Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-11-14
AN HOUR ON THE FIRST SUGAR ES
TATE IN MASSACHUSETTS

Every body has heard about, read about, and
speculated upon the Chinese Sugar Cane; many
have been hopeful that good would grow out Of
it, and, mingling good works with their faith
have planted and tended with care, and are now
expressing its juices and converting i, into syrup
Others have been doubtful from the first-have
neither planted or reaped, but have thrown dis
couragements in the way, and pronounced the
whole thing a hunbug For our part, we have
neither been excited or Indifferent, but hoping
for the best, and willing to bear proportion of
the expense in experimenting, and Of the odum
which comes SO cheaply and easily from the
doubtful. No man within our knowledge has
impoverished his estate in cultvaling the cane,
or in mills and boilers and fixtures to obtain the
syrup, while hundreds have planted breadth
enough 10 obtain sufficient quantity of cane to
make fair, and perhaps satisfactory expert
ment. In this way, it is believed the cane will
be tested in great number of instances, and a
safe decision arrived at, whether its cultivation
will afford syrup and sugar to the farmer cheap
er than he can produce the usual products Of the
farm aud exchange them for sugar and molasses,
from the ordinary sources of supply Even il
he cannot do this, it does not properly follow
that the farmer should not produce syrup suiIi-
cient for his own use, because in that case he
saves the cost of exchange, and would not be
of this. Some very favorable reports of the
products of the cane have already been made,
and many others, for or against, will soon fol
low.
A few days since we had the pleasure of Wis
iting the first sugar estate, as we believe, IN
Massachusetts, and of witnessing the operations
of squeezing the cane and boiling the juice, and
seeing it put into barrels for market The pio
neer in this laudable enterprise is ]. f. G
HYDE, Esq, Of Newton Centre, Mass, the gen.
tleuan who prepared the manual on the cultiva
ton of the sugar cane which was published ant
extensively circulated last spring
On reaching the scene of operations we found
Mr. Hyde, and four or FIVE other persons, active
ly engaged in the work necessary to obtain syr
up; they we're aided by powerful pair o
horses, who found the labor quite severe in turn
ing the ponderous cast iron rollers which wer,
squeezing the very life blood out of the canes
There were also three boilers, from forty to sew
enty gallons in capacity, over an arch, and un
der them roaring fire. With these complete
arrangements, Mr. HYDE will be able to extract
nearly all the juices from the canes, and to learI
what their product is, and also what cane pro
duces the largest amount OF juice as well as o
saccharine matter He had already ascertaine'
that cane grown on rather low, rich land, die
not produce juice as rich and sweet as tha
grown on land rather dry and warm. Thi
point he will be able satisfactorily to establish
as cane is brought to him TO be pressed, from
various localities, and cultivated under variet
of circumstances He had also learned that th
canes are sweetest near the ground, and tina
some three or four feet of the top contains yer.
| little saccharine matter.
! Mr.. Hyde had been 30 fortunate as TO secur
! the services of Mr.. WILLIAMS 10 aid him il
boiling down the juice he having had som