The Savannah morning news., 1903-03-26
800 ACRES OF CANE
BEING PLANTED IN SOUTHWEST
GEORGIA BY COHN & co.
WILL BE MADE INTO SUGAR.
INDUSTRY TO FURNISH STEADY
WORK FOR TOBACCO HANDS.

Is Largest Lot of Cane Ever Planted
in Georgia by Individual or Firm.
More Than rs Acres Planted Last
Season to Furnish This Years
Seed-Big Mill to Pc Erected With
Capacity of 200 Tons of Cane a
Day-Same Firm Grows 500 to 600
Acres of Cuban and Sumatra To-
baccO-Must be Grown in Shade
and to Furnish This Costs $3.50 an
Acre.
Five hundred acres of sugar cane
the greatest quantity ever planted by
any one person or firm is now being
planted near Attapulgus, Decatur
county, by Cohn & Co. of New York,
who intend to convert the matured
product into sugar.
The cane is of the ribbon variety Be
tween seventy-five and eighty acres of
it were grown last season to furnish
seed for this years crop. The intention
of the growers is to manufacture some
six grades of raw sugar and dispose of
it to the refineries. The sugar making
is to be run as a sort of side issue to
the tobacco farm-located ip the same
courtyard is for the purpose of CIV
ing the tobacco hands employment the
whole year round.
Despite the fact that sugar making
is the lesser of two projects it will be
done in the most approved and mod
ern way. The growing of cane, of
course, is comparatively easy, but con-
verting it into sugar is another branch
of the work, and one that the major
ity of Georgia cane growers know lit
tie about.
To Grind 200 Tons "A Day.
Messrs. Cohn &. Co. have already
bought a large sugar making plant at
cost of many thousands OF
dollars and will have it erect
ed in ample time to take
care of this years crop. Some idea of
the size of this plant may be gather
ed from the fact that the cane mill
will have a capacity of 200 tons a day.
This means a day of twenty-four hours
for when the cane is ready for grand
ing no time can be lost and the mill
will be run night as well as day until
the entire crop has been taken care
of
The sugar will be made in some six
grades. Nothing will be wasted IN
this plant for the bergasse can and
probably will be, burnt, and even the
residue from the sugar, which former
ly was thought so nearly worthless that
it sold in Louisiana for two cents a
gallon, will be utilized. 1t will be mixed
with grain, chiefly oats, and fed to the
stock For this purpose it is said TO
be both strengthening and fattening.
The entire work will be under the
direction of Mr.. r. Getzlaff, VINO is
the manager of the tobacco plantation
800 Acres of Tobacco.
Mr.. S. A. Einstein of this city. who
is connected with the management of
the plantations, and who gave the in
formation relative to the cane grow
ing also gave some interesting facts in
regard to the tobacco plantation.
This consists, he said, of some 500
acres planted in tobacco of two kinds,
Sumatra and Cuban. 1t is grown chief
ly to make cigar wrappers, though
part of it is used for filler, and makes
cigar of excellent quality. These two
kinds of tobacco were chosen as giving
the best results in this country after
experiments had been conducted with
some seventy different kinds of seed
About 800 to 1000 pounds of cured to-
bacco is secured to the acre. This
brings a good price, of course, and so
makes the growing of it profitable, but
it is a pretty expensive crop to grow
according to the methods in use on
this plantation, for it has to be grown
in the shade, which necessitates COW
ering it over with lattice work and
cheese cloth. and this expense alone
amounts to $3.50 an acre
The plantation has been in existence
some twelve or thirteen years, of
which the first three or four were de-
voted chiefly to experiments. For the
last nine years, however, it has been
conducted on its present lines. AS this
crop requires an immense number of
hands at certain seasons of the year,
and as labor is hard to keep unless
work be more or less steady all the
year round, the cane growing and SUI
gar-making business was decided on.
1t will not conflict with the tobacco
growing, will give the hands work at
all seasons and can be conducted at a
profit.