SUGARS AND OTHER CROPS 155 



roots, or it may be planted again. A good crop 

 will come from the stubble even the third year. The 

 land is then plowed and sowed to cowpeas. The 

 fourth year a new crop of cane may be raised on 

 the land where the cowpeas have been plowed under. 

 Cane sometimes grows fifteen feet high. 



Harvesting. Harvesting begins in October. The 

 sugar forms most rapidly then, but the crop must 

 be cut before the frosts injure it. Colored workmen 

 using a long knife go through the fields cutting the 

 stalks very close to the ground, for the lower ends 

 yield the most sugar. The leaves and tops are 

 trimmed off, and the stalks are laid in piles. At 

 the factory the stalks are cut and shredded into 

 small pieces, and the juice is crushed out between 

 heavy rollers. This juice is put into large tanks 

 with milk of lime to be made clear. Then it is made 

 into syrup, and the molasses is separated from the 

 sugar, which is then dried into large crystals and 

 refined into our white sugar. 



Sugar Beet. It is impossible to tell by taste 

 whether the refined sugar is made from cane or 

 from sugar beets, but the raw beet sugar has a dis- 

 agreeable odor and taste. Beet sugar was not dis- 

 covered by accident. It was made after years of 

 experimenting. More than two hundred years ago 

 a German druggist first found sugar in beets, and 

 sugar being at that time a dollar a pound. Napoleon 

 offered a prize to any one who could make sugar 

 from beets. The art was soon discovered, but it is 



