Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-02-10
SUGAR CANE IN HAWAII.
Lively Scene at the Mill-Modes of Trans
portion-Laborers' Houses.

Lively Scene at the Mtll-Modes of Trans
portion--Laborers' Houses.
The sugar cane is grown mostly upon
the plateaus or level stretches of land, for
the sake of irrigation, and covers acre
upon acre of open country, down to the
ocean shore itself. The feds are defined
by solid fences of rough sIones, at once
economical, durable, and picturesque.
After the first crop of cane is gathered
in, there are two or even three volunteer
crops, known as ''rattoons"; and after
the last crop the stubble B burned and
the land allowed to rest, when it is
plowed and planted again with cuttings
from previous harvest, so Ill the various
processes are going on at the selfsame
time. When the cane is riIe, it is cut off
with sharp knife about foot from the
ground, by native, Portuguese, or Chi
nese laborers. The tops and leaves are
trimmed to be used as fodder for the
cattle, and it is then ready for the meta
morphosis into sparkling sugar.
At the mill itself all is animation.
Down the winding hillside come team
after team of OK carts, laden to over
flowing with the succulent cane stalk,
each team drawn by six sturdy oxen, the
dusky drivers running excitedly before
them and using, to an accompaniment of
violent language, the formidable "black-
SNAKE" or cowhide; whose strokes, how
ever, seem to have but small effect upon
the speed of the patient and bewildered
burden bearers. Each load is deposited
in front of the mill and the teams return
the same way they came, SO there is con-
tinual stream both going and coming. On
some plantations the cane is transported
by means of fumes extending from the mill
to the various parts of the field The cut
tiers throw the stalks into the fume by
the armful, and the current carries them
to the mill, where they are strained out
by rough set of wooden crossbars and
on these carried on to the crusher. The
fact that the cane fields are, as before
mentioned, on the levels and irrigated
makes it possible on very many planta-
tions to use this cheap and effective
method. 1t is certainly the most char
acteristic of them all and is possible only
in an abundantly watered land. Other
modes of transportation are employed, as
seen in the elevated railway in the fields
of Kealia, and the fat boats from the
bottom lands in the district of Hanalei.
Sugar making does not differ mate
rally from the methods employed in
other countries. There are the various
processes of crushing and maceration, Of
filtering and purifying, of Loiling in the
vat and the vacuum pan, of passing
through the ''double effect into the
coolers, and thence to the centrifugal
machine, from which it issues the first
quality of brown sugar, ready to be
shipped to the distant refineries in San
Francisco.
Each mill has its individual village of
laborers houses, which are either thrown
picturesquely down upon the hillside
like cast off pasteboard boxes, or stand
ing in neat and regular rows. There are
also the comfortable homes of the over
seer and sugar boiler, store and post
Office, and perhaps church or school,
Bertha F. Herrick in Overland Monthly.