It is generally believed that the object of adding lime to cane-juice is for the purpose of neutralising an acid, and it is to the reception of this fallacious idea that it is indebted for its long and continued use, and the present backward state of sugar manufacture is attributable: I unhesitatingly assert that, if there be an acid present in the cane-juice, the addition of lime to it will be injurious instead of beneficial. There are only four acids that we could expect to find in cane juice--mucous, saccholactic or saclactic, oxalic, and acetic acids. The three first named of these, however, have never been traced, even in the most minute quantities; and if the latter be present, which, unfortunately, is but too often the case, the addition of lime would only result in the formation of acetate of lime, which is, as I have already observed, an exceedingly difficult crystallisable, very soluble, and deliquescent salt. It has a bitter, saline taste; 100 parts consist of 64.5 acid, 35.5 lime, and it is easily recognisable by its taste in the molasses made from sour cane-juice: so that, supposing the cane-juice sour, every pint of acid present would require nearly half a pound of lime for its neutralisation, independent of the quantity required for the tempering or precipitation of the feculencies contained in it, and would result in the formation of one-and-a-half pound of the above mentioned highly deleterious salt. Suppose we boil the cane-juice prior to tempering it, we then drive off a great portion of acetic acid, much less lime will be required, and if we could, by filtration or subsidence, get rid of the precipitated feculencies, we should make a tolerably good sugar; but as, under the present plan, we have no means of so doing, the acetic acid, which is forming during the whole process of evaporation (as fermentation still goes on), unites with the lime before it can be dissipated by the heat, and thus not only forms acetate of lime, but causes the re-solution of the precipitated feculencies, thus rendering it necessary to add a fresh portion of lime in the tache, a proceeding always to be avoided, if possible, but generally necessary in boiling down sour liquor. Take a small portion of cane-juice (hot or cold) in a tumbler, and temper it with lime until the feculencies are precipitated and the flakes perfectly visible, then add vinegar by drops, and it will be found that the flakes will speedily disappear and be re-dissolved, showing that lime has a greater affinity for acetic acid than starch, and that, although when added to sour cane-juice, it neutralises the acidity, still that result is a consequence, not the cause, of the application, and is highly injurious. Lime is one of the greatest known solvents of vegetable matter; it dissolves albumen, gluten, gum and lignin, or woody fibre, forming soapy compounds with wax, resin, and, chlorophyle. Ordinary cane-juice contains about three parts of resin to every 100 of sugar,