es than lime have been proposed
and tried with more or less success, some of which, in particular
states of the cane juice, may prove very useful; but, for general
purposes, nothing seems to answer so well as neutralisation by lime,
either in the form of lime-water or milk of lime, added until the
slightest possible tendency to alkalinity, as ascertained by delicate
reddened litmus paper, is perceived. The juice should be somewhat
heated before the lime is added, and afterwards raised quite to the
boiling point. The fire is then to be withdrawn, and the whole allowed
to rest a short time." Such is Mr. Fownes' description of the process
of clarification; to which I will venture to add, upon the authority
of those who have experienced its good effects, the joint use of the
mucilage of the _Guazuma ulmifolia_, or gun-stock tree, as it is
popularly termed in Nevis from the use to which its timber has been
applied. This is the bastard cedar of Jamaica, or Orme d'Amerique, and
Bois d'Orme of the French, which may be found described by Lunan, in
the first volume of his "Hortus Jamaicensis," page 59, under the name
of _Bubroma Guazuma_.

This tree presents in the interval between its outer bark of sap-wood,
a mass of fibrous matter about half an inch in thickness, richly
impregnated with mucilage, which is obtained by macerating the fibrous
mass, conveniently divided into small shreds, for about twelve hours,
in warm water, in the proportion of about two handsful to eight
gallons of water. Of this solution, which is of a light, straw color,
and somewhat thickened, one gallon is to be added for every hundred
gallons of cane juice, after the clarifier has been charged with the
proper quantity of lime-water, and has become lukewarm. The mixture
should then be stirred, and afterwards allowed to settle till the scum
has risen to the surface. The fire must next be cautiously and
gradually raised to the point of boiling, when it must again be
slackened, and the whole left to stand for about forty minutes, by
which time the mass of feculencies will have risen to the surface,
when the clear liquor underneath may either be drawn off by a siphon
or cock; the whole may be filtered as Mr. Fownes recommends, by which
means the liquor would be more effectually clarified, and much, if not
all, the subsequent labour of skimming dispensed with. The matter
remaining on the filter may be employed, either as a ferment in the
still-house, or added