216 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



any description of it. Much attention has been devoted to 

 the subject within the last few j-ears, and great improve- 

 ments have been the result. But when fully carried out in 

 detail, so large an expenditure is required, as to preclude 

 their adoption by the mass of moderate planters. The ap- 

 paratus of Messrs. Degrand, Derosne, Gail, Rillieux, and 

 others, including defecators, steam-jackets, Dumont filters, 

 vacuum pans, steam-pipes, and other improvements, may in 

 whole or in part be advantageous to the large planters, and 

 by many of these they have been adopted. 



It is much to be desired, that the two .objects of raising 

 the cane and converting it into sugar, could be separated, 

 like most other purely agricultural and mechanical opera- 

 tions./ This change in the arrangement of sugar produc- 

 tion, would effectually break up the aristocratic feature 

 which characterizes our present sugar estates, and which is 

 at such utter variance with nearly all the other branches of 

 our agricultural pursuits. Sugar estates might then be 

 divided among smaller proprietors, each of whom, by hav- 

 ing a common market for his cane, would receive its full 

 value, whether it were one or one thousand acres. We 

 should thus witness an improvement in both the rearing of 

 the cane and its manufacture, which is not likely to be so 

 fully or speedily attained in any other way. 



Manures for the cane. If the alluvial bottomst>f Louis- 

 iana and other fertile lands are properly managed, they will 

 never become exhausted by the cultivation of cane. Tired 

 of it they may be, as land is of any one constantly-recurring 

 crop ; but exhaustion, will never be realized, if the elements 

 constituting the stalk, and not converted into sugar, be re- 

 turned to the soil. This is done, simply by burying the ba- 

 gasse and trash. If the former is burned, as is sometimes 

 the case where there is deficiency of fuel, the ashes should 

 be carried to the field. The elements of the sugar, which 

 is the only portion necessarily or permanently withdrawn 

 from the field, are such as abound in the atmosphere, rains 

 and dews, and are profusely brought to it, by every passing 

 breeze and every falling shower. The inorganic or earthy 

 portions are, therefore, the essential constituents to be return- 

 ed to it. To show the proportions of these, the analysis of 

 the ash of the cane is subjoined, as given by Mr. Stenhouse. 



