The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1895-04-18
HOW SUGAR IS MADE,
Nice White Lumps which Sweeter
Your Cocoa.
THE ODD QUALIFICATION PROCESS.
1t Takes Twenty Cart Loads OF Canes
to Make Single Hogshead
OF Sugar.

Everybody knows what sugar is and
how sweet it tastes. Doubtless Won
would like to know something about ii
and how it is made. 1t is a great
traveller and comes to America from
other countries. Some of it is made
from beetroot in France, but the
greater part is made from the Juice OF
plant called the sugar cane. This
plant cannot thrive in cold weather and
therefore it only grows in very warm
countries. The places where it is most
plentiful are the West Indies and the
southern part of the United States. A
great deal of it grows on the island Of
the West Indies called Jamaica.
1t is very large and handsome
plant, sometimes growing to the height
of fifteen feet. The stem is round and
is jointed, so that it looks as if it were
made of number of short pieces
joined together. At the top is
large, beautiful flower with long,
pointed leaves.
1t is planted in the autumn, between
the months of August and November,
and it is generally ripe about the fol-
lowing March or April. 1t is easy to
tell when it is ripe, for the outer skin
of the cane becomes hard, dry and
smooth, almost like walking stick.
1t is then cut down, the leaves stripped
off, and few of the joints nearest the
top are cut away. The remaining por-
tions are then cut up into pieces about
yard long, tied up into bundles and
carried to the mills.
Care is taken to cut the cane as close
to the ground as possible, the richest
juice being found in the lower joints.
After the canes are taken away the
stumps are cut down to few inches
below the surface of the ground, and
then covered up with mold. The up
per part of the cane and the leaves are
used to feed cattle.
When the bundles of sugar cane arrive
at the mills the first thing is to crush
them. A Negro spreads them out in
order, and they are then passed between
two iron rollers. which completely
crush them as they go through. The
juice thus pressed out flows into YES
sells called CHARTERS. placed beneath to
receive it. The canes are then passed
through two other rollers, placed closer
together, and all the remaining juice
squeezed out of the cane which flows
into the CHARTERS. These are large
enough to contain some hundreds of
gallons each. The juice is thick, of a
dull olive green color, and, of course,
very sweet to the taste.
AS soon as the CHARTERS are filled
with the juice small quantity of lime
is added. The vessels are placed over
a furnace, the fuel for which consists
of the crushed canes, out OF which the
juice has all been pressed. This dry
refuse of the canes is called trash. The
juice is now boiled and quantity of
scum rises to the top; this is carefully
SKINNED off, after which the juice is
clear bright yellow color
} The next thing is to remove it into
series of copper vessels, one after an
other; in each it is boiled, and as the
water evaporates, the juice at last be-
comes soft mass. Then it is again
removed into other vessels to cool, and
while cooling it is stirred. After this
it is placed in large casks called hogs
heads. There are holes at the bottom
of these casks which are placed over
large cisterns, and here it remains for
three or four weeks. the last Of the
moisture draining slowly away through
the holes. 1t is now called Moscovado,
or as we should say, brown sugar; and
the liquid part which is drained off is
called molasses The cases are now
covered in and fastened and sent on
board ship. The sugar, however, is
still rather moist, and great deal Of
molasses drains off from it afterward
About seven pounds Of juice will
make one pound of sugar, and it takes
nearly twenty cart loads of canes to
make single hogshead Of sugar.
The better kinds of sugar are refined
in different ways. One plan is called
: "claying." The sugar is put into
: pointed earthen molds called forms, "
the point lin which there is hole) be-
ing downward. A layer of clay is
placed on top and wetted with water,
which slowly filters down and causes
more Of the molasses to drain off than
in the common sugar.
And now will tell you how "clay-
/ ing" was discovered. 1t happened ono
D day that fowl which had been walk
, ing in the mud passed over one of the
t cooling vessels full Of sugar, and ii
0 was noticed that where any clay from
' her feet stuck to the surface the sugar
! was Of better color So it was found
that clay caused more of the molasses
I to run through than anything else.
s Loaf, or white sugar, is made by re.
boiling the brown sugar with white of
!, egg or bullock's blood, and by submit
a ting it to the claying a great many
/ times. In some cases the re- boiled
sugar is filtered through powdered
charcoal to cleanse and whiten it.
And thus you get those nice white