The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-01-23

audacious scientist declares that he
can make granulated sugar out Of saw.
! dust, and in support of the claim he
exhibits q substance which looks,
smells and tastes like glucose. He says
that he first converts the sawdust into
starch and then turns the starch into
sugar, which, he declares, crystallizes
into as pretty granulated sugar as was
ever turned out of sugar trust re-
fnery. But his most astonishing claim
is that when he has perfected his pro-
cess he. will have no use for tariff or
bounty, for he will make sugar cheaper
than Cuba, China, Germany Tor any
other country can possibly produce it.
While he has been working on his
sawmill sugar the beet.sugar makers
of Nebraska and California have been
endeavoring to cheaper their processes,
and the farmers have been learning
how to develop and improve the sugar
beet so as to secure not only larger
beets and more to the acre, but a
greater per cent. of sugar in the beets.
The reason for oil this activity and
enterprise is found in the fact that
Louisiana sugar planters produce only
about one.sixth of all the sugar that
is consumed in the United States, and
as the area of the sugarcane-growing
section is limited the sugar producer
must look to sugar beets and s'early
amber" corn to make up the other
fve-sixths of the sugar. As it is, the
beets of Nebraska and California only
produced one twenty-fifth as much
sugar as was raised in Louisiana last
year, or only 1-150th of the total
amount consumed in this country in
1893. ....,
In the sugar mills of Louisiana ma
chinery has taken the place of the
hands who used to grow sleek and fat
during the sugar season, for the old
fashioned open-pan batteries with the
fires under the kettles have given way
to steam pipes and vacuum pans and
pumps, and steam siphons have re-
placed the hand buckets and dippers
which used to transfer the juice and
syrup from one kettle to another. On
some of the smaller plantations, how
ever, the old order Of things prevails,
and the sugar house is as picturesque
and interesting as it was when slaves
whisSled and sung at their work, for
the sugar-making season then was q
feast of sweets and succession of jol-
lities.
The sugarcane is ready for the har-
vest in the first days of October. The
tall cane, with its "srrow" shooting
up to the plume, has been growing
and secreting its sweet Juice all sum-
mer, and when some of it has been
run through little handmill and the
juice shows about fifteen per cent. of
sugar the planter gives the word and
the hands sharpen their broad cane
knives.
They first strip the cane of its
leaves with the dull side of the knife
and then the tops are cut off as far
down as the experienced cane cutter
believes the maturity of the cane will
permit, for, while the sugar planter
wants every inch of cane which will
yield up sugar, he does not want to
grind and handle an inch more than
is necessary. As soon as the first
cane knife slashes the field his mill
runs day and night and everything
counts. When the top has been cut
off the knife is buried in the stalk as
near the ground as possible, and the
cane is tossed to one side, where it