ecipitate; and if the addition of the lime be continued until it be
precisely tempered, it will be found that the hot possesses the
following advantages over the cold-tempered liquor:--In a quarter of
an hour its impurities will have subsided to a sixteenth of its bulk,
leaving the supernatant liquor as bright and clear as pale brandy;
while those in the other have only sunk to one-quarter of its bulk.
The color of the former clear liquor will not be less than one-half
the intensity of that of the latter. The lime used in the hot has been
less by one-third than the quantity used in the cold tempering.

Of course, on level estates there is little difficulty in tempering
liquor, but on hilly properties scarcely two pans will require the
same quantity.

It is generally believed that the object of adding lime to cane-juice
is for the purpose of neutralising an acid, and it is to the reception
of this fallacious idea that it is indebted for its long and continued
use, and the present backward state of sugar manufacture is
attributable: I unhesitatingly assert that, if there be an acid
present in the cane-juice, the addition of lime to it will be
injurious instead of beneficial. There are only four acids that we
could expect to find in cane juice--mucous, saccholactic or saclactic,
oxalic, and acetic acids. The three first named of these, however,
have never been traced, even in the most minute quantities; and if the
latter be present, which, unfortunately, is but too often the case,
the addition of lime would only result in the formation of acetate of
lime, which is, as I have already observed, an exceedingly difficult
crystallisable, very soluble, and deliquescent salt. It has a bitter,
saline taste; 100 parts consist of 64.5 acid, 35.5 lime, and it is
easily recognisable by its taste in the molasses made from sour
cane-juice: so that, supposing the cane-juice sour, every pint of acid
present would require nearly half a pound of lime for its
neutralisation, independent of the quantity required for the tempering
or precipitation of the feculencies contained in it, and would result
in the formation of one-and-a-half pound of the above mentioned highly
deleterious salt.

Suppose we boil the cane-juice prior to tempering it, we then drive
off a great portion of acetic acid, much less lime will be required,
and if we could, by filtration or subsidence, get rid of the
precipitated feculencies, we should make a tolerably good s