formed into cakes, which are cut into small pieces, and dried for use.

STEEL. See Iron.

STOCKINGS were formerly made of cloth or milled stuffs sewed together. Modern stockings, whether woven or knit, are formed of an infinite number of little knots, called stitches, loops, or meshes, intermingled one with another. The art of knitting stockings has been usually attributed to the Scots, although it is probable, that this invention was originally from Spain.

An expeditious mode of knitting stockings, called framework knitting, by means of a frame made of steel or polished iron, is attributed to William Lee, M. A. of St. John's college, Cambridge, so early as 1589. This species of loom or frame-work, is now become common, and enables us to export silk stockings in vast quantities, and to a great advantage, to those very countries whence we formerly used to import them at a considerable loss.

STURGEON FISHERY. See Fishery.

SUGAR seems to have been known in India and China at a very early period. Europe owes its knowledge of sugar to the conquests of Alexander the Great; but it was not used as a food in Europe till after the discovery of America. Sugar in its pure form is one of the most nutritive substances derived from the vegetable kingdom; and is an excellent antiseptic, preserving from decay a multitude of organic substances. Almost all the sugar used in Europe is obtained from the arundo saccharifera, or sugarcane, which grows in the West India islands.

The circumstances which contribute to its goodness are, the quality of the soil, exposure to the sun, being cut in a proper season, and at the proper age. The general height of the cane, exclusive of the flag part, is from three and a half to seven feet, and from half an inch to an inch in diameter; the stem or stalk is divided by knots, at the distance of from one to three inches. It the top it puts forth a number of long green tufted leaves, from the middle of which rise the flower and the seed. The body of the cane, though brittle, is strong, and when ripe of a fine straw colour, inclinable to yellow. It likewise contains a soft pithy substance, replete with juice, of an agreeable

taste. The ground fit for sugar-canes should be exposed, to the sun. The canes are usually planted in pieces, cut a foot and a half below the top of the flower. They are ordinarily ripe in ten months, though sometimes not till' fifteen, at which time they are found full of a white succulent marrow, whence is expressed the liquor of which sugar is made. When ripe and cut they are carried in bundles to the mills, and are crushed by passing between iron cylinders placed perpendicularly, and moved by water or animal strength. When the canes are pressed and broken between the rollers, the juice runs through a little canal into the sugar house, which is near the mill, and is thence conveyed into a first copper or cauldron, to receive the first preparation, and is only heated by a slow fire. A quantity of ashes and quick-lime is here mixed with the liquor, and the effect is, that the unctuous parts are separated from the rest, and by the heat, are raised to the top in the form of a thick scum.

The same operation is carried on three times, taking off the scum every time. In this state it is called syrup, and is again boiled with lime and alum till concentrated, when it is poured into a cooler and agitated with wooden stirrers or paddles which break the crust on the surface. It is afterwards put into hogsheads, the bottoms of which are perforated, and a plaintain leaf is placed across the orifice, that the molasses with which the sugar is mixed, may be allowed to drain off. This process occupies about three weeks, and forms what is called raw or moist sugar. In Jamaica, the cane is thought very productive, if a gallon of juice yield a pound of sugar.

1. Clayed or Lisbon Sugar. The process of claying is practised in St. Domingo, Guadaloupe, and Martinique, West India islands formerly belonging to the French. The sugar, after it has been prepared in the way just described, is put into very porous earthenware pots of a conical shape, with the apex or point in a jar; a cake of pipe-clay mixed with water is placed on the base of the cone; the moisture passes through the sugar, and carries off the molasses or treacly particles; fresh clay is added three or four times, when the sugar becomes sufficiently clarified. The moisture of the sugar is also evaporated through the pores of the vessel.

2. Loaf Sugar. Lime water is poured upon the raw commodity; and bullocks' blood is added, which performs the office of whites of eggs. The serum or white part of the blood becomes dissolved, but coagulates when hot, forming a sort of gelatinous net work, which operates as a strainer, and carries upward all the opposing matters. The scum is taken off with skimmers, and the sugar boiled with lime-water till it is perfectly transparent. Having acquired a proper consistence, it is poured into large coolers, and continually stirred with paddles, or oars, till it become opaque. When it has attained a sufficient degree of coolness, it is poured into moulds, made of earthenware, of a conical shape, and there stirred for some time, in order to disengage the air bubbles that are formed round the mass, and which would, otherwise, destroy the smoothness of the sugar-loaf. The pots are then ranged in rows in warehouses, heated to a certain temperature, with the apex of the cone inverted into a jar; the base or broad part is covered with clay, fresh layers of which are applied three or four times: the water passes through the sugar, and carries away with it the molasses, forming a syrup, which again undergoes the same process as raw sugar. The loaves are now put in a stove to dry. Double refined sugar undergoes all the processes of the raw sugar, and the bluish-white cast sometimes observable is given by indigo.

3. Bastard Sugar, is of a very dark brown colour, with the point or top of the loaf usually broken off. It is form ed from the coarse syrup of fine sugar, and is generally ground under a mill-stone, and sold as powder-sugar.

4. Sugar-Candy, is composed of the particles of saccharine matter formed into large crystals, by slowly evaporat ing the clarified syrup. The whole process is managed in strongly heated chambers, by the aid of vessels containing numerous threads, that intersect each other, and which are fastened to the sides in various directions; the sugar thus treated shoots into crystals round the threads, and according to its relative purity, the latter acquire a brown, yellow, or white colour.

5. Barley-Sugar, so called, because the sugar was formerly boiled with barley; but water now is generally used.i It is first boiled till it be brittle, and then cast on a stone

anointed with oil of sweet almonds, and formed into twisted sticks. Saffron is sometimes added to give it the bright amber colour.

The following are the other vegetable substances from which sugar may be obtained.

1. Maple. In North America a very fine sugar is obtained from the acer saccharinum, or sugar-maple. It is procured by boring the tree in the spring with an augur, and boiling the juice in the same manner as in the West India islands.

2. Beet-Root. Sugar has been obtained in Germany, in some quantity, from the beta vulgaris, or beet-root, but the practice does not appear to be very successful.

3. Grapes. In consequence of the loss of all her West India islands, France could not procure a sufficient supply of sugar for her own consumption, and the article bore a very extravagant price. Large premiums were offered for the obtaining sugar from grapes, and the accustomed ingenuity of the French chemists has succeeded, completely, in providing this substitute for the produce of the sugar cane. This article has a very fine flavour, and is scarcely inferior to the West India sugar. Manufactories have been established on a very large scale for the making of sugar in this manner. The white grape yields 22 per cent, and the Spanish grape 33 per cent of sugar, which is very good and fit for use.

4. Figs, dates, turnips, wheat, barley, beans, peas, currants, and apples, all contain sugar. This saccharine quality is very abundantly diffused over the vegetable kingdom, scarcely any plant being wholly destitute of it. The dew on the lime-tree will produce sugar, and 3 oz. of it may be obtained from 12 oz. of honey. Sugar is never. found insulated, but is always combined with mucilage, &c. and may be extracted by alcohol.

TALLOW, is the fat of certain animals properly boiled and clarified; it may be procured from almost every creature excepting worms and insects, though the best and largest quantities are obtained from bullocks, sheep, hogs, rein-deer, and bears. Considerable quantities of tallow are consumed by salt-boilers, for the purpose of imparting a large grain to the salt; it is also used in the manufacture soap, and particularly in making candles.

of

TANNING is almost exclusively a chemical process inall its branches, and is one of the most ancient and the most simple of the arts of life:-it is practised in every country on the face of the globe with general similarity. The business of the tanner is to convert the raw skins of animals into leather. Soft and flexible bark or strips of fresh skins, were, most probably, first used by the shepherds, to protect their feet from injury. This, however, would be effectual in dry countries only, not subject to any great vicissitude of climate. The discovery of the art of tanning was, no doubt, accidental. Some raw skins left in contact with vegetable matter, might point out to man the properties of the tan contained in such vegetables. The operation of tanning cannot be thoroughly understood without some knowledge of the anatomical structure of the skin, which forms the external covering of the animal body. It consists essentially of two substances, possessing distinct chemical properties.

The skin consists of two layers or coats; one, a fine thin transparent membrane to which the hair, fur, &c. are attached; this is called the cuticle, and together with its appendages is detached by maceration, and is insoluble in water. The other, or thick skin, is termed by the chemists gelatine, which is soluble in water, and in that state. becomes glue, The chemical agent, which is principally concerned in the tanner's art, is a peculiar substance pos-sessing an astringent and acrid taste;-it is contained in a number of vegetable matters, and is very abundant in oakbark, in the green outer-shell of the walnut, in the bark of the willow-tree, the ash, elder, rose-tree, &c. This tanning matter may be extracted by maceration in water, and again separated from the water by means of animal jelly, and by the gelatinous animal fibre, with which it forms leather. Tan may be detected in black and green tea; and very considerable quantities may be found in port wine.

Leather. There are three kinds of leather, known by the names of backs or butts, hides, and skins. We shall first describe the old method, as it is called, and which is still practised by many tanners.

1. Butis. The strongest bides, as those of bullocks, are selected for the butts, and after being divested of the