ter
thus employed would serve for many successive portions of megass,
until at length it became so richly loaded with saccharine matter as
to be worth attention in the boiling-house; or, at all events, it
would be serviceable for the cattle, who would fatten rapidly upon it.
By this additional process a further gain of at least five per cent.
might be expected, raising the total gain from improvements in this
_first_ stage of the process, to from 25 to 35 per cent.

2. "To clarify and filter this juice with expedition, and to evaporate
it rapidly, either over the open fire or by steam heat, as far as it
can be done with safety."

By the use of steam, not only is a vast economy of fuel effected, but
the temperature is maintained at a uniform and sufficient standard,
and the liquor effectually guarded against the risks of carelessness
or ignorance. Coal may be obtained on far cheaper terms, in exchange
for produce, from the United States or from Cape Breton, than from
England; and as colliers from those quarters would find it their
interest to bring cargoes at their own risk, and take return cargoes
of sugar, rum, or molasses, at the market price, the planter will be
doubly a gainer by the system, obtaining his fuel at a reduced rate,
and having his trash and megass left free as manure for the use of his
cane fields.

3. "To complete the concentration in a vacuum pan, or by other means,
at a moderate temperature, not hurtful to the sugar, and facilitate
the natural process of crystallisation, so as to obtain sugar of a
large and distinct grain."

4. "To drain and dry the sugar perfectly, and to save all the
molasses."

The advantages to be anticipated from these improvements, superadded
to an improvement in cultivation, cannot be estimated at less, upon a
moderate calculation, than from 150 to 200 per cent. of increase in
the production of sugar, with hardly an appreciable increase of labor
or expense; for we have, in the first place, a gain by improved
culture of, at least, two hogsheads an acre in sugar, equivalent to
100 per cent.; in the next, by employing improved mills and extracting
the residuum, 30 per cent.; by conducting the process of manufacture
more judiciously, 10 per cent.; and by the prevention of waste during
the transit to market, 10 per cent., making a total of at least 150
per cent.

The common sugar-mill consists of three cylinders, tightened either by
wedges, if in a wooden frame, or by scre