185. _To the “Ball” Degree._--To know when the “ball” has been acquired, first dip your finger into a basin of cold water, then apply your finger to the syrup, taking up a little on the tip and dipping it into the water again; if upon rolling the sugar with the fingers and thumb you can make it into a small ball, that is what is termed the “small ball;” when you can make a larger and harder ball, which you could not bite without its sticking unpleasantly to the teeth, you may be satisfied that is the “large ball.” 186. _To the degree called “Crackled.”_--Boil the sugar from the degree called feathered a little longer; dip a stick or a piece of pipe (or your finger, if you are used to boiling) into water, then into the sugar and again into the water. If it crack with the touch it is boiled to the degree called crackled. 187. _To the degree called “Caramelled.”_--Boil the sugar still further, dip a stick or your finger into water, then into the sugar, and again into the water. If it snap like glass it is of the highest degree, called caramelled, and must be taken off the fire immediately, for fear of burning. This sugar is proper to caramel any sort of fruit. 188.--To boil Sugar by the Thermometer. All the foregoing tests are according to the old style of boiling; but a boiling-glass can now be had which enables us to boil to a better degree of accuracy. Thus, to boil to the pearl is to boil to 220 degrees; the small thread 228 degrees; the large thread 236 degrees; the blow 240 degrees; the feather 242 degrees; the small ball 244 degrees; the large ball 250 degrees; the small crack 261 degrees; the hard crack 281 degrees; the caramel 360 degrees. 189.--Barley Sugar. Put some sugar in a pan with water and place it on the fire to boil; when it is at the feather add a little lemon juice and continue boiling to the caramel; when done add a few drops of essence of lemon. Pour it on a marble slab previously oiled, cut into strips. When nearly cold take the strips in your fingers and twist them, and when quite cold put them into tin boxes and keep them closed down. The reason that barley sugar is so named is that it was originally made with a decoction of barley. 190.--Barley Sugar Drops. These are made in the same manner as the preceding. You pour the sugar while hot into impressions made in dried icing sugar. 191.--Acid Drops. Boil 3 lbs. of loaf sugar, 1 pint of water, and a teaspoonful of cream of tartar to the caramel; add a few drops of essence of lemon, and pour it on an oiled marble slab or stone; sprinkle on it a tablespoonful of powdered tartaric acid and work it in. Oil a tin sheet and put the sugar on it in a warm place, then cut off a small piece and roll it into a round pipe, cut this into small pieces the size of drops with a pair of scissors and roll them round under the hand; mix with fine powdered sugar, sift the drops from it and put them in boxes, to be used as required. 192.--Pine-apple Drops.