The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1882-02-16


IS ground and plant it in something else Us
ally corn and peas are planted, the latter b
e ing plowed under as a fertilizer After on
d year cane can again be started Like ever
n other crop it requires careful, intelligent maj
r agement.
Both men and women are employed as can
cutters. They use broad instrument-neitl
er knife nor hatchet-with sharp, hool
|. shaped projection on the end, with which tn
blades at the top of the cane are strlppe
5 away; with one blow the stalk is cut down
, another and Its struggling leaves are cut O
ana IL is ready TOR the cane wagons in whic
; it is hauled to the mill There it is placed Ut
: on carrier controlled by an endless bel
which takes it up an inclined plane to the sc
cond story of the building, where it passe
between three powerful iron rollers whic
| crush it into atoms, extracting every particl
OF the juice, leaving the cane as dry as
chip.
This juice is similar to the sap which flows
from the maple trees, but tar less delicate II
flavor. From the rollers the juice of the can,
is carried through pipes to what might b,
called receiving cisterns, passing on its way
there through the smoke of burning sulphur
which beaches it. From these watts, or els
terms, other pipes convey it to the first boiler
which will hold about $50 gallons of the liquid
Then Stacked lime is added, which precipi.
tates all foreign substances, enabling the SUI
gar maker to remove them.
There are six of the boilers placed side by
side over one arch and as the boiling pro-
crosses the liquid is dipped from one to an
other until it reaches the last
The dipper used is bucket fastened to a
pole the pole attached to the side of the arch
in the same manner that oars are fastened to
row boat. Two men manipulate it and they
will change the contents from one boiler to an
other in less time than it takes me to tell you
about it.
In the same manner a long, wooden paddle
is used to brush back from the boiling syrup
all impurities which rise to the top, those in
the last boiler being brushed into the one Just
before it and so on until the first boiler is
reached, when the liquid is again clarified.
from the cane, but both are the same as far
as we have gone, and, too, except that sap
drips from the trees, the process is the same in
making maple sugar. By the "open kettle''
process the syrup is boiled until it will grain,
then drawn off into low, wooden receivers,
called "perjurers,' where it coos and grains
into sugar when it is placed in hogsheads, and
for twelve days left open for the molasses to
drip out oft. Then it is ready either tor the
market, or the refner. As said before, only
the yellow Tor brown, as some call them)
grades of sugar are made by this process. In
fact it does not turn out as fine sugar, in ap-
pearance, as many of the maple sugar makers
do as they have a method of stirring the SUI
gar as it cools and grains which increases the
rapidity of evaporation, bearing very little
molasses, and producing sugar very nearly
white.
By the other method cons iderable machin-
cry is used. The syrup is conveyed from the |
last of the six boilers through closed pipes to |
a reservoir known as a vacuum" in which are |
coils of pipe heated by steam A powerful
pump exhausts the air, then the syrup is !
heated to a very high degree, when the water it !
contains is rapidly evaporated and escapes |
through pipe provided for it. By placing |
lamp at little window at one end The sugar |
maker can stand at the opposite end and |
watch the process OF the work going on with |
in. When the syrup reaches certain stage |
very easy recognized by the experienced |
workmen, but all Greek to met is drawn
Oft into watts to cool. From there it is let |
down into the 'centrifugals" of which there
are two in Mr.. Kelby's sugar house. These
remind me- as much as anything, of iron wash
tubs attached to an axle. Inside the tub is a
smaller one ofcopper netting In this the sugar
is placed. When it goes in it is yellow in color
and wet and heavy with molasses. When it is Ia
ken from the tub, a few minutes later, it is as
white as the best coffee A sugar the molasses
is all extracted, and the strong taste is replaced
by the delicious flavor we all like so well.
The tub is set in motion, and around it
carries the sugar at the rate of twelve hundred
revolutions in minute; the molasses is forced
'ut through the copper netting; the sugar
With each turn grows dryer and whittier, until
t reaches the desired shade when it is remov-
do not pretend to understand the principle
If it. They say velocity does the work, but
t looks very much to me as if it just naturally
,ets scared white.
The working of one plantation differs very
title from all others. Some are larger, many
smaller than the Kelby plantation, which has
500 acres, about 600 of them IN cane. They
work so mules, and, during the grinding sea-
son, which lasts from the first of November
until the cane is used up-whlch is usually
he last OF January-one hundred and fifty
hands. The mill runs day and night, and
urns out two hogsheads of sugar aggregating
5000 pounds, each twenty-rour hours The
wages paid are about the same in all
places-one dollar day and house-rent free;
out the days are long, and it is work, not play
wages as the men; the women who feed the
carrier work under roof and receive seventy
five cents per day. The men who feed the
fremen"-earn from $50 to
800 per month, each, as it requires an ex-
perienced and skilltul hand to keep the heat
even. The long sticks of pine wood are ap-
parently pitched in very unfortunately, but
a little observation demonstrates that each one
starts for a particular spot, and always reaches
The place it started for.
In good years an acre of ground, properly i
cared for, is expected to yield net profit OF
800. Sometimes it will go beyond that, but
far oftener it falls below. No crop is more
easily damaged by frost, especially if warm,
wet weather follows, as the saccharine matter
in the cane turns acid, and will then produce
only poor New Orleans molasses"
The cost of machinery runs from $40 900 to
s25, 900; the buildings can be either cheap af-
fairs or furnished with plate glass mirrors,
velvet carpets and marble staircases, as am
told one place was before the war.
We visited the plantation of Mr.. La Fitte
and Of Mr. Charles Howard but learned moth
ing further about sugar making. Whether or
not have succeeded in convincing the readers
of the VIReINIAN of the pleasures of trip to
q sugar plantation, can assure them I found
It to be both interesting and delightful
Montgomery. Ala. Feb. 6, 1882.
Where it Originated