The Republican., 1891-11-27
FOR THE CHILDREN.
One OF our Interesting Writer'S in
Florida Discusses Sugar and
Sugar Making.


Special Correspondence of The Republican.
Coop Mr.. EDITOR: / want to
have you print this little letter es-
pecially for the children who read
yourepaper; and, if they will allow
me, l will call them my Young
friends. and write ltijust like l
used, long ago. to ''tell them a
story
Well, young friends, this is the
time of year when we "Florida
Crackers" are all busy boiling su-
gar. Certainly you all know what
that means, and will not be sur
prised when ! tell you we call it
the zssssswaet seaseH A,ad yit iSea
sslcsyssy sess6il, no WI sgifsS Szeaiiss 80
boil up sweet things, but because
we have such delightful weather.
Our sugar-making season is not at
all like yours in Maryland. Our
weather is just like delightful In,
dian summer. Many of the chill
dren are trotting about pare foot,
and hardly any men have coats on.
The ladies go to church in white
dresses, and with sun shades. You
see this is no wlntry, snowy, blust-
ry climate like yours. We are
planting gardens now, and eating
fresh vegetables. Pretty soon we
shall see bloom on our strawberry
vines, and when You begin to get
weary of sleigh-riding. we will be
eating Strawberries and cream.
GLOW funny some of you will
say; but | say, chow nicen' But
now | am forgetting my story,
We get our "sap"-not out of
trees, from the woods, as YOU do
up there in your snowy Maryland,
but out of cane--vou would call
them stalks, if nobody told
you no better-and We bring them
out of the field, or "patch." 1t
would seem very odd to you to see
it all. A ''cane patch is just like
corn field, only good deal more
so. | mean there Is more of it,
than of corn-mOre stalks, more
and longer blades, and more value.
One acre Of cane, at its best, will
produce from two to three hundred
dollars worth of "sweets,'' accord
ing to market prices. The canes
are just packed full of sweetness.
If you remember having handled
one of your papa's corn stalks,
just when the roasting ears were
ripe, you may get an idea of how
much sweetness is in these canes,
when | tell you that they are about
three times us heavy. Indeed,
when stripped of their leaves. they
are like the heaviest kinds of wood
in weight. SO you will think it
must be hard work to handle su-
gar cane, and indeed that IS quite
true. l was helping my neighbor
last week, and know something
about it. l went into the patch to
cut the tops off the cane and /
found it quite wonderful. In the
midst of the place, one can see
nothing but walls of green and
blue sky over head. The stalks
grow often ten feet high, and as
thick as the row can hold. When
you see a cornfeld with four large
stalks in chill" 1t looks very
thick. Well. you might see ten,
twenty or even thirty canes on the
same space. And it is all stalks
and leaves-no tassles, no "silks,"
no ears. The leaves stripped off,
cover the ground six inches to
foot deep, and | cannot even tell
you how many wagon loads of cane
are often hauled in from one acre.
! once heard the story of a man
whose field had SO much wheat,
that he was compelled to commence
shocking out in the road. Well,
that man had never been in a
Florida cane patch, or he would
have been ashamed of his little
story about the wheat.
But now l begin to see how this
letter about our sugar boiling sea-
son is going to work:-The story
is getting too Iong-Mr. Editor IS
getting ready to scoId, and | fear
we shall have to break it off in the
middle. The roosters are growing
for day light too, and the girls are
rattling things about in the kitch-
en-some Of you know what that
means. So now | make my bow
and promise the rest of the story
soon. SHOUP.
'Rathbun & Cartwright have just
received a car load of doors and
sash which they are selling at bot
tODn l,pinoC Qv1O ID I;rrb+o1 o,,I