Within these few years a very considerable quantity of sugar has been imported into Great Britain in the state of concentrated cane-juice, containing nearly half its weight of granular sugar, along with more or less molasses, according to the care taken in the boiling operations. I was at first apprehensive that the syrup might undergo some change on the voyage; but among more than a hundred samples which I have analyzed for the custom-house, I have not perceived any traces of fermentation. Since sugar softens in its grain at each successive solution, whatever portion of the crop may be destined for the refiner, should upon no account be granulated in the colonies; but should be transported in the state of a rich cane-syrup to Europe, transferred at once into the blowing-up cistern, subjected there to the reaction of bone black, and passed through bag-filters, or through layers of the coarsely ground black, previously to its final concentration in the vacuum pan. Were this means generally adopted, I am convinced that 30 per cent. would be added to the amount of home-made sugar loaves corresponding to a given quantity of average cane-juice; while 30 per cent., would be taken from the amount of molasses. The saccharine matter now lost by drainage from the hogsheads in the ships, amounting to from 10 to 15 per cent., would, also be saved. The produce of the cane would, on this plan, require less labour in the colonies, and might be exported 5 or 6 weeks earlier than at present, because the period of drainage in the curing-house would be spared.
It does not appear that our sugar colonists have availed themselves of the proper chemical method of counteracting that incipient fermentation of the cane-juice, which sometimes supervenes, and proves so injurious to their products. It is known that grape-must, feebly impregnated with sulphurous acid, by running it slowly into a cask in which a few sulphur matches have been burned, will keep without alteration for a year; and if must, so muted, is boiled into a syrup within a week or ten days, it retains no sulphureous odour. A very slight muting would suffice for the most fermentable cane-juice: and it could be easily given, by burning a sulphur match within the cistern immediately before charging it from the mill. The cane-juice should, in this case, be heated in the clarifier, so as to expel the sulphurous acid, before adding the temper lime; for otherwise a little calcareous sulphite might be introduced into the sugar. Thus the arescence so prejudicial to the saccharine granulation would be certainly prevented.
An Account of Sugar Imported into the United Kingdom during the years ending 5th January, 1837, and 5th January, 1838.
| Quantities imported. | Quantities entered for Home Consumption. | Gross amount of Duty received. | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1837. | 1838. | 1837. | 1838. | 1837. | 1838. | |||||||||
| Sugar, unrefined; viz.— | Cwt. | qr. | lb. | Cwt. | qr. | lb. | Cwt. | qr. | lb. | Cwt. | qr. | lb. | £. | £. |
| of the British possessions in America | 3,600,516 | 3 | 2 | 3,304,092 | 2 | 2 | 3,296,641 | 1 | 19 | 3,562,703 | 1 | 24 | 3,956,879 | 4,275,207 |
| Of Mauritius | 497,303 | 0 | 8 | 537,054 | 1 | 21 | 518,228 | 0 | 5 | 522,348 | 3 | 11 | 621,596 | 626,131 |
| East India British possessions | 152,229 | 1 | 13 | 296,677 | 2 | 12 | 110,236 | 2 | 0 | 270,146 | 1 | 2 | 176,376 | 368,672 |
| East India Foreign possessions | 71,464 | 2 | 0 | 77,090 | 0 | 18 | 20 | 3 | 18 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 66 | 12 |
| Other sorts | 327,647 | 1 | 12 | 266,559 | 2 | 24 | 31 | 1 | 6 | 37 | 3 | 10 | 41 | 95 |
| Total | 4,649,161 | 0 | 7 | 4,481,474 | 1 | 21 | 3,925,140 | 0 | 20 | 4,355,240 | 1 | 2 | 4,754,958 | 5,270,117 |
| Quantities imported. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1837. | 1838. | |||||
| Sugar, unrefined; viz.— | Cwt. | qr. | lb. | Cwt. | qr. | lb. |
| of the British possessions in America | 3,600,516 | 3 | 2 | 3,304,092 | 2 | 2 |
| Of Mauritius | 497,303 | 0 | 8 | 537,054 | 1 | 21 |
| East India British possessions | 152,229 | 1 | 13 | 296,677 | 2 | 12 |
| East India Foreign possessions | 71,464 | 2 | 0 | 77,090 | 0 | 18 |
| Other sorts | 327,647 | 1 | 12 | 266,559 | 2 | 24 |
| Total | 4,649,161 | 0 | 7 | 4,481,474 | 1 | 21 |
| Quantities entered for Home Consumption. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1837. | 1838. | |||||
| Sugar, unrefined; viz.— | Cwt. | qr. | lb. | Cwt. | qr. | lb. |
| of the British possessions in America | 3,296,641 | 1 | 19 | 3,562,703 | 1 | 24 |
| Of Mauritius | 518,228 | 0 | 5 | 522,348 | 3 | 11 |
| East India British possessions | 110,236 | 2 | 0 | 270,146 | 1 | 2 |
| East India Foreign possessions | 20 | 3 | 18 | 3 | 3 | 11 |
| Other sorts | 31 | 1 | 6 | 37 | 3 | 10 |
| Total | 3,925,140 | 0 | 20 | 4,355,240 | 1 | 2 |
| Gross amount of Duty received. | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1837. | 1838. | |
| Sugar, unrefined; viz.— | £. | £. |
| of the British possessions in America | 3,956,879 | 4,275,207 |
| Of Mauritius | 621,596 | 626,131 |
| East India British possessions | 176,376 | 368,672 |
| East India Foreign possessions | 66 | 12 |
| Other sorts | 41 | 95 |
| Total | 4,754,958 | 5,270,117 |
An Account of Sugar Exported in the year ended 5th January, 1838, compared with the Exports of the preceding Year.
| 1837. | 1838. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cwts. | qrs. | lbs. | Cwts. | qrs. | lbs. | |||
| Sugar, | of | the British possessions in America | 8,774 | 1 | 15 | 9,267 | 0 | 21 |
| Mauritius | 2,687 | 3 | 14 | 3,065 | 0 | 19 | ||
| East India, of British possessions | 22,290 | 3 | 16 | 13,283 | 0 | 22 | ||
| East India, of Foreign possessions | 52,384 | 0 | 4 | 68,252 | 2 | 18 | ||
| Other sorts | 191,961 | 0 | 20 | 354,513 | 1 | 23 | ||
Syrup intended for forming clayed sugar must be somewhat more concentrated in the teache, and run off into a copper cooler, capable of receiving three or four successive skippings. Here it is stirred to ensure uniformity of product, and is then transferred by ladles into conical moulds, or formes, made of coarse pottery, having a small orifice at the apex, which is stopped with a plug of wood wrapped in a leaf of maize. These pots are arranged with the base upwards. As their capacity, when largest, is greatly less than that of the smallest potting-casks, and as the process lasts several weeks, the claying-house requires to have very considerable dimensions. Whenever the syrup is properly granulated, which happens usually in about 18 or 20 hours, the plugs are removed from the apices of the cones, and each is set on an earthen pot to receive the drainings. At the end of 24 hours, the cones are transferred over empty pots, and the molasses contained in the former ones is either sent to the fermenting-house or sold. The claying now begins, which consists in applying to the smoothed surface of the sugar at the base of the cone, a plaster of argillaceous earth, or tolerably tenacious loam in a pasty state. The water diffused among the clay escapes from it by slow infiltration, and descending with like slowness through the body of the sugar, carries along with it the residuary viscid syrup which is more readily soluble than the granulated particles. Whenever the first magma of clay has become dry, it is replaced by a second; and this occasionally in its turn by a third, whereby the sugar cone gets tolerably white and clean. It is then dried in a stove, cut transversely into frusta, crushed into a coarse powder on wooden trays, and shipped off for Europe. Clayed sugars are sorted into different shades of colour according to the part of the cone from which they were cut; under the denomination in French commerce of premier, second, troisième, petit, commun, and tête; the last or the tip being an indifferent article. The clayed sugar of Cuba is called Havannah sugar, from the name of the shipping port.