506 



SAC 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



SAC 



But this acid is found in a variety of other substtMjces, not 

 only vegetable, as gums, resins, galls, starch, salt of sorrel, 

 lemon juice, spirit of wine, &c. but animal ; Berthollet hav- 

 ing obtained from wool more than half its weight of this 

 acid. Sugar, or the saccharine matter, may be extracted 

 from most vegetables, particularly the Maple, the Birch, 

 Beet, Parsneps, and from the Grape, which see ; but the 

 Sugar Cane affords it in larger quantities, and more readily, 

 than any other. Sugar, when first introduced, was used only 

 in medicine. Even in Arabia, in Avicenna's time, though 

 *ugar was an article of commerce from the East, there is no 

 record of its having been used for dietetic or culinary pur- 

 poses, for several centuries afterwards. Its principal use 

 was to render unpleasant and nauseating medicines grateful 

 to the sick ; and in pharmacy, in syrups, electuaries, con- 

 fections, and conserves. As a medicine, sugar itself cannot 

 be considered as possessing much power. Dr. Cullen classes 

 it with the attenuants ; and Bergius states it to be sapona- 

 ceous, edulcorant, relaxing, pectoral, vulnerary, antiseptic, 

 and nutritive. In catarrhal affections both it and honey are 

 frequently employed ; it has been advantageously used in 

 calculous complaints ; and from its known power in preserv- 

 ing animal and vegetable substances from putrefaction, it 

 has been given with a view to its antiseptic effects. Sugar- 

 candy, or barley-sugar, by dissolving slowly in the mouth, 

 are well suited to relieve tickling coughs and hoarseness, 

 and the use of sugar in various medicinal compositions, is 

 too obvious to require being particularly pointed out. Pro- 

 pagation and Culture. The Sugar Cane is preserved by way 

 of curiosity in several gardens in England, but, being too 

 tender to thrive here unless it be preserved in a warm stove, 

 it cannot arrive to great perfection. It is here propagated 

 by slips taken from the sides of the older plants; those 

 which grow near the root, and have fibres to them, will most 

 likely succeed, so that when the shoots are produced at some 

 distance from the ground, the earth should be raised about 

 them, that they may put out fibres before they are separated 

 from the mother plant. These slips should be planted in 

 pots filled with rich kitchen-garden earth, and plunged into 

 a moderate hot-bed of tanner's bark, being careful to shade 

 them from the sun until they have taken new root, after 

 which they must be treated in the same way as other tender 

 plants from the same countries. They mus,t constantly be 

 kept plunged in the tan-bed in the stove, which should be 

 kept in winter to the same temperature of heat as for the 

 Pine-apple, and they must have plenty of free air admitted 

 in hot weather. Cultivation in. the West Indies: The manner 

 of preparing the stiff soils in the West Indian Islands for 

 sugar, is, to burn the trash and weeds upon it, as soon as 

 the Canes are cut down ; the ashes being a proper manure, 

 as the best compost for such land as ashes, sand, and 

 rotten canes. This land should always be hoe-ploughed, 

 and, after continuing about a month in this state, it should 

 be holed. The cane-bole-s should not be very deep, so as 

 to bring up the stiff clay. It is better to hoe-plough the 

 bottoms of the cane-holes just before throwing in the manure; 

 and if they are not planted soon after, the manure should 

 be covered with a little mould, taken from the sides of the 

 banks. The plants must be laid dry, and not more than 

 two inches below the surface, unless it be necessary to plant 

 in dry weather, which necessity rarely occurs. In light soils 

 such as sand, gravel, and all poor dry moulds, with lime- 

 stone or rock of any kind under it, the trash and weeds 

 should be dug into the ground at the time of hoeing. No 

 ploughing is necessary ; but labour is best bestowed in pre- 

 paring and carrying on good rich manure, without which 



these light soils will never make a proper return to the 

 planter. The manure must be laid on heaps to ferment and 

 rot, and if it is not arrived at a sufficient state of putrefaction 

 at the time of planting, it may be distributed to the young 

 plants when they are a foot or eighteen inches above the 

 ground. This should be done in rainy weather, that the salts 

 may the sooner penetrate to the roots of the young Canes. 

 In these soils you must plant either very early or very late. 

 If you plant in May or June, which is termed spring planting, 

 and the weather proves favourable, the plants may be fit to 

 cut in April or May following. But, wherever situation, dry 

 weather, lateness of crop, or a deficiency in the strength of 

 labourers and cattle, prevent this early planting, the month 

 of December may be the. best time, or even early in January. 

 In light soils you can hardly make your cane-holes too deep, 

 and the business of planting may succeed immediately to that 

 of holing. The land which is most proper for the growth of 

 Sugar Canes, is such as has a sufficient depth of soil, and is 

 not too moist and strong, but rather light, and easy to work; 

 for although strong moist ground will produce much taller and 

 bigger canes than the other, yet the quantity of sugar will be 

 much less, and of a worse quality, beside requiring a greater 

 quantity of fuel, and a longer time to boil, before the sugar 

 can be made ; which is also the case with all fresh land, where 

 there has not been any Canes growing before; therefore many 

 of the most expert planters burn their land, when it is first 

 cleared for planting of Canes, to abate its fertility ; but if, 

 when land is first cleared of the wood, and the roots of bad 

 weeds, it is sown with Indigo, which such fresh ground will 

 produce much better than the old, or such as has been long 

 cultivated, there may be two or three crops of this taken, 

 which will prepare the land for the Sugar Canes, without 

 being at the trouble of burning it; but the growing of Indigo 

 has been so little practised in the British Islands of America 

 for many years past, as to be esteemed unworthy the notice 

 of a sugar-planter ; whereas if they would sometimes change 

 their crops to other species, they would soon find an advan- 

 tage in the growth, not only of their Canes, but also of their 

 other crops : however, the usual practice is to continue the 

 Canes always upon the same land, as long as it will produce 

 them, without changing the species, or allowing the ground 

 a fallow to rest and recover itself: by this method there 

 are some plantations so much exhausted, as that the crop 

 of sugar will scarcely defray the expense of culture. An- 

 other thing should always be observed in the planting of 

 fresh land with Canes, which is, to allow them more room 

 than is generally dene; for, in close planting, if the ground 

 be strong, there will a greater number of shoots come out 

 from each plant, and not having room to spread at bottom, 

 they will draw each other up to a great height, and be full 

 of watery juice, the sun and external air being excluded from 

 the Canes, both of which are absolutely necessary to ripen 

 and prepare the salts during the growth of the Canes. In 

 those warm countries, the Canes are propagated by cuttings 

 or joints, of proper lengths; these are from fifteen to twenty 

 inches long, in proportion to the nearness of their joints or 

 eyes. These cuttings are generally taken from the tops of 

 the Canes, just below the leaves ; but if they were chosen 

 from the lower part of the Canes, where they are less succu- 

 lent and better ripened, they would not produce so luxuriant 

 shoots, but their juice would be less crude, and contain a 

 greater quantity of salts, which will be obtained by less boiling 

 than that of those Cane* in the manner they are commonly 

 planted : and it is by thus carefully propagating all kinds of 

 esculent plants, either in the choice of the best seeds or 

 cuttings, that most of the kinds have been so greatly improved 



