

THE FARMER vT HOM^. 



statistics of those slaughtered are not numerous. A few of them will 

 satisfy any reasonable person of their excellence. A Mr McCorrrrick, 

 of New Hampshire, slaughtered one, seven months and ten days old, 

 that weighed three hundred and twenty-five pounds ; a Mr. Stearns 

 one, six months and ten days old, that weighed three hundred and 

 ninety-four pounds ; and Mr. Knapp, of Northampton, Massachusetts, 

 one, at fifteen months, that weighed five hundred and fifteen pounds ; 

 and a Mr. Titcomb one, at nine months, that weighed three hundred 

 and twenty-five pounds also two at seven months and thirteen days, 

 which weighed two hundred and sixty- two, and two hundred and 

 ninety-six pounds. 



SUGAR. A substance of a sweet and very agreeable nature, 

 made of the juice of the sugar cane. Sugar was first brought from 

 Arabia into Europe ; and for many centuries was used not for food, 

 but for medicine only. Among the Romans it was unknown before 

 the reign of Nero. According to Ramsay's Review, the quantity of 

 this article used in England, more than three- doubled from the year 

 1700 to 1790. A century ago, even the rich considered it as a lux- 

 ury, and used it sparingly at their tables ; now the poorest people 

 think it a necessary of life. 



SUGAR CANE. A pointed reed terminating in leaves or blades, 

 whose edges are finely and sharply serrated. The body of the cane 

 is strong, but brittle, and when ripe, of a fine straw color, inclinable 

 to yellow ; and it contains a soft pithy substance, which affords a 

 copious supply of juice, of a sweetness the least cloying and most 

 agreeable in nature. The length of the cane in very strong lands, is 

 sometimes twelve feet ; its general length, however, is from three and 

 a half to seven feet ; and in very rich lands the root has been 

 known to put forth upwards of an hundred suckers or shoots. A 

 pound of sugir from a gallon of the raw liquor of the cane, is reckoned 

 in Jamaica very good yielding. A sugar plantation well conducted, 

 and in a favorable soil, is computed to yield as many hogsheads of 

 sugar annually, of sixteen hundred pounds weight, as there are negroes 

 belonging to it. The average annual profits of sugar plantations in 

 the West Indies, is not more than three or four per cent, on the cap- 

 ital. A portion of our own country is admirably adapted to the 

 growth of the sugar cane, as already tested, particularly of Louisiana 

 and other States of corresponding soil and metereological influences. 

 L. R. Allen, Esq., in his capital work, called the Book of the Farm, 

 says in 1845 the product of sugar in the State named, reached the 

 enormous quantity of 207,337,000 pounds, and about 9,000,000 gal- 

 lons of molasses, worth nearly 15,000,000 dollars ; being an increase 

 of over ten times the quantity yielded thirty years before. Here 

 the sugar crop is a profitable one. 



SUGAR MAPLE. A handsome, clean tree, which gives a deep 

 shade, and is excellent for fuel. The largest of these trees are five 



