1860 A Treatise on the Manufacture , Imitation, Adulteration and Reduction of Foreign Wines, Brandies, .

RU.)I. 127 at a properly-regulated heat; for, if allowed to stand over, it will deteriorate by acetification. Dr. Higgins's plan of suspending a basketful of limestone in the wash-tuns, to counteract the ascidity, has not, I believe, been found to be of much use. It would be better to cover up the wash from the contact of atmospheric air, and to add, perhaps, a very little sulphite of lime to it, both of which means would tend to arrest the acetous fermentation. But one of the best precautions against the wash becoming sour, is to preserve the utn1ost cleanliness among all the vessels in the distillery. They should be scalded, at the end of every round, with boiling water and quicklime. "About 115 gallons of proof-rum are usually obtained from 1200 gallons of wash. The pro– portion which the product of rum bears to that of sugar, in very moist, rich plantations, is rated by Edwards at 82 gallons of the fonner to 16 cwt. of the latter; but the more usual ratio is 200 gallons of rum to 3 hogsheads of