, when they sprout both at the roots and the joints; so that by the time they are cut the field is loaded with unripe suckers instead of sugar-canes. A January plant, however, commonly turns out well; but canes planted very late in the spring, though they have the benefit of the May rains, seldom answer expectation; for they generally come in uneasomably, and throw the ensuing crops out of regular rotation. They are therefore frequently cut before they are ripe; or if the autumnal season sets in early, are cut in wet weather, which has probably occasioned them to spring afresh; in either case the effect is the same: The juice is unconceived, and all the sap being in motion, the root is deprived of its natural nourishment, to the great injury of the ratoon. The chief objection to a fall plant is this, that the canes become rank and top-heavy, at a period when violent rains and high winds are expected, and are therefore frequently lodged before they are fit to be cut.

The sugar cane is propagated by the top-shoots, which are cut from the tops of the old canes. The usual method of planting in the West Indies is this: The quantity of land intended to be planted, being cleared of weeds and other incumbrances, is first divided into several plats of certain dimensions, commonly from 15 to 20 acres each; the spaces between each plat or division are left wide enough for roads, for the convenience of carting, and are called intervals. Each plat is then subdivided, by means of a line and wooden pegs, into small squares of about three feet and a half. Sometimes indeed the squares are a foot larger; but this circumstance makes but little difference. The negroes are then placed in a row in the first line, one to a square, and directed to dig out with their hoes the several squares, commonly to the depth of five or six inches. The mould which is dug up being formed into a bank at the lower side, the excavation or cane-hole seldom exceeds 15 inches in width at the bottom, and two feet and a half at the top. The negroes then fall back to the next line, and proceed as before. Thus the several squares between each line are formed into a trench of much the same dimensions with that which is made by the plough. An able negro will dig from 100 to 120 of these holes for his day's work of ten hours; but if the land has been previously ploughed and lain fallow, the same negro will dig nearly double the number in the same time (c).

The cane-holes or trench being now completed, whether by the plough or by the hoe, and the cuttings selected for planting, which are commonly the tops of the canes that have been ground for sugar (each cutting containing five or fix guns), two of them are sufficient for a cane hole of the dimensions described. These, being placed longitudinally in the bottom of the hole, are covered with mould about two inches deep; the rest of the bank being intended for future use. In 12 or 14 days the young shoots begin to appear; and as soon as they rise a few inches above the ground, they are, or ing it ought to be, carefully cleared of weeds, and furnished with an addition of mould from the banks. This is usually performed by the hand. At the end of four or five months the banks are wholly levelled, and the spaces between the rows carefully hoe ploughed. Frequent cleanings, while the canes are young, are indeed to essentially necessary, that no other merit in an overseer can compensate for the want of attention in this particular. A careful manager will remove at the same time all the lateral shoots or suckers that spring up after the canes begin to joint, as they seldom come to maturity, and draw nourishment from the original plants.

In the cultivation of other lands, in Jamaica especially (says Mr Edwards, the elegant historian of the West Indies, whose superior excellence has induced us frequently to refer to him in the course of this article), the plough has been introduced of late years, and in some few cases to great advantage; but it is not every soil or situation that will admit the use of the plough; some lands being much too stony, and others too steep; and I am sorry I have occasion to remark, that a practice

(c) As the negroes work at this business very unequally, according to their different degrees of bodily strength, it is sometimes the practice to put two negroes to a single square; but if the land has not had the previous sufficiency of the plough, it commonly requires the labour of 50 able negroes for 13 days to hole 20 acres. In Jamaica, some gentlemen, to ease their own slaves, have this laborious part of the planting business performed by job-work. The usual price for hoeing and planting is 6l. currency per acre (equal to 4l. 7s. sterling). The cost of fallings and clearing heavy wood land is commonly as much more. tice commonly prevails in Jamaica, on properties where this auxiliary is used, which would exhaust the finest lands in the world. It is that of ploughing, then cross-ploughing, round-ridging, and harrowing the same lands from year to year, or at least every other year, without affording manure: accordingly it is found that this method is utterly destructive of the ratoon or second growth, and altogether ruinous. It is indeed astonishing that any planter of common reading or observation should be passive under so pernicious a system. Some gentlemen, however, of late manage better: their practice is to break up stiff and clayey land, by one or two ploughings, early in the spring, and give it a summer's fallow. In the autumn following, being then mellow and more easily worked, it is holed and planted by manual labour after the old method, which has been already described. But in truth, the only advantageous system of ploughing in the West Indies is to confine it to the simple operation of holing, which may certainly be performed with much greater facility and dispatch by the plough than by the hoe; and the relief which, in the case of stiff and dry soils, is thus given to the negroes, exceeds all estimation, in the mind of a humane and provident owner. On this subject I speak from practical knowledge.

At a plantation of my own, the greatest part of the land which is annually planted is neatly and sufficiently laid into cane-holes, by the labour of one able man, three boys, and eight oxen, with the common single-wheeled plough. The ploughshare indeed is somewhat wider than usual; but this is the only difference, and the method of ploughing is the simplest possible. By returning the plough back along the furrow, the turf is alternately thrown to the right and to the left, forming a trench seven inches deep, about two feet and a half wide at the top, and one foot wide at the bottom. A space of 18 or 26 inches is left between each trench, on which the mould being thrown by the share, the banks are properly formed, and the holing is complete. Thus the land is not exhausted by being too much exposed to the sun; and in this manner a field of 20 acres is holed with one plough, and with great ease, in 13 days. The plants are afterwards placed in the trench as in the common method, where manual labour alone is employed.

In most parts of the West Indies it is usual to hole and plant a certain proportion of the cane-land, commonly one-third, in annual rotation. Canes of the first year's growth are called plant cures, as has been already observed. The sprouts that spring from the roots of the canes that have been previously cut for sugar are called ratoons; the first yearly returns from their roots are called first ratoons; the second year's growth second ratoons.

Mr. Edwards informs us, that the manure generally used is a compost formed, 1st, Of the vegetable ashes drawn from the fires of the boiling and still houses, 2dly, Feculencies discharged from the fill house, mixed up with rubbish of buildings, white-lime, &c. 3dly, Refuse, or field-trash (i.e.), the decayed leaves and stems of the canes; to called in contradistinction to cane-trash, referred for fuel. 4thly, Dung, obtained from the horse and male stables, and from moveable pens, or small inclosures made by posts and rails, occasionally lifted upon the lands intended to be planted, and into which the cattle are turned at night. 5thly, Good mould, collected from gullies and other waste places, and thrown into the cattle-pens.

The sugar-cane is liable to be destroyed by monkeys, rats, and insects. The upland plantations suffer greatly from monkeys; these creatures, which now abound in every part of the mountainous parts of St Christopher's, were first brought thither by the French, when they possessed half that island; they come down from the rocks in silent parties by night, and having posted sentinels to give the alarm if any thing approaches, they destroy incredible quantities of the cane, by their gambols as well as their greediness. It is in vain to set traps for these creatures, however baited; and the only way to protect the plantation, and destroy them, is to set a numerous watch, well armed with fowling-pieces, and furnished with dogs. The negroes will perform this service cheerfully, for they are very fond of monkeys as food. The celebrated Father Labat says, they are very delicious, but the white inhabitants of St Kitt's never eat them.

The low-land plantations suffer as much by rats as those on the mountains do from monkeys; but the rats, no more than the monkeys, are natives of the place; they came with the shipping from Europe, and breed in the ground under loose rocks and bushes: the field negroes eat them greedily, and they are said to be publicly sold in the markets at Jamaica. To free the plantations from these vermin, the breed of wild cats should be encouraged, and snakes suffered to multiply unmolested; they may also be poisoned with arsenic, and the rasped root of the cassava made into pellets, and plentifully scattered over the grounds. This practice, however, is dangerous; for as the rats when thus poisoned become exceeding thirsty, they run in droves to the neighbouring streams, which they poison as they drink, and the cattle grazing on the banks of these polluted waters have frequently perished by drinking after them: It is safer therefore to make the pellets of flour, kneaded with the juice of the nightshade, the scent of which will drive them away though they will not eat it. There is an East Indian animal called mangoes, which bears a natural antipathy to rats; if this animal was introduced into our sugar islands, it would probably extirpate the whole race of these noxious vermin. The formica omnivora of Linneus, the carnivorous ant, which is called in Jamaica the raffle's ant, would soon clear a sugar plantation of rats.

The sugar-cane is also subject to a disease which no foresight can obviate, and for which human wisdom has hitherto in vain attempted to find a remedy. This disease is called the blight, and is occasioned by a species of aphis. When this happens, the fine, broad, green blades become sickly, dry, and withered; soon after they appear stained in spots; and if these spots are carefully examined, they will be found to contain innumerable eggs of an insect like a bug, which are soon quickened, and cover the plants with the vermin: the juice of the canes thus affected becomes sour, and no future shoot issues from the joints. Ants also concur with the bugs to spoil the plantation, and against these evils it is hard to find a remedy.

The crops of sugar-canes do not ripen precisely at the same period in all the colonies. In the Danish, Spanish, and Dutch settlements, they begin in January, and continue till October. This method does not imply any fixed season for the maturity of the sugar-cane. The plant, however, like others, must have its progress; and it hath been justly observed to be in flower in the months of November and December. It must necessarily follow, from the custom these nations have adopted of continuing to gather their crops for 10 months without intermission, that they cut some canes which are not ripe enough, and others that are too ripe, and then the fruit hath not the requisite qualities. The time of gathering them should be at a fixed season, and probably the months of March and April are the fittest for it; because all the sweet fruits are ripe at that time, while the four ones do not arrive at a state of maturity till the months of July and August.

The English cut their canes in March and April; but they are not induced to do this on account of their ripeness. The drought that prevails in their islands renders the rains which fall in September necessary to their planting; and as the canes are 18 months in growing, this period always brings them to the precise point of maturity (d).

"The time of crop in the sugar islands (says Mr Edwards) is the season of gladness and festivity to man and beast. So palatable, salutary, and nourishing, is the juice of the cane, that every individual of the animal creation, drinking freely of it, derives health and vigour from its use. The meagre and sickly among the negroes exhibit a surprising alteration in a few weeks after the mill is set in action. The labouring horses, oxen, and mules, though almost constantly at work during this season, yet, being indulged with plenty of the green tops of this noble plant, and some of the leavings from the boiling-house, improve more than at any other period of the year. Even the pigs and poultry fatten on the refuse. In short, on a well-regulated plantation, under a humane and benevolent director, there is such an appearance during crop-time of plenty and busy cheerfulness, as to soften, in a great measure, the hardships of slavery, and induce a spectator to hope, when the miseries of life are represented as insupportable, that they are sometimes exaggerated through the medium of fancy."

The plants being cut, the branches at the top are given to the cattle for food; the top-shoot, which is full of eyes, is preserved for planting. The canes are cut into pieces about a yard long, tied up in bundles, and carried in carts to the mill, where they are bruised, and the juice is extracted from them. The mill consists principally of three upright iron-plated rollers or cylinders, from 30 to 40 inches in length, and from 20 to 25 inches in diameter; and the middle one, to which the moving power is applied, turns the other two by means of cogs. Between these rollers, the canes (being previously cut short, and tied into bundles) are twice compressed; for having passed through the first and second rollers, they are turned round the middle one by a circular piece of frame-work or screen, called in Jamaica the Dumb-returner, and forced back through the second and third; an operation which squeezes them completely dry, and sometimes even reduces them to powder. The cane juice is received in a leaden bed, and thence conveyed into a vessel called the receiver. The refuse, or macerated rind of the cane (which is called cane-tra/b, in contradistinction to field-tra/b), serves for fuel to boil the liquor.

The juice as it flows from the mill, taken at a medium, contains eight parts of pure water, one part of extracted sugar, and one part consisting of coarse oil and mucilaginous gum, with a portion of essential oil.

As this juice has a strong disposition to fermentation, it must be boiled as soon as possible. There are some purifying water-mills that will grind with great ease canes sufficient for 30 hogheads of sugar in a week. It is necessary to have boiling vessels, or clarifiers, that will correspond in dimensions to the quantity of juice flowing from the receiver. These clarifiers are commonly three in number, and are sometimes capable of containing 1000 gallons each; but it is more useful to see them of 300 or 400 gallons each. Besides the clarifiers which are used for the first boiling, there are generally four coppers or boilers. The clarifiers are placed in the middle or at one end of the boiling-house. If at one end, the boiler called the teache is placed at the other, and several boilers (generally three) are ranged between them. The teache is ordinarily from 70 to 100 gallons, and the boilers between the clarifiers and teache diminish in size from the first to the last. Where the clarifiers are in the middle, there is usually a set of three boilers on each side, which constitute in effect a double boiling-house. On very large estates this arrangement is found useful and necessary. The objection to so great a number is the expense of fuel; to obviate which, in some degree, the three boilers on each side of the clarifiers are commonly hung to one fire.

The juice runs from the receiver along a wooden gutter lined with lead into the boiling-house, where it is received into one of the clarifiers. When the clarifier is filled, a fire is lighted, and a quantity of Bristol quicklime in powder, which is called temper, is poured into the vessel. The use of the lime is to unite with the superabundant acid, which, for the success of the process, it is necessary to get rid of. The quantity sufficient to separate the acid must vary according to the strength of the quicklime and the quality of the liquor. Some planters allow a pint of lime to every 100 gallons of liquor; but Mr Edwards thinks that little more than half the quantity is a better medium proportion, and even then, that it ought to be dissolved in boiling water, that as little of it as possible may be precipitated. The heat is suffered gradually to increase till it approaches within a few degrees of the heat of boiling water, that the impurities

(d) The account given in the text concerning the time when the sugar-canies are collected, we have taken from the Abbé Raynal's History of the Trade and Settlements of the East and West Indies; but Mr Cazaud observes, that in February, March, and April, all the canes, whatever be their age, are as ripe as the nature of the soil ever allows them to be. He lays farther, that the dryness of the weather, and not the age of the canes, which increases from January to April, is the cause that in January 400 gallons of juice commonly yield 48 gallons of sugar and molasses, one with another; in February from 56 to 64; in March from 64 to 72; in April sometimes 80; after which period the sugar ferments, and even burns, when the refiner is not very expert at his business. purities may be thoroughly separated. But if the liquor were suffered to boil with violence, the impurities would again incorporate with it. It is known to be sufficiently heated when the scum begins to rise in blisters, which break into white froth, and appear generally in about 40 minutes. The fire is then suddenly extinguished by means of a damper, which excludes the external air, and the liquor is allowed to remain about an hour undisturbed, during which period the impurities are collected in scum on the surface. The juice is then drained off either by a syphon or a cock; the scum being of a tenacious gummy nature, does not flow out with the liquor, but remains behind in the clarifier. The liquid juice is conveyed from the clarifier by a gutter into the evaporating boiler, commonly termed the grand copper; and if it has been obtained from good canes it generally appears transparent.

In the evaporating boiler, which should be large enough to receive the contents of the clarifier, the liquor is allowed to boil; and as the scum rises it is taken off. The scumming and evaporation are continued till the liquor becomes finer and thicker, and so far diminished in bulk that it may be easily contained in the second copper. When put into the second copper, it is nearly of the colour of Madeira wine; the boiling and scumming are continued, and if the impurities be considerable, a quantity of lime-water is added. This process is carried on till the liquor be sufficiently diminished in quantity to be contained in the third copper. After being purified a third time, it is put into the fourth copper, which is called the teache, where it is boiled and evaporated till it is judged sufficiently pure to be removed from the fire. In judging of the purity of the liquor, many of the negroes (says Mr Edwards) 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 diminishes, drawing with the fore-finger the liquid into a thread. This thread will suddenly break, and shrink from the thumb to the fupended finger, in different lengths, according as the liquor is more or less boiled. The proper boiling height for strong mucovado sugar is generally determined by a thread of a quarter of an inch long. It is evident, that certainty in this experiment can be attained only by long habit, and that no verbal precepts will furnish any degree of skill in a matter depending wholly on constant practice.

The juice being thus purified by passing through the clarifier and four coppers, it is poured into coolers, which are usually fix in number. The removal from the teache to the cooler is called striking. The cooler is a shallow wooden vessel seven feet long, from five to fix wide, about 11 inches deep, and capable of containing a hoghead of sugar. As the liquor cools, the sugar grains, that is, collects into an irregular mass of imperfect crystals, separating itself from the molasses. It is then removed from the cooler, and conveyed to the curing-house, where the molasses drain from it. For receiving them there is a large cistern, the sloping sides of which are lined with boards. Directly above the cistern a frame of joist-work without boarding is placed, on which empty hogheads without heads are ranged, the bottoms of these hogheads are pierced with 8 or 10 holes, in each of which the stalk of a plantain leaf is fixed so as to project fix or eight inches below the joists, and rise a little above the top of the hoghead. The hogheads being filled with the contents of the cooler, consisting of sugar and molasses, the molasses being liquid, drain through the spongy stalk, and drop into the cistern. After the molasses are drained off, the sugar becomes pretty dry and fair; and is then called mucovado or raw sugar.

We have described the process for extracting sugar, which is generally adopted in the British West India islands, according to the latest improvements; and have been anxious to present it to our readers in the simplest and most perspicuous form, that it might be intelligible to every person; and have therefore avoided to mention the observations and proposed amendments of those who have written on this subject. Had we done so, we should have swelled the present article to too great a size, without accomplishing the purpose which we have in view; for our intention is not to instruct the planters, but to give a distinct account of the most approved methods which the planters have generally adopted. But though we judge it useless to trouble our readers with all the little varieties in the process which different persons employ, we flatter ourselves it will not be disagreeable to learn by what methods the French make their sugar purer and whiter than ours. A quantity of Method of sugar from the cooler is put into conical pans or earthen purifying pots, called by the French formes, having a small perforation at the apex, which is kept closed. Each cone, reverved on its apex, is supported in another earthen vessel. The syrup is stirred together, and then left to crystallize. At the end of 15 or 16 hours, the hole in the point of each cone is opened, that the impure syrup may run out. The base of the sugar loaves is then taken out, and white pulverized sugar substituted in its stead; which being well pressed down, the whole is covered with clay moistened with water. This water filters through the mass, carrying the syrup with it which was mixed with the sugar, but which by this management flows into a pot substituted in the place of the first. This second fluid is called fine syrup. Care is taken to moisten and keep the clay to a proper degree of softness as it becomes dry. The sugar loaves are afterwards taken out, and dried in a stove for eight or ten days; after which they are pulverized, packed, and exported to Europe, where they are still farther purified. The reason assigned why this process is not universally adopted in the British sugar islands is this, that the water which dilutes and carries away the molasses diffuses and carries with it so much of the sugar, that the difference in quality does not pay for the difference in quantity. The French planters probably think otherwise, upwards of 400 of the plantations of St Domingo having the necessary apparatus for claying and actually carrying on the system.

The juice being thus purified by passing through the clarifier and four coppers, it is poured into coolers, which are usually fix in number. The removal from the teache to the cooler is called striking. The cooler is a shallow wooden vessel seven feet long, from five to fix wide, about 11 inches deep, and capable of containing a hoghead of sugar. As the liquor cools, the sugar grains, that is, collects into an irregular mass of imperfect crystals, separating itself from the molasses. It is then removed from the cooler, and conveyed to the curing-house, where the molasses drain from it. For receiving them there is a large cistern, the sloping sides of which are lined with boards. Directly above the cistern a frame of joist-work without boarding is placed, on which empty hogheads without heads are ranged, the bottoms of these hogheads are pierced with 8 or 10 holes, in each of which the stalk of a plantain leaf is fixed so as to project fix or eight inches below the joists, and rise a little above the top of the hoghead. The hogheads being filled with the contents of the cooler, consisting of sugar and molasses, the molasses being liquid, drain through the spongy stalk, and drop into the cistern. After the molasses are drained off, the sugar becomes pretty dry and fair; and is then called mucovado or raw sugar.

We have described the process for extracting sugar, which is generally adopted in the British West India islands, according to the latest improvements; and have been anxious to present it to our readers in the simplest and most perspicuous form, that it might be intelligible to every person; and have therefore avoided to mention the observations and proposed amendments of those who have written on this subject. Had we done so, we should have swelled the present article to too great a size, without accomplishing the purpose which we have in view; for our intention is not to instruct the planters, but to give a distinct account of the most approved methods which the planters have generally adopted. But though we judge it useless to trouble our readers with all the little varieties in the process which different persons employ, we flatter ourselves it will not be disagreeable to learn by what methods the French make their sugar purer and whiter than ours. A quantity of Method of sugar from the cooler is put into conical pans or earthen purifying pots, called by the French formes, having a small perforation at the apex, which is kept closed. Each cone, reverved on its apex, is supported in another earthen vessel. The syrup is stirred together, and then left to crystallize. At the end of 15 or 16 hours, the hole in the point of each cone is opened, that the impure syrup may run out. The base of the sugar loaves is then taken out, and white pulverized sugar substituted in its stead; which being well pressed down, the whole is covered with clay moistened with water. This water filters through the mass, carrying the syrup with it which was mixed with the sugar, but which by this management flows into a pot substituted in the place of the first. This second fluid is called fine syrup. Care is taken to moisten and keep the clay to a proper degree of softness as it becomes dry. The sugar loaves are afterwards taken out, and dried in a stove for eight or ten days; after which they are pulverized, packed, and exported to Europe, where they are still farther purified. The reason assigned why this process is not universally adopted in the British sugar islands is this, that the water which dilutes and carries away the molasses diffuses and carries with it so much of the sugar, that the difference in quality does not pay for the difference in quantity. The French planters probably think otherwise, upwards of 400 of the plantations of St Domingo having the necessary apparatus for claying and actually carrying on the system.

The art of refining sugar was first made known to the Europeans by a Venetian, who is said to have received 100,000 crowns for the invention. This discovery was made before the new world was explored; but whether it was an invention of the person who first communicated it, or whether it was conveyed from China, where it had been known for a considerable time before, cannot now perhaps be accurately ascertained. We find no mention. mention made of the refining of sugar in Britain till the year 1659, though it probably was practised several years before. For in the Portuguese island of St Thomas in 1624 there were 74 sugar ingenios, each having upwards of 200 slaves. The quantity of raw sugar imported into England in 1778 amounted to 1,403,995 cwt.; the quantity imported into Scotland in the same year was 117,285 cwt.; the whole quantity imported into Great Britain in 1787 was 1,926,741 cwt.

The sugar which undergoes the operation of refining in Europe is either raw sugar, sometimes called mucovado or cafonado, which is raw sugar in a purer state. The raw sugar generally contains a certain quantity of melasses as well as earthy and feculent sublances. The cafonado, by the operation of earthing, is freed from its melasses. As the intention of refining these sugars is to give them a higher degree of whiteness and solidity, it is necessary for them to undergo other processes. The first of these is called clarification. It consists in dissolving the sugar in a certain proportion of lime-water, adding a proper quantity of bullock's blood, and exposing it to heat in order to remove the impurities which still remain. The heat is increased very gradually till it approach that of boiling water. By the assistance of the heat, the animal matter which was thrown in coagulates, at the same time that it attracts all the solid feculent and earthy matter, and raises it to the surface in the appearance of a thick foam of a brownish colour. As the feculencies are never entirely removed by a first process, a second is necessary. The solution is therefore cooled to a certain degree by adding some water; then a fresh quantity of blood, but less considerable than at first, is poured in. The fire is renewed, and care is taken to increase the heat gently as before. The animal substance seizes on the impurities which remain, collects them on the surface, and they are then skimmed off. The same operation is repeated a third and even a fourth time, but no addition is made to the liquor except water. If the different processes have been properly conducted, the solution will be freed from every impurity, and appear transparent. It is then conveyed by a gutter into an oblong basket about 16 inches deep, lined with a woollen cloth; and after filtering through this cloth, it is received in a cistern or copper which is placed below.

The solution being thus clarified, it undergoes a second general operation called evaporation. Fire is applied to the copper into which the solution was received, and the liquid is boiled till it has acquired the proper degree of consistency. A judgment is formed of this by taking up a small portion of the liquid and drawing it into a thread. When, after this trial, it is found sufficiently viscous, the fire is extinguished, and the liquid is poured into coolers. It is then stirred violently by an instrument called an oar, from the resemblance it bears to the oar of a boat. This is done in order to diminish the viscosity, and promote what is called the granulation, that is, the forming of it into grains or imperfect crystals. When the liquid is properly mixed and cooled, it is then poured into moulds of the form of a sugar loaf. These moulds are ranged in rows. The small ends, which are lowest, are placed in pots; and they have each of them apertures stopped up with linen for filtering the syrup, which runs from the moulds into the pots. The liquor is then taken out slowly in ladels from the coolers, and poured into the moulds. When the moulds are filled, and the contents still in a fluid state, it is necessary to stir them, that no part may adhere to the moulds, and that the small crystals which poured into are just formed may be equally diffused through the moulds, whose mass. When the sugar is completely crystallized, where the zed, the linen is taken away from the apertures in the drained moulds, and the syrup, or that part which did not cry from it, fallize, defecds into the pots in which the moulds are placed. After this purgation the moulds are removed and fixed in other pots, and a stratum of fine white clay diluted with water is laid on the upper part of the loaf. The water descending through the sugar by its own weight, mixes with the syrup which still remains in the body of the loaf, and washes it away. When the clay dries, it is taken off, and another covering of moist clay put in its place; and if it be not then sufficiently washed, a third covering of clay is applied. After the last loaves have stood some days in the moulds, and have acquired a considerable degree of firmness and solidity, certain degrees of they are taken out, and carried to a flove, where they are gradually heated to the 50° of Reaumur (64° of Fahrenheit), in order to dissipate any moisture which may be still confined in them. After remaining in the flove eight days, they are taken out; and after cutting off all discolouring specks, and the head if still wet, they are wrapped in blue paper, and are ready for sale. The several syrups collected during the different parts of the process, treated in the same manner which we have just described, afford sugars of inferior quality; and the last portion, which no longer affords any sugar, is sold by the name of melasses.

The beauty of refined sugar, when formed into loaves, consists in whiteness, joined to a smallness of grain; in the beauty being dry, hard, and somewhat transparent. The production of sugar which we have described above refers to sugar once how far refined; but some more labour is necessary to produce the double refined sugar. The principal difference in the operation is this, the latter is clarified by white of eggs instead of blood, and fresh water in place of lime-water.

Sugar-candy is the true essence of the cane formed How into large crystals by a flow process. When the syrup is well clarified, it is boiled a little, but not so much as is made, is done for the proof mentioned in the process for making common sugar. It is then placed in old moulds, having their lower ends stopped with linen, and croated at little distances with small twigs to retain the sugar as it crystallizes. The moulds are then laid in a cool place. In proportion as the syrup cools, crystals are formed. In about nine or ten days the moulds are carried to the flove, and placed in a pot; but the linen is not removed entirely, so that the syrup falls down slowly in drops. When the syrup has dropped away, and the crystals of the sugar-candy are become dry, the moulds are taken from the flove and broken in pieces, to disengage the sugar, which adheres strongly to the sides of the mould. If the syrup has been coloured with cochineal, the crystals take a slight taint of red; if indigo has been mixed, they assume a bluish colour. If it be desired to have the candy perfumed, the essence of flowers or amber may be dropped into the moulds along with the syrup.

Having now given some account of the method usually employed for refining sugar, it will not be im- Sugar is soluble in water, and in a small degree in alcohol. When united with a small portion of water, it becomes fusible; from which quality the art of preserving is indebted for many of its preparations. It is phosphoric and combustible; when exposed to fire emitting a blue flame if the combustion be slow, and a white flame if the combustion be rapid. By distillation it produces a quantity of phlegm, acid, oil, gas, and charcoal. Bergman, in treating sugar with the nitrous acid, obtained a new acid now known by the name of the oxalic acid; but he has omitted to mention the principles of which sugar is composed. Lavoisier, however, has supplied this omission; and after many experiments has assigned three principles in sugar, hydrogen, oxygen, and carbone. If the juice extracted from the sugar cane be left to itself it passes into the acetous fermentation; and during the decomposition of the sugar, which is continued for three or four months, a great quantity of glutinous matter is separated. This matter when distilled gives a portion of ammonia. If the juice be exposed to the spirituous fermentation, a wine is obtained analogous to cyder. If this wine, after being kept in bottles a-year, be distilled, we obtain a portion of eau de vie.

The uses to which sugar are applied are indeed numerous and important: It can be made so solid as in the art of preserving to receive the most agreeable colours and the greatest variety of forms. It can be made so fluid as to mix with any soluble substance.—It preserves the juice and substance of fruits in all countries and in all seasons. It affords a delicious seasoning to many kinds of food. It is useful in pharmacy, for it unites with medicines, and removes their disagreeable flavour: it is the basis of all syrups. M. Macquer has shown in a very satisfactory manner how useful sugar would be if employed in fermenting wines. Sugar has also been found a remedy for the scurvy, and a valuable article of food in cases of necessity. M. Imbert de Lennes, first surgeon to the late duke of Orleans, published the following story in the Gazette de Santé, which confirms this assertion. A vessel laden with sugar bound from the West Indies was becalmed in its passage for several days, during which the stock of provisions was exhausted. Some of the crew were dying of the scurvy, and the rest were threatened with a still more terrible death. In this emergency recourse was had to the sugar. The consequence was, the symptoms of the scurvy went off, the crew found it a wholesome and substantial aliment, and returned in good health to France.

"Sugar (says Dr Ruth) affords the greatest quantity of nourishment in a given quantity of matter of any substance in nature; of course it may be preserved in less room in our houses, and may be consumed in less time, than more bulky and less nourishing aliment. It has this peculiar advantage over most kinds of aliment, that it is not liable to have its nutritious qualities affected by time or the weather; hence it is preferred by the Indians in their excursions from home. They mix a certain quantity of maple sugar, with an equal quantity of Indian corn, dried and powdered, in its milky state. This mixture is packed in little baskets, which are frequently wetted in travelling, without injuring the sugar. A few spoonfuls of it mixed with half a pint of spring water afford them a pleasant and strengthening meal.

From the degrees of strength and nourishment which are conveyed into animal bodies by a small bulk of sugar, it might probably be given to horses with great advantage, when they are used in places or under circumstances which make it difficult or expensive to support them with more bulky or weighty aliment. A pound of sugar with grass or hay has supported the strength and spirits of a horse during a whole day's labour in one of the West India islands. A larger quantity given alone has fattened horses and cattle, during the war before last in Hispaniola, for a period of several months, in which the exportation of sugar, and the importation of grain, were prevented by the want of ships.

"The plentiful use of sugar in diet is one of the best preventatives that has ever been discovered of the diseases which are produced by worms. Nature seems to have implanted a love for this aliment in all children, as if it were on purpose to defend them from those diseases. Dr Ruth knew a gentleman in Philadelphia, who early adopted this opinion, and who, by indulging a large family of children in the use of sugar, has preserved them all from the diseases usually occasioned by worms.

"Sir John Pringle has remarked, that the plague has never been known in any country where sugar composes a material part of the diet of the inhabitants. Dr Ruth thinks it probable that the frequency of malignant fevers of all kinds has been lessened by this diet, and that its more general use would defend that class of people who are most subject to malignant fevers from being so often affected by them.

"In the numerous and frequent disorders of the breath, which occur in all countries where the body is exposed to a variable temperature of weather, sugar affords the basis of many agreeable remedies. It is useful in weakneisses, and acrid fluxions upon other parts of the body. Many facts may be adduced in favour of this assertion. Dr Ruth mentions only one, which, from the venerable name of the person whose case furnished it, cannot fail of commanding attention and credit. Upon my inquiring of Dr Franklin, at the request of a friend (fays our respectable author), about a year before he died, whether he had found any relief from the pain of the stone from the blackberry jam, of which he took large quantities, he told me that he had, but that he believed the medicinal part of the jam resided wholly in the sugar; and as a reason for thinking so, he added, that he often found the same relief by taking about half a pint of a syrup, prepared by boiling a little brown sugar in water, just before he went to bed, that he did from a dose of opium. It has been supposed by some of the early physicians of our country, that the sugar obtained from the maple-tree is more medicinal than that obtained from the West India sugar-cane; but this opinion I believe is without foundation. It is preferable in its qualities to the West India sugar only from its superior cleanliness.

"Cafes may occur in which sugar may be required in medicine, or in diet, by persons who refuse to be benefited, even indirectly by the labour of slaves. In such cafes the innocent maple sugar will always be preferred. It has been said, that sugar injures the teeth; but this opinion now has so few advocates, that it does not deserve a ferious refutation." In the account which we have given above of the method of cultivating and manufacturing sugar, we have had in our eye the plantations in the West Indies, where slaves alone are employed; but we feel a peculiar pleasure in having it in our power to add a short description of the method used in the East Indies, because there sugar is manufactured by free men, on a plan which is much more economical than what is followed in the West Indies. The account which we mean to give is an extract from the report of the committee of Privy-council for trade on the subject of the African slave-trade, drawn up by Mr Betham. We shall give it in the author's own words.

"Having been for two years in the English and French West India islands, and since conducted sugar estates in the East Indies; before the abolition of the slave-trade was agitated in parliament, it may be desirable to know that sugar of a superior quality and inferior price to that in our islands is produced in the East Indies; that the culture of the cane, the manufacture of the sugar and arrack, is, with these material advantages, carried on by free people. China, Bengal, the coast of Malabar, all produce quantities of sugar and spirits; but as the most considerable growth of the cane is carried on near Batavia, I shall explain the improved manner in which sugar estates are there conducted. The proprietor of the estate is generally a wealthy Dutchman, who has erected on it substantial mills, boiling and curing houses. He rents this estate to a Chinese, who resides on it as a superintendent; and this renter (supposing the estate to consist of 300 or more acres) lets it to free men in parcels of 50 or 60- on these conditions: 'That they shall plant it in canes, and receive so much per pecul of 133½ pounds for every pecul of sugar that the canes shall produce.'

When crop time comes on, the superintendent collects a sufficient number of persons from the adjacent towns or villages, and takes off his crop as follows. To any set of tradesmen who bring their carts and buffaloes he agrees to give such a price per pecul to cut all his crop of canes, carry them to the mill and grind them. A second to boil them per pecul. A third to clay them and basket them for market per pecul. So that by this method of conducting a sugar estate the renter knows to a certainty what the produce of it will cost him per pecul. He has not any permanent or unnecessary expense; for when the crop is taken off, the taskmen return to their several pursuits in the towns and villages they came from; and there only remain the cane planters who are preparing the next year's crop. This, like all other complex arts, by being divided into several branches, renders the labour cheaper and the work more perfectly done.

Only clayed sugars are made at Batavia; these are in quality equal to the best fort from the West Indies, and are sold so low from the sugar estates as eighteen shillings sterling per pecul of 133½ lbs. This is not the selling price to the trader at Batavia, as the government there is arbitrary, and sugar subject to duties imposed at will. The Shabander exacts a dollar per pecul on all sugar exported. The price of common labour is from 9d. to 10d. per day. By the method of carrying on the sugar estates, the taskmen gain considerably more than this, not only from working extraordinary hours, but from being considered artists in their several branches. They do not make spirits on the sugar estates. The molasses is sent for sale to Batavia, where one distillery may purchase the produce of an hundred estates. Here is a vast saving and reduction of the price of spirits; not as in the West Indies, a distillery, for each estate; many centre in one, and arrack is sold at Batavia from 21 to 25 rixdollars per leaguer of 160 gallons; say 8d. per gallon."

The Sugar Maple, (the acer saccharinum of Linneus), as well as the sugar-cane, produces a great quantity of sugar. This tree grows in great numbers in the western counties of all the middle states of the American union. Those which grow in New York and Pennsylvania yield the sugar in a greater quantity than those which grow on the waters of the Ohio.—These trees are generally found mixed with the beech, hemlock, white and water ash, the cucumber tree, linden, aspen, butter nut, and wild cherry trees. They sometimes appear in groves covering five or fix acres in a body, but they are more commonly interspersed with some or all of the forest trees which have been mentioned. From 30 to 50 trees are generally found upon an acre of ground. They grow only in the richest soils of the foils, and frequently in stony ground. Springs of the American purest water abound in their neighbourhood. They are, Philosophical Society, and from two to three feet in diameter. They put forth a beautiful white blossom in the spring before they show a single leaf. The colour of the blossom distinguishes them from the acer rubrum, or the common maple, which affords a blossom of a red colour. The wood of the sugar maple-tree is extremely inflammable, and is preferred upon that account by hunters and surveyors for fire-wood. Its small branches are so much impregnated with sugar as to afford support to the cattle, horses, and sheep of the first settlers, during the winter, before they are able to cultivate forage for that purpose." Its ashes afford a great quantity of potash, exceeded by few, or perhaps by none, of the trees that grow in the woods of the United States. The tree is supposed to arrive at its full growth in the woods in twenty years.

It is not injured by tapping; on the contrary, the oftener it is tapped, the more syrup is obtained from it. In this respect it follows a law of animal secretion. A fingle tree had not only survived, but flourished after the more forty-two tapplings in the same number of years. The tained from effects of a yearly discharge of sap from the tree, in improving and increasing the sap, are demonstrated from the superior excellence of those trees which have been perforated in an hundred places, by a small wood-pecker which feeds upon the sap. The trees, after having been wounded in this way, distil the remains of their juice on the ground, and afterwards acquire a black colour. The sap of these trees is much sweeter to the taste than that which is obtained from trees which have not been previously wounded, and it affords more sugar.

From twenty-three gallons and one quart of sap, procured in twenty-four hours from only two of these dark tity of sap coloured trees, Arthur Noble, Esq. of the state of New-York, obtained four pounds and thirteen ounces of good grained sugar.

A tree of an ordinary size yields in a good season from twenty to thirty gallons of sap, from which are made from five to fix pounds of sugar. To this there are sometimes times remarkable exceptions. Samuel Lowe, Esq. a justice of peace in Montgomery county, in the state of New York, informed Arthur Noble, Esq. that he had made twenty pounds and one ounce of sugar between the 14th and 23d of April, in the year 1789, from a single tree that had been tapped for several successive years before.

From the influence which culture has upon forest and other trees, it has been supposed, that by transplanting the sugar maple-tree into a garden, or by destroying such other trees as shelter it from the rays of the sun, the quantity of the sap might be increased, and its quality much improved. A farmer in Northampton county, in the state of Pennsylvania, planted a number of these trees above twenty years ago in his meadow, from three gallons of the sap of which he obtains every year a pound of sugar. It was observed formerly, that it required five or six gallons of the sap of the trees which grow in the woods to produce the same quantity of sugar.

The sap distils from the wood of the tree. Trees which have been cut down in the winter for the support of the domestic animals of the new settlers, yield a considerable quantity of sap as soon as their trunks and limbs feel the rays of the sun in the spring of the year. It is in consequence of the sap of these trees being equally diffused through every part of them, that they live three years after they are girdled, that is, after a circular incision is made through the bark into the substance of the tree for the purpose of destroying it. It is remarkable that grass thrives better under this tree in a meadow, than in situations exposed to the constant action of the sun. The season for tapping the trees is in February, March, and April, according to the weather which occurs in these months.

Warm days and frosty nights are most favourable to a plentiful discharge of sap. The quantity obtained in a day from a tree is from five gallons to a pint, according to the greater or less heat of the air. Mr. Lowe informed Arthur Noble, Esq. that he obtained near three and twenty gallons of sap in one day (April 14, 1789) from the single tree which was before mentioned. Such instances of a profusion of sap in single trees are however not very common.

There is always a suspension of the discharge of sap in the night if a frost succeed a warm day. The perforation in the tree is made with an axe or an auger. The latter is preferred from experience of its advantages. The auger is introduced about three quarters of an inch, and in an ascending direction (that the sap may not be frozen in a flow current in the mornings or evenings), and is afterwards deepened gradually to the extent of two inches. A spout is introduced about half an inch into the hole made by this auger, and projects from three to twelve inches from the tree. The spout is generally made of the sumach or elder, which usually grows in the neighbourhood of the sugar trees. The tree is first tapped on the south side; when the discharge of its sap begins to lessen, an opening is made on the north side, from which an increased discharge takes place. The sap flows from four to six weeks, according to the temperature of the weather. Troughs large enough to contain three or four gallons, made of white pine, or white ash, or of dried water ash, aspen, linden, poplar, or common maple, are placed under the spout to receive the sap, which is carried every day to a large receiver, made of either of the trees before mentioned. From this receiver it is conveyed, after being strained, to the boiler.

We understand that there are three modes of reducing the sap to sugar; by evaporation, by freezing, and by boiling; of which the latter is most general, as being the most expeditious. We are farther assured, that the profit of the maple tree is not confined to its sugar. It affords most agreeable malmasses, and an excellent vinegar. The sap which is suitable for these purposes is obtained after the sap which affords the sugar has ceased to flow, so that the manufactories of these different products of the maple tree, by succeeding, do not interfere with each other. The malmasses may be made to compose the basis of a pleasant summer beer. The sap of the maple is moreover capable of affording a spirit; but we hope this precious juice will never be prostituted to this ignoble purpose. Should the use of sugar in diet become more general in this country (says Dr. Ruth) it may tend to lessen the inclination or supposed necessity for spirits, for I have observed a relish for sugar in diet to be seldom accompanied by a love for strong drink.

There are several other vegetables raised in our own country which afford sugar; as beet-roots, skirrets, parsnips, potatoes, celeri, red cabbage stalks, the young shoots of Indian wheat. The sugar is most readily obtained from these, by making a tincture of the subject in rectified spirit of wine; which, when saturated by heat, will deposit the sugar upon standing in the cold.

SUGAR of Milk. See MILK, CHEMISTRY Index. Acid of SUGAR. See CHEMISTRY Index.