the removal of all except a small percentage of the molasses. This
is accomplished by what are called the centrifugals, deep bowls with
perforated walls, whirled at two or three thousand revolutions a minute.
This expels the greater part of the molasses, and leaves a mass of
yellow-brown crystals, the coloring being due to the molasses remaining.
This is the raw sugar of commerce. Most of Cuba's raw product is classed
as "96 degree centrifugals," that is, the raw sugar, as it comes from the
centrifugal machines and is bagged for shipment, is of 96 degrees of sugar
purity. This is shipped to market, usually in full cargo lots. There it
goes to the refineries, where it is melted, clarified, evaporated, and
crystallized. This second clarification removes practically everything
except the pure crystallized sugar of the market and the table. It is then
an article of daily use in every household, and a subject of everlasting
debate in Congress.

XIII

_VARIOUS PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIES_

The Encyclopaedia Britannica states that "although the fact has been
controverted, there cannot be a doubt that the knowledge of tobacco and
its uses came to the rest of the world from America. As the continent was
opened up and explored, it became evident that the consumption of tobacco,
especially by smoking, was a universal and immemorial usage, in many cases
bound up with the most significant and solemn tribal ceremonials." The name
"tobacco" was originally the name of the appliance in which it was smoked
and not of the plant itself, just as the term "chowder" comes from the
vessel (_chaudiere_) in which the compound was prepared. The tobacco plant
was first taken to Europe in 1558, by Francisco Fernandez, a physician who
had been sent to Mexico by Philip II to investigate the products of that
country. The English, however, appear to have been the first Europeans
to adopt the smoking habit, and Sir Walter Raleigh was notable for his
indulgence in the weed. He is said to have called for a solacing pipe just
before his execution. Very soon after their arrival, in 1607, the Virginia
settlers engaged in the cultivation of tobacco, and it soon became the most
important commercial product of the colony. Smoking, as practiced in this
country, appears to have been largely, and perhaps only, by means of pipes
generally similar to those now in use. The contents of ancient Indian
mounds, or tumuli, opened in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa,