The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-06-23
Raising Sugar Cane Is Profitable.
From Washington ID. CO Past.

There is in the farthest South an agri-
cultural pursuit that is far and away the
most profitable known in the United States.
1t is the very romance of tilling the soil.
1t is called sugar-planting, and exists chiefly
in Louisiana. The profit in sugar raising
in this State in the past few years has
caused wonderful increase in the area
devoted to sugar. In 1886 the crop was
l45.96S hogsheads of about 200 pounds
each. In 1887 it was 285, 158 hogsheads,
and in 1890 420,426 hogsheads were
made, while last year the State of Louis
lana made 430,622 hogsheads of sugar.
The largest crop ever made in the State
was in the year the war began (1S60-'61,)
459,419 hogsheads, so it will be seen that
Louisiana has attained the largest yield of
sugar under the best conditions OF slavery.
Besides the great crop of sugar Of last year,
there were made II ,430 $50 gallons OF
molasses.
The Louisiana planter on big estate,
one, say, like the Belle Alliance, Is a great
baron. He owns the store (Which some
times does business of $50, 600 per year, J
the post-ofice, the schoolhouse, and the
church. He has a good physician hard
by, frequently on yearly salary. He has
a Justice of the peace on the place, and all
offenders of minor sort are dealt with
then and there, which means where the
offence was committed The church is for
all the hands on the place. The Metho-
dists may have it one Sunday and the
Baptists the next, only the service must
be conducted in an orderly way and adj
journ at proper hour at night. The aver
age negro on the plantation is prone to
what he calls ''gittin' 'ligion. The pro-
cess usually begins ABBOTT the time of the
Christmas holidays. He would shout and
sing until morning if there was no check
put upon him. But the planter who owns
the church and fitted it up decently regu-
lates these matters. At 10 o'clock the
lights must go out in the church, and out
they go, no matter how fervid the services
may be. The great sugar estates are too
large to permit the small children to go far
to school, so the planter builds school
house near to the ''quarters" for the child
rem or his hands, and pays in many cases
the teachers.
His own children have governess until
they are big enough to 60 away.
So much for the menage of sugar es-
tate. 1t would be difficult to find anything
in America of such picturesque beauty as
the house and grounds of fine sugar
plantation, such place as you will see
along the Mississippi river from Baton
Rouge down, or on La Fourche on the
Teche. If the residence is back from the
river-for our sugar plantations are on a
stream of some sort-there will be a fine
drive quarter or half mile long from
the public highway to the "big house,
shaded on each side with splendid live
oaks. The residence will be surrounded
with orange, lemon, lime, shaddock, clean
der, and magnolia trees, and roses OF every
kind run riot, blooming each month of the
year in the open air.
Sugar-cane is planted either in the au-
tumn or in the spring. If the planter has
F.. the time, he prefers to plant in the autumn.
If the cane is not planted until spring 1t Is
either piled in great mats, and is covered
over lightly, or three or four rows are laid
together and covered up with cane-bladders
and light layer of earth on top until time
to plant it in the spring. There is no seed
on sugar-cane, such as sorghum has. The
stalk itself is laid down in the furrow and
covered up. From each joint there will
come up single slender shoot, and around
this shoot after awhile will appear thirty
or forty stalks of cane. Sugar-cane In
Louisiana lasts three years for one plant
ing. The first year it is called the plant
cane, then it comes up from the old roots
two more years, and is called first and sec
ond years stubble, or rations. In Cuba 1t
lasts ten years after it is planted.
One cause for the great increase in the
area of sugar culture is the growth of cane
by small planters. Before the war this
was not common. But all this has been
changed Now negro may rent thirty
or forty acres of land and will put ten of
il in sugar cane. This cane he sells in the
fall to the nearest planter Last year 1T
. brought S4.25 per ton. An acre will yield
from twenty to twenty-eight tons OF cane,
and A ton will make from 80 to $50 pounds
of sugar in ordinary times. Last year the
crop was wondrously large, in some in
stances as much as 1000 pounds to the
acre in favored localities.
The culture of sugar cane by the negro
or white small farmer is a great thing Tor
him and for the State. 1t gives him from
1000 to $4,000 in cash at the end of the
year. He has grown already his corn and
potatoes and has two or three fat hogs
ready to be made up into pork and bacon
at Christmas Every month some vegeta-
BILE in his garden ripens. The climate is
very mild and the firewood is in the forest
for the getting.
Each negro hand on plantation has not
only house furnished him free, but an
acre and half of ground besides for his
garden. In soil that will grow 25O to
300 bushels of Irish potatoes to the acre,
and almost as many sweet potatoes, there
is no trouble in getting an ample supply OF
these vegetables. The negro likes best
potatoes, sweet and Irish, cabbage, turnips,
and. of course, some watermelons and
pumpkins. He is allowed Saturday after
moons to cultivate his own little patch, and
a mule will be loaned him to do such
ploughing as may be needful,
There are in Louisiana twenty sugar
producing parishes proper, although nearly
all the country south of Red river Will
grow fairly good cane. The parish OF
RAPIDS marks the farthest distance north
in the State in which sugar is the stand
ard crop 1t is equally good for cotton IN
that parish, too, and one place up there
last year made 1000 hogsheads of sugar
of ,26O pounds each, 1,20O bales of cot
ton, and $4,000 barrels of corn.
M. I..ast s,,cro, oron made on Red