148 AGRICULTURE 



maintained throughout the growing season. This is best 

 done by shallow cultivation, and harrowing. The crop 

 should be kept entirely free from weeds and should be 

 thinned, so as to permit the proper development of the canes. 



Harvesting and manufacturing. When the cane is 

 used for forage purposes, as is often done, it is usually 

 cut early in the season, when it has attained a height of 

 about three or four feet. It can be fed at once, or put into 

 a silo, or even cured in the field as hay and fed during 

 the winter months. 



When used for sirup or sugar the cane should be cut 

 before frost, or as soon as the heads- are past the milk 

 stage and before they harden. The heads or tops should 

 be cut off and leaves stripped and kept for forage pur- 

 poses. These are valuable for farm stock and the seed 

 is especially prized for poultry. For seed purposes the 

 best heads are cut when nearly ripe and hung up to dry. 



After the tops and leaves have been stripped, the canes 

 are cut and hauled to the sugar house where they are run 

 several times through crushers. The juices extracted from 

 the cane are strained, allowed to settle in order to remove 

 the impurities, and then evaporated to the proper consist- 

 ency. If used as sirup the juice is canned in tin, if used 

 for sugar it is kept in form of sap and then purified, evap- 

 orated and refined, finally becoming either white, granu- 

 lated, brown, or open kettle sugar, or New Orleans mo- 

 lasses. 



3. Growing Sugar Beets 



Under right conditions of climate and soil and with a 

 sugar factory near at hand the raising of sugar beets can 

 be made a very profitable industry. 



Soil. Sugar beets grow successfully in any soil that 

 will produce a good crop of corn, wheat, potatoes, or other 



