The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-01-15
SUGAR AND SPICES.

There Is an old question aud answer
which many of the young readers of the
Observer have heard. The question is,
"What are little girls made of p" and
the answer is: Sugar and spice and
everything nice" shall not repeat the
couplet relating to boys. make the
quotation only as an introduction to q
little talk about some of tie common
articles which are always on the break
fast or dinner-table. If / were TO ask
where they all came from you might at
first think it q very easy question to an
swer. You would say that part of them
came from the field and part from the
garden and some from the grocery.
This answer would be correct as far as
it goes; but it would not go far toward
explaining the matter. Indeed, the
wisest man could hardly give COM
plete answer to the question, for to do
so he would have to tell how a seed
which has been cast into the ground
and covered deeply under the heavy
soil bursts its covering and sends up
tender little shoot into the air, there to
grow and spread and blossom and bear
the frlit which came to the table TODAY.
Men have found out many curious aud
wonderful things in the life history of
plants, but what that life is and how
things grow and blossom none have
ever been able to explain.
So We will not trouble ourselves with
those questions. but will try and answer
some plain ones. Among other things
that you had to-day was sugar. That
came from the store, to be sure, direct
to your home, but if You should ask the
merchant where he obtained it he would
probably answer, at some large ware
house in the great city. And if you
should 60 there and ask the man of
whom be bought it where he found the
sugar he would probably tell you that
it came to him from the refinery. i
have not space to DIES sribe to you the
whole process by which the dark stuff
that comes to the refinery is changed
into fine white or crushed sugar. How
1t is at first dissolved in tanks of hot
water and then filtered into iron vats
filed with charcoal, which frees it from
impurities, after which it is made ready
for market. But il YOU should still be
inquisitive about the sugar and should
ask the refner where nc obtained the
raw material he would he likely to tell
you that it came to him in q ship from
some far-away place, from Louisiana or
the West Indies. In those parts, where
no frosts ever come and no cold winter
winds ever blow, are great plantations
OF sugar-cane, . plant which, while
growing, looks something like our In
dian corn, and from which most of our
sugar is inside. The sugar-cane may
also be found in other Southern States
and in various parts of the world where
the climate is hot. The stems of the
cane are long. sometimes ten or twelve
feet high. and nearly filled with :
sweet. juicy pith. At certain seasons
these canes are cut and bound together
IN bundles and taken to the mill, where
the canes ara passed through heavy iron
rollers that squeeze nearly all the Juice
out OF them. The juice then passes into
. reservoir, from which it is drawn into
large vessels and boiled until it becomes
thick By being crystallized. It is then
allowed to cool and is put into casks for
shipment to the refiner.es, of which /
have already spoken.
There are other kinds of sugar besides
that which comes from the sugar-cane.
Some of it is made from the Juice Of
beets, somc from grapes and some from
the sap OF the maple tree. All kinds Of
fruit and many other substances have IN
them : sweet juice which If pressed out
and reduced to solid form would be
sugar. The sap of the sugar-maple.
as any child knows, yields delicious
sugar.