212 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



as thoroughly defecated and freed from the natural raw sorghum 

 flavor as if treated or sugar. And it also pays well and im- 

 proves the quality of it to strip the leaves from the canes, and 

 cut the seed-tops off with about one foot of the cane. The 

 canes will then make the best and purest flavored sugar or 

 molasses. But in our large sugar mills, with the almighty dollar 

 before our minds, we can not be so nice about it. But many 

 things go through the crushers that neither add to its quality or 

 quantity when boiled to sugar. . 



An acre of land should produce from eight to fifteen tons 

 of the green canes ; and farmers should not stop experimenting 

 until they produce this or greater results. The later and larger 

 varieties will produce over twenty tons per acre, but in our north- 

 ern climates may not mature. The Early Amber cane is sure for 

 all climates, and is the best for main crop. A ton of green canes 

 should yield from ten to twelve gallons of molasses, or about 

 sixty pounds of dry sugar, and from five to six gallons of drain- 

 age molasses. The average yield from all parts of the United 

 States seems to be above one hundred gallons per acre, and, 

 therefore, should be worth fifty dollars or more per acre for the 

 sugar or molasses, besides the feed and cane seed. The usual 

 yield of cane seed is about twenty bushels per acre, and when 

 cured, and threshed in a common threshing machine the same 

 as wheat, it is always more valuable than corn for feed to ani- 

 mals, and also good for human food if ground and bolted the 

 same as buckwheat. 



If you do n't stop to strip the leaves from the canes, it is no- 

 more work to cultivate and harvest a crop of cane than it is of 

 corn, and it will return twice as many dollars per acre for the use 

 of the land. Mine has more than done that for two years past. 



The disastrous frosts of 1883 ruined thousands of acres, 

 and remind us that of the affairs of this world nothing can be 

 counted as absolutely certain. Our Jefferson Sugar Factory 

 suffers the most in proportion of any that I have reports from. 

 Three-quarters of our entire crop perished the 9th of September. 

 My own withstood that shock ; but the cold, wet, and backward 

 season retarded its growth so that none of it could get ripe, 



