vacuum pan is technically called a "strike." We now find a reddish brown
substance, having somewhat the appearance of soft mortar.

"Men are at hand with square wooden boxes, and while the sugar is still
warm, it is placed in rotary cylinders, protected on the inside by wire
guards, called centrifugals.

"Placed on a horizontal, they revolve with a velocity which frequently
reaches 1200 a minute. The damp, dingy looking pile instantly spreads, a
broad circle of yellow is first visible on the inner rim of the machine,
and this slowly whitening finally becomes a shining ring of snowy sugar.
To effect this result requires the aid of nine steam boilers, three
steam engines, a vacuum pan, three large evaporators, five clarifiers,
five filters, an immense sirup tank, the juice box, mill, bagasse
furnace, and fifteen coolers.

"With the engineers, sugar makers, firemen, and laborers, thirty-eight
persons are constantly on duty in this sugar-house.

"Doubling this number, to give each the necessary rest, swells the
gathering to seventy-six souls, who, during the grinding season, find
employment at the sugar-house alone. This of course does not include the
laborers employed in gathering and bringing in the crop, and the
great number occupied in odd jobs and the extensive repairs which are
constantly going on."

* * * * *