The Meridional. (Abbeville, La.) 1856-1906, 1891-01-31

men are in sugar house; twelve in
field, cutting and stripping; four
leaders and four drivers. The mills
cannot run full time owing to search.
ty of labor.
In cutting they use a knife some,
what like an English bill hook, but
wider in the blade; cut close to the
ground, topping where green. as
this contains no sugar, taking all
leaves off as clean as a walking cane.
After being carted to engine house
two men puts the canes on an endless
chain, ends first to roller; two men
take the crushed cane, juice falls
falls into a trough, which conveys it
to boiling watts, where it is skinned
clean, then run into another. When
thick enough it is run into q barrel
on wheels, then put into troughs like
our water troughs, of 2,inch planks,
ends tongued and grooved and iron
rod passed through them. Under
these troughs is a vat to receive the
droppiRgs. which are the molasses.
When the sugar is4frm is shoveled
into hogsheads, which have in the
bottom holes of an inch 10 diameter;
into them are placed pieces Of sugar
cane pointed to ft the holes, and
reaching up to where lid will fit
on in heading. The top ends Of
canes are nailed against side of
h~ogshead, and this forms as it decays
a drain for the remaining molasses
in the sugar to be conveyed to the
vats. When the seepage stops it is
considered dry enough for market.
Average price of this sugar is four
cents per pound. The molasses is a
beautiful clear amber ia color, with
oh, such o difference in taste from
the molasses of commerce. In the
sugar house it is pure and perfectly
delicious. When it is sold, each
barrel, Mr.. Cayard informs me, is
mixed with a barrel Of glucose. No
wonder we poo- mortals suffer.
The cane probably lasts two
years; it will three, but not pay so
well. In planting, the usual width
is six feet: this Mr.. Cayard says is
too wide, as it allows the storms and
winds TO bend it Qike q bow; this
makes it more expensive in the haul.
ing to the rollers, requiring two men
instead of one to attend it on the
carrier to rollers: they r now
adopting fve.foot rows. In select.
ing eyes they do so from the green
cane, that is, the part above the
ripened wood; at the base Of each
leaf is the eye. A furrow is made
and the pieces are strewn or laid
along. Each eye will throw six to
eight stems, which are allowed to
grow and rlpen. Should there be
any misses, they SOW corn or cotton.
To the arpent Of land they use 800
pounds o fcotton seed meal; this is
drilled in about six inches from the
young growth. This at $2l per ton,
they find the cheapest manure. The
growth of cane will be ten to twelve
feet, and six feet Of this will general
ly be sugar-producing; nothing else
is taken to mill. This is an excep-
tional year, and eightto ten feet are
sugar producing.
OF. course. ~labor.saving machinery
is their great want. In speaking OF
a cotton picker Mr.. Cayard says it
is impossible to use one, except on
poor land, where the cotton Will
grow only three and four feet high.
When it comes to new land, such
as | went through with him, where
it is ten and twelve feet high, one
growth interlaced with another, no
mule a pass through it. He raises
cotton delivered at market for five
cents a pound. This, I assure you,
is nc guesswork. Mr.. Cayard says
our Eastern papers harp ON "Why
don't the Southern planters SOW and
raise their own corn crop?" He has
tried it, and finds that he can raise
more in money from y arpent
Of cotton OF sugar cane, all expenses
considered, than from nine arpents
of corn. He doesn't grope in the
dark, but working on a cash basis
from beginning to end, when a crop
does not pay be drops it.--Gerald