The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-08-08
Distilladon.

4 planter on one Of the windWard Islands writes
as follows:
'Siuce the Bill allowing distillation has passed
the Legislature, I have consulted Porter's work on
sugar. and Wray's Practical Sugar Planter. By
looking into these books. and some others on the
manufacture of rum, I think you will soon be con-
WINGED Of the advantage We may derive from distll-
ing rum, under proper management. According to
Porter, we may estimate on 81 gallons rum for every
hogshead Of sugar, which 10 about 1900 pounds
weight. Porter gives the average returns for ten
years Of q Plantation in the Island Of Grenada at 90
gallons for every hogshead. It should however be
taken into consideration that in years past the West
India plantations paid more attention to the produe-
ton Of rum than to quality and quantity Of sugar
They did not reboil molasses, but boiled high the first
time. and drained of the molasses which with skim
mings and washings, went to make the rum. Wrsy,
who as q sugar Manufacturer stands high above
Porter. does not give the large proportion of rum to
sugar. After having passed his Concentrated juice
through animal charcoal filters and boiled and re-
boiled it in a vacuum pans he gets l2s gallons rum
to 1900 pounds of sugar-he gives only the estimate
of sugar and rum from one crop, from which 1 take
my figures. He says that by carefully pursuing his
plan be has known rum Of q month old to sen as two
or three years old rum.
4ANAN a. OAC Nao( "A NAhSA 4" WA .0S0 NNAN
US to have a distilery on the plantation, and that is
this: we have frequently cane knocked down by
Kona storms and heavy ~northerly winds; that will
lie on the ground and become damaged, rat-eaten
and unfit for making sugar. We might at the end
of every week pick up all such cane, run il through
the mill and let it 60 into the disthlerY and convert
it into rum; such rum would be of excellent quality
and flavor, as the juice from which it is made has
not been boiled and reboiled, and what pure sugar
there is in such juice in solution, although unfit for
granulation on account of o too great quantity of
extraneous matter combined with it, would never
theless prove a very valuable agent in making rum,
much more so than the saecharine matter in black
molasses washings and ~skimmings. have often had
instances where about half a crop Of cane was left on
the ground as damaged, sour and unfit for making
sugar of and 1 cannot help thinking that a still
would make up to a considerable extent for the loss
in sugar thus sustained. 1 think that in the district
of HilO planters in this respect win be situated in the
anne way. -
what o still would cost and also the loss We have
got to meet before we learn to distill, is the most i'm
portant part for consideration in making rum manu-
facture pay; but it seems to me, to judge from prices
20 years ago, that if we add 100 or $50 per cent, we
may still have an affective apparatus at so low a
price that in an economical point of view, we will
find that the distnlation of rum will pay US. There
will of course be a great deal of prejudice and cant
to fight against; but 1 fail to see that planters can
make the world better by making themselves poorer,
and 1 should like at no distant date to go into the
distillation of rum, having previously ascertained
whether the first outlay for still, &C., will not be at
too great a cost 10 make the matter practicable