SUGAR 



937 



the year, whereby his whole system of operations becomes disturbed, and, in a certain 

 degree, abortive. 



The -withering and fall of a leaf afford a good criterion of _tho maturity of the cane- 

 joint to which it belonged ; so that the last eight leafless joints of two canes, which 

 are cut the same day, have exactly the same ripeness, though one of the canes be 15 

 and the other only 10 months old. Those, however, cut towards the end of the dry 

 season, before the rain begins to fall, produce better sugar than those cut in the rainy 

 season, as they are then somewhat diluted with watery juice, and require more 

 evaporation to form sugar. It may be reckoned a fair average product, when one 

 pound of sugar is obtained from one gallon (English) of juice. 



Battoons (a word corrupted from rcjettons] are the sprouts or suckers that spring 

 from the roots or stoles of the canes that have been previously cut for sugar. They 

 are commonly ripe in 12 months ; but canes of the first growth are called plant-canes, 

 being the direct produce of the original cuttings or germs placed in the ground, 

 and require a longer period to bring them to maturity. The first yearly return 

 from the roots that are cut over, are called first rattoons ; the second year's growth, 

 second rattoons ; and so on, according to their age. Instead of stocking up his 

 rattoons, holing, and planting the laud anew, the planter suffers the stoles to con- 

 tinue in the ground, and contents himself, as the cane-fields become thin and im- 

 poverished, with supplying the vacant places with fresh plants. By these means, 

 and with the aid of manure, the produce of sugar per acre, if not apparently equal to 

 that from plant-canes, gives perhaps in the long run as great returns to the owner, 

 considering the relative proportion of the labour and expense attending the different 

 systems. 



When the planted canes ai-e ripe, they are cut close above the ground by an oblique 

 section, and the leaves and shoots being stripped off, they are transported in bundles, 

 in the mill-house. If the roots be then cut off a few inches below the surface of the 

 soil, and covered up with fine mould, they will push forth more prolific offsets or 

 rattoons than when left projecting in the common way. 



The amount of sugar yielded per acre is very variously stated. In fact, the yield 

 must vary with the different variety of canes cultivated, with the nature of the soil, 

 the character of the season, and more than all with the more or less perfect apparatus 

 used in manufacturing the sugar. Theyield, from these causes, will vary from \ a ton 

 to 2J tons of solid sugar per acre. 



For the chemical examination of sugar, see Watts's ' Dictionary of Chemistry.' 



Sugar Mills. The first machines employed to squeeze the canes were mills similar 

 to those which serve to crush apples in some cider districts, or somewhat like tan-mills. 

 In the centre of a circular area, of about 7 or 8 feet in diameter, a vertical heavy 

 wheel was made to revolve on its edge, by attaching a horse to a cross beam projecting 

 horizontally from it and making it move in a circular path. The cane-pieces were 

 strewed on the somewhat concave bed in the path of the wheel, and the juice 

 expressed flowed away through a channel or gutter in the lowest part. This machine 



1922 



was tedious and unproductive. It was replaced by the vertical cylinder mill of Gon- 

 zales de Velosa ; which has continued till modern times, with little variation of external 

 form, but is now generally superseded by the sugar-mill, \vith horizontal cylinders. 



