FARMERS' REGISTER ON WIND-ROWING SUGAR CANE. 



547 



derangement I suffered from it, yet it Avas several 

 da\'s before I could g-ct over ihc loss. Let it, how- 

 ever, be remcnibered that the poor animal had 

 been my support and condi)rt — nay, I may say, 

 companion, through many a dreary day and night; 

 hat! endured both hunger and thirst in my service; 

 and wa.^ so docile, that he would stand still for 

 hoiu's in the desert while I slept between his legs, 

 his boJy ailbrding me the only shelter that could 

 be obtained fi-om the powerful influence of the 

 noon-day sun: he was yet the fleetest of the fleet, 

 and ever foremost in the chase." 



Our horses would ihve badly on the scanty nour- 

 ishment adbrded the Arabian. The mare usually 

 has but one or two meals in twenty-four hours. 

 During the day she is tied to the door of the tent, 

 ready for the Bedouin to spring, at a moment's 

 warning, into the saddle, or she is turned out be- 

 fore the tent ready saddled, the bridle merely taken 

 off, and so trained that she gallops up immediately 

 at her masters call. At night she receives a lit- 

 tle water; and with her scanty ])rovender of five or 

 six pounds of barley or beans, and sometimes a 

 little straw, she lies down content, in the midst of 

 her masters family. She can, however, endure 

 great fatigue; she will travel fifty miles without 

 stopping; she has been pushed, on emergency, one 

 hundred and twenty miles — and, occasionally, 

 neither she nor her rider has tasted food for three 

 whole days. 



To the Arabian, p#ncipally, England is indebt- 

 ed for her improved and now unrivalled breed of 

 horses for the turf, the field, and the road, as will 

 be shown when we presently treat of the Eng- 

 lish horse. 



[To be ooiitinued.] 



From llie Louisiana Register. 



ON CUTTIKG DOWIV AND WIND-ROWING SU- 

 GAR CANE, 



The article which we publish to day in relation 

 to the sugar cane in Louisiana, does not speak as 

 strongly in favor of cutting down, or wind-rowing 

 the cane, as the importance of the subject de- 

 mands. This is doubtless owing to the circum- 

 stance that at the time the Manual was compiled 

 the custom of cutting down the cane was more a 

 matter of experiment, than' a course calculated to 

 save millions annually to Louisiana. 



The first trial of cutting the cane which we saw, 

 was made by the late John Anderson, on the 

 Mount Hornmas estate in the i)arish of Ascension, 

 in 1828 — 9. Soon after the vegetation was de- 

 etroyed by the fi-ost, which we think was about 

 the middle of November, one acre of cane was 

 put in wind-rows, throwing four rows together in 

 the middle space, after the manner of matressino-. 

 Along side of this acre, the cane was left standing, 

 and ground the last, of any of the cane so left ; 

 but such was its condition that sugar could not be 

 made from it — not even molasses. On the 26th of 

 January, 1829, the acre of wind-rowed cane was 

 ground, and in the appearance of the juice, and in 

 every other respect, worked as kindly, and made 

 as good sugar, and as quick, and in as' great quan- 

 tity per acre, as any that had been cut during the 

 rolling or crop-gathering season. This satisfied us 

 at once that the measure was a discovery equalled 

 only in importance to Louisiana by the introduc- 

 tion of sugar cane itself. 



James McCalop, Esq. of the parish of West Ba- 

 ton Rouge, conveitcd the Poplar Grove estate 

 into a sugar farm, and gathered his first sugar 

 crop during the winter of 1829 — 30. On the 18th 

 of November there was a severe frost, which froze 

 the cane. JNIr. JNIcCaiop being a new sugar 

 planter, consulted with his sugar growing friends 

 on the expediency of wind-rowing his cane, who 

 all told him, if we remember correctly, that he 

 would ruin his crop. The o])inion of' his sugar 

 maker was then asked, who replied that he would 

 not take upon himself the responsibility of recom- 

 mending the measure. What, then, was to be 

 done? Many hundred acres of cane were com- 

 pletely frozen, and according to nil probability if it 

 stood in the field, none of it would yieJd sugar at 

 the end of three or four weeks. Persons who have 

 established sugar estates know something of the 

 cost attendant upon doing so. This was Mr. 

 McCalop's first crop, and the prospect of its almost 

 entire loss, was not calculated to increase the 

 equanimity of his reflections. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, and with a knowledge of the result of 

 the experiment made by Mr. Anderson, he deter- 

 mined to put all his cane in wind-rows, following 

 the plan of the Mount Ilommas experiment, and 

 accordingly did so, leaving standing only about 

 three weeks grinding; at the end of which time 

 it would malie neither sugar nor molasses — not 

 even vinegar. He then began upon the cane in 

 wind-rows, and found it in good order, and con- 

 tinued making good sugar till the 9th of February 

 — making as good sugar at that time as he had 

 made at the connnencement, or at any other time 

 of the season. By way of testing the experiment 

 more fully, Mr. McCalop left five or six rows of 

 cane standing, which at a time long before he was 

 done making sugar, was comj^letely rotten, and 

 entirely useless. In this case, the experiment suc- 

 ceeded beyond the most sanguine expectations of 

 Mr. McCalop. We recollect hearing it stated at 

 the time, that he made a better crop than any per- 

 son on the coast. We know several persons who 

 pursued the plan in their crops of 18.30 — 31, and 

 since — the number increasing everjyear ; and we 

 have yet to hear the first one say that the plan did 

 not succeed well. 



John Nolan, Esq. of the parish of West Baton 

 Rouge, remarked to us a few days since, that he 

 woidd not for ten thousand dollars', agree to never 

 wind-row his cane, for that he saw no other way 

 to save his crop when an early frost, which fre- 

 quendy occurs, fi-oze his cane to the ground, al- 

 most by the time he-could begin to gather it. The 

 idea that the cane must be severely touched with 

 the frost before it is laid down, is, Mr. Nolan thinks, 

 fallacious, and for the following reason. Before he 

 commenced grinding, and before cane leaves were 

 deadened by the fi-ost, he cut a road through the 

 cane, which was laid in a wind-row, and ground 

 towards the latter part of the gathering season, 

 and was found not to be sjirouted, but made as 

 much and as good sugar as any that was laid down 

 after the vegetation was destro3'ed, or after the 

 cane was frozen. 



After all this, with a knowledge of the fact that 

 such is the variableness of our climate — a differ- 

 ence of sixty degrees Fahr. often occurring in the 

 winter months, during a single Aveek — that the 

 cane which is one day frozen, may the next be 

 thawed, and be on the third, good for nothing; ia 



