Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-05-06
Let us Raise Our own sugar and
SYrHp.

syrup.
The following communication in the
southern Cutti0GtOr contains sugges-
tons that will be useful to Tennessee as
well as Georgia farmers:
wish to call the attention of your
readers, (and through them of their
friends to the importance of raising our
own sugar and syrup. Some may say
that in lower Georgia alone, can good
| cane be raised in this State. This is
great mistake, as l will clearly show.
Now for the facts, that can be certified
10 by hundreds of persons in Atlanta, and
others who visited the State Fair near
Macon in November last. During the
past year Messrs. Glenn d Wright, whole
sale dealers In Atlanta, erected in this city
mill and apparatus, to grind the
Sorghum and Imphee cane, and convert
the same into syrup and sugar. The
writer and many others saw the machine
ry in operation, both in Atlanta and
Macon. The cane used was planted early,
grew on poor land, suffered greatly by
the drought, and ripened during the ex-
cessive heat of August, presenting canes
from one fourth TO three fourths of an
inch In diameter, red and shrivelled to
such an extent as to preclude the idea of
getting either syrup or sugar of any value
from them. Nevertheless, sugar of good
quality, and as fine syrup as ever was
made in the State, were made out of this
cane.
Again, it may be said that the ma
chineTy is expensive. | reply that all
things pertaining to the plantation are ex-
pensiye, such as horses, mules, oxen,
wagons, etc, and yet planters must have
them. But this expense can be lessenCd,
by two or more planters combining and
buying the mill and machinery, at a
small cost to each, thereby getting their
money back the first season, in asuppl Y
of sugar and syrup for their families, and
mill and machinery on hand which will !
last number of years
We need never expect sugar and syrup |
to be cheap again. Cuba and Brazil are |
on the verge of emancipation, and in a
short time slave will not be found on |
the western continent. Every one knows
the kind of labor necessary to grow cane |
successfully on large plantations. By |
reference to statistics, il will be seen that |
the people of the United States consume |
annually one thousand million pounds of |
sugar more than is raised here Hence |
the immense amount of money annuity |
paid out for sugar and syrup imported |
into the country, which ought to be saved |
and invested in permanent wealth, such |
as cotton factories, rail roads, iron mills, |
etc.
Now let me give my experience in rails
ing the cane in this latitude. Have the /
lands well prepared, and plant from Goth
May to lst June, in rows three feet apart |
and eight inches in the drill. Good hill |
land is the best. The seeds when planted |
late come up vigorously, scarcely dis
from corn, until it gets near |
two feet high. 1t will ripen in Septem-
Der, when the days are short, and nights
long and cool, and instead of the upper
portion of the cane being burnt up and |
sOured by the August sun, the entire cane |
ripens almost at the same time. The canes |
are much larger than those planted about |
the LIST of April, and contain more and |
superior saccharine matter. Every per- |
son who has had any experience in raising |
the Sorghum or lmphee cane, knows that |
it begins TO ripen at the top, and when it |
natures in August, the upper portion of |
the stalk is ripe, while the lower and bet |
ter portion is growing. Hence you sacri- |
flee either the upper or lower portion of |
the stalk, and generally the latter and |
best, as it requires cutting soon after
ipening-otherwisc it becomes acid and |
unfit for use.
One acre of cane will realize as much |
money as two acres of cotton, on the |
same quality of land. The people of the |
South should raise everything they con-
sumo. True policy dictates it. The cot |
ton crop should be held as q reserve, after |
expenses are paid. BY so doing, we lessen |
the quantity produced, and increase the |
price. Money saved is money made, both |
to the citizen and State, and both become |
richer, as we increase our production and
diminish the expenditures of money
abroad. Let the example be set by the
planters, of raising everything our gener-
Gus soil produces, that is needed for our
comfort and subsistence.
Georgia has every variety of soil and
climate, yielding all varieties of fruits and
cereals, minerals of great value, and in
fact everything necessary to her existence,
if cut off from the people of the other
portions of the globe. Her citizens need
only go to work in the right way, and
make their homes attractive, their farms
productive, and educate their boys for
elevated positions in farm life, instead of
pushing them behind the counters of
whisky dealers, keeping Of ten-pin alleys,
merchants servants, OF dragging at the
tails of professions that God never in
tended they should honor.
BY pursuing the course indicated, a
marked change in the morals and cOndi-
ton of the people would be seen and felt
in a few years. Instead If velOcipede
and skating Kinks and monkey shows, eX-
hausting the pockets and brains of the
growing population, they would be emu
lous in excelling in the honorable pur-
suits of life, and considering it more laud
able to educate the head and heart than
the feet, and pandering to every humbug
that Yankee cupidity can devise, to fill
their own deep pockets from the soft and
empty heads of those too proud to labor,
and too Door and ignorant to live reputa-