Note 70 — PART I

The pilones are delivered from November to May and June, and are received into extensive warehouses, which are provided with large court-yards and terraced roofs. Here the upper part of the pilone is cut off, and a quantity of manufactured sugar being pressed down on the top of it, a thin layer of the river mud is put on it; this is watered from time to time and changed once or twice, the pilone standing on a small foot, with the small hole at its apex left open, through which the molasses slowly drains, leaving the upper and broader part of the pilone of a fine white, gradually decreasing in goodness to the bottom, where it is little more than molasses—the pilone is then cut in two; the darker part is put by as second quality (or reboiled), and the whiter portion as firsts, of the sugar, the care taken in the process, the kind of mud used, &c. About two piculs of sugar from three pilones is a fair average, when these are of a good size. That from the province of Pampanga is by far the best; it is produced from a small red cane70 about four feet high, and of the thickness of a good walking stick.