, 1886-11-24
DURING WAR TIMES.
HOW THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE MAN
AGED VARIOUS DOMESTIC AFFAIRS.

Womrn'- way fTihiitlN' WIl@ Tor
Crushing sugar Consolidating Brown"
s~ngar-Iomc Made Head wcar-Tans.
An planters were required by the Con
feleratc government "A tax or 1.-THE Of
one.tenth Of all the grain or provisions
that was grown in the south, each town
or city having lis granary where wa. car
ricd the tenth Of grain, bacon, rice, syrup
and SO ON to he used for the support of
our army. In southern Alabama the
cultivating Of the cereals was "A rare
thing before the war. think the saine
will apply TO most Of the interior sonth-
crn states. But the planters began in
earnest To grow corn, wheat, oats. rye
and peas. All moist places that had
hitherto been Thought fit for nnught were
put into rice and sugar cane patches.
and were found to yield plentimIly.
Many farmers were surprised Mt the great
yield Of wheat. | remember hearing one
man who lived in Troy, Alabamn. tell Of
highly fertilizing one mere Of common
pine upland n a trial. The result was
seventy five bushels Of wheat. Another
planter near Glcnnyille, Alabama. cat
MY bushels of wheat from one acre lie
had enriched.
OF course there was some bother about
thrcshing the wheat. While some could
thrash md "fnn' at their gin houses.
there were those who would bilc the
time for the travelling thrc-her to come
around Others whose sowing and reap
ing was on n small scale would maui the
wheat ont with fails Of their " make.
One day We wen to see the thrcshing mr.
rangcment one woman, whose husband
and sons were in the army, had devised.
We found the room carpeted with sheets
and tnpestried with coverlcts, and the
woman seated in II chair, with "A common
sized barrel before her. \ shcaf of
wheat was in her hands and she was
pounding the grains Of wheat out over
the barrel. She would in this primitive
why fail ns much rs two or three bushels
and then spread the sheets ON the ground
IN the open air, the wheat being poured
on in "a coniir % stream. The wind
nctcd MS the goat fan and carried the
chHtf lightly AWAY. The wheat being
ground nj some flouring mill would last
her quite II while. When used up the
same rude Railing would be rcsorted to.
Hundreds during the war threshed in
the same primitive inner
NILS had also To be erected for crush
ing the juice from the sugar cane.
Wooden cylinders were almost uuiver-
sally used, as those Of iron were scarcely
phtainahlc during the war. While wooden
cylinders were net satisfactory. as all the
juice "l llr cane could not he thoroughly
pressed from the crushed cahr the
farmers chcercd themselves with the idea
that there was no gont loss. rs the swine
could draw from it the lcayings. The
furnaces for syrup and sugar boiling were
raised of rocks, If bricks were not con
vehient, though many small brickyards
were put IN operation during the four
years OF the war. Long wooden troughs.
followed from trees, were also indispen-
sable for pouring the syrup from the boil
ers 10 cool. The syrup was thick and
clear The sugar was unavoidnbIv
brown, ua there was no means in the
greni stress of the times Of clarifying it.
! have seen the planters work long
sn lo,h oak splits, cnt thin from the top
10 h. bottom Of the barrel filled with the
hone mndc sugar, to aid the dripping and
10 better free the sugar from moisture.
There was II pcasiug and fsrntiiicd delight
among the planters when they had been
successful in nhking their sugar very
lI-ht and dry, and IL not i~nfrcqucntly han
pcntd that IN a ncighhor calling the first
thing after The conventional greeting
would he to bring forth u small package II
his make of sugar wrapped in brown
paper Another industry Of the south
that the cNigency Of the times called up
WA that OF pottery, which if not food and
clolhiiA. was quite scrviccahlc- OF
c"nr-c the c~arthcnwaro then produced
VIZ coarse and brown, The enamel with
winch il was glazed lvoulI hayc caused a
Hlhle of dt-tihin, ncihai ituin the an
ci"ui tir1t~crii-, but uIri was "a time II
necessity ana there were events of more
iu"ncni to oconpy the thoughts than
WORN nYcrthe rough glazed cnrthcnwnrr.
There hcing 40 way Of getting hats or
hoiineis' and those We had at the he