The juice is now of a dull gray color
and of a sweet, pleasant taste, and is known as _guarapo_. It must be
clarified at once, for it is of so fermentable a nature that in the
climate of Porto Rico it will run into fermentation inside of half an
hour if the process of clarifying is not commenced. The pans into
which the juice is conducted are pierced like a colander. The liquor
runs through, leaving the refuse matter behind. It is then forced into
tanks by a pump and run to the clarifiers, which are large kettles
heated by steam. Lime is used to assist the clarification. It is then
filtered into vats filled with bone black. The filtering is repeated
until the juice changes color, when it is conveyed to the vacuum pans.
It has now become a thick sirup. It is then pumped into the sirup
clarifiers, skimmed, and again run through bone black, and finally is
conducted into another kettle, where it is allowed to crystallize. The
sirup that fails to crystallize is molasses, and it is here that we
catch up with what we started after. To extract the molasses from the
crystallized mass of sugar, we must go to the purging house. This is
similar to the building spoken of in connection with the simpler
process. It is of two stories. The upper floor is merely a series of
strong frames with apertures for funnel-shaped cylinders.
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