Sugar from the cane is manufactured by the Chinese alone; the process followed resembles that of the West Indies. The juice is expressed between two rollers, sometimes turned by a water-wheel; but in all cases the machinery is rude and imperfect. The quality of the sugar made on Java is considered to be equal to that of Manilla and the West Indies: it contains as much of the saccharine principle as the latter, and is brought to a drier state. It differs from the sugar of Bengal, as much in its quality as in the mode of preparing it, but can be brought to market at about the same price. Considerable quantities are sent to the Malabar coast, but the principal exportation is to Japan and Europe.
The manufactory of Batavian arrack, the superior quality of which is well known, is also conducted by the Chinese: the process is as follows: About seventy pounds of kétan (glutinous rice) is heaped up in a small vat; round this heap or pile one hundred cans of water are poured, and on the top twenty cans of molasses. After remaining two days in this vat, the ingredients are shifted to a larger vat adjoining, when they receive the addition of four hundred cans of water and one hundred cans of molasses.
Thus far the process is carried on in the open air. In a separate vat within doors, forty cans of palm wine or toddy from the cocoa-nut tree, are immediately mixed with nine hundred cans of water and one hundred and fifty cans of molasses. Both preparations being allowed to remain in this state for two days, the former of these preparations is carried to a still larger vat within doors, and the latter being in a vat placed above, is poured upon it, through a hole bored for the purpose near the bottom. In this state the preparation is allowed to ferment for two days, when it is poured into small earthen jars, containing about twenty cans each, in which it remains for the further period of two days: it is then distilled.
The liquor drops into a tin vessel under ground, from whence it is ladled into receiving vessels. This is the third or common sort of arrack, which by a second distillation in a smaller still, with the addition of a small quantity of water, becomes the second sort, and by a third distillation, what is called the first sort. The third or common sort is called by the Chinese síchew, the second tánpo, and the first kíji, the two latter being distinguished as arrack ápi. When cooled, it is poured into large vats in the storehouses, where it remains till it is convenient to put it into casks.
The whole process, therefore, to the completion of the first sort, does not require more than ten days, six hours being sufficient for the original preparation to pass through the first still. The receivers of the stills are of copper, and the worm consists of about nine turns of Banka tin.
The proof of sufficient fermentation is obtained by placing a lighted taper about six inches above the surface of the liquor in the fermenting vat; if the process is sufficiently advanced, the fixed air rises and extinguishes the light.
To ascertain the strength of the spirit, a small quantity of it is burnt in a saucer, and the residuum measured. The difference between the original quantity and the residuum gives the measure of the alcohol lost.
Among the most important manufactures of Java, both viewed in its relation to the comforts of the inhabitants and the interests of the revenue, is that of salt. In almost every country it is an indispensable commodity, but particularly where the people subsist on a vegetable diet, as in India and the Eastern Islands; and wherever government has seen it necessary, it has been converted into a source of taxation.
Nearly the whole of the north-east coast of Java and Má-dúra abounds with places well calculated for its manufacture, and unfit for any other useful purpose. The quantity already manufactured has for many years exceeded the demand, both for home consumption and exportation, and might be increased almost ad libitum.
On Java the principal salt-pans are situated at Pákis, in the vicinity of Batavia; at Bantam, Chéribon, Tégal; at Wédong and Bráhang, in the Semárang districts; at Paradési, in Rembáng; at Sedáyu, Grésik, and Simámi; on Madúra, at Sámpang, Pamákasan, and Súmenap. Salt is also manufactured at several places along the south-coast, but of inferior quality, and by a different process. About two hundred tons are annually procured in the interior, from the Blédegs, as already described. The principal supply, however, is from the north-coast, where the quality of the salt, and the facility with which it can be manufactured, give it a decided advantage in demand and cheapness.