118 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[August, 



LOUISIANA SUGARS. 



The planters are generally represented in 

 New Orleans by factors or commission mer- 

 chants, wlio attend to tlie purchase of planta- 

 tion supplies during the planting season, and 

 the sale and disposition of the crop when 

 manufactured. 



Arriving at New Orleans, the product is 

 landed on the levee direct from the numerous 

 boats that ply along the upper and lower coast 

 to Lafourche and Bayou Teche, or, if arriving 

 by rail, it is landed on platforms contiguous 

 to the levee. The factor or commission mer- 

 chant, who is strictly the first hand, is always 

 represented by a broker, and the lots, whether 

 of sugar or molasses, are always ofl'ered intact 

 in courtesy to the dealers who, for many 

 reasons, are the most desirable purchasers, 

 being on the spot with ready cash, and dis- 

 pensing with the trouble of shipping and the 

 risks attending transactions with distant 

 points. All sales are made strictly for cash, 

 which by custom of the levee means on de- 

 mand ; and so well it is understoodthat terms 

 are scarcely mentioned, and the dealer who is 

 not ready with the cash when called for need 

 not attempt any more purchases until he has 

 rehabilitated himself. 



The dealers having made their purchases, 

 sort them out, and in every Iot,either of sugar or 

 molasses, the quality varies and frequently in 

 executing orders several lots have to be sorted 

 over in order to procure tlie required quantity 

 of a certain grade. What remains after sort- 

 ing are known as "culls," and sold for the 

 best price obtainable, to any customer. 



The classification in force on the levee is as 

 follows : Open kettle sugars, in cypress hogs- 

 head, 12 per cent. tare. Inferior, common, 

 good common, fair, fully fair, prime, strictly 

 prime, choice, fancy choice. 



The grades of fair and under are scarcely 

 fit for any purpose but refining, and are usu- 

 ally sold to refiners to be melted and worked 

 over. 



The refiners also purchase, when values 

 permit, the grades up to and including prime. 



From fully fair to fancy choice all are 

 known as grocery grades, fully fair being 

 generally known in some Western markets as 

 dry barreling sugars. Inferior and common 

 sugars are dark in color, wet and sometimes 

 dirty — common dry as its name implies. Fair 

 to fully fair, bright color, dry, well-cooked, 

 and drained and good grain. Prime to fancy 

 choice, dry, well drained, handsome grain, 

 bright straw color, to very bright and full 

 grain in fancy choice. 



Where these sugars have come in from the 

 plantation and been held, and sometimes 

 when they have come from the planter late in 

 the season,, tlie packages have not been re- 

 filled after drainage, and when this is the 

 case the customary 12 per cent, tare will not 

 cover the weight of the package. This must 

 be guarded against in making purchases, and 

 is a matter for stipulation between the buyer 

 and the seller, as a condition precedent to the 

 transaction ; either the packages must be re- 

 filled, or taken as they are at an allowance on 

 the price. 



Molasses is classed as follows : Open kettle 

 molasses— Inferior, common, fair, prime, 

 strictly prime, choice, fancy choice. Centri- 

 fugal molasses— Common, fair, prime, choice. 



Sirop de Batterie, as the name implies, is 

 taken from the battery kettle before the 

 syrup has been concentrated, and is pure juice 

 of the cane boiled to the density of syrup. It 

 rarely finds its way to market, however, as in 

 a very short time it granulates. 



" Cuite" (" kuett") is very similar to what 

 is known in the "sugar-bush" and in many a 

 Northern farm-house as "maple-wax," and 

 is taken from the coolers before granulation 

 occurs. This also is little known beyond the 

 plantation house, as it too quickly returns to 

 sugar. 



Sugars from the various sections present 

 peculiarities which render them easily distin- 

 guishable by the experts. Those from the 

 Red river parishes for instance, where the 

 red clay formation of the lands is so marked 

 as to give the river itself the name it bears, 

 are of a reddish tinge, and the same is true of 

 the molasses from that section. 



A saline taste is often apparent in both 

 sugar and molasses, particularly in the latter ; 

 and when this is the case it is at once known 

 that they are from the extreme Lower Coasts, 

 or from the Lower Teche of Lafourche, 

 where the lands are in such close proximity 

 to the sea that the cane has absorbed salt to a 

 certain extent, and an undue prevalence of it 

 is an injury to the sugar, causing a greater 

 tendency to deliquescence. 



It is not so much an injury to mfilasseis, but 

 impairs its flavor, and is to the distant con- 

 sumer unaccountable. 



Almost all the plantations brand the name 

 of the plantation on every package of their 

 product, and some have acquired an exten- 

 sive and justly merited reputation for uniform 

 excellence and standard quality ; but a large 

 portion of the crop comes in packages rudely 

 marked with a brush with the initials of the 

 planter and sometimes several difl'erent 

 initials for the same crop where it has been 

 made on shares, and where several parties are 

 interested. 



When the crop has been finished and all the 

 sugar and molasses shipped to market, the 

 basin or purgery is cleaned out, and the sedi- 

 mentary deposit of the molasses, composed of 

 sugar and gummy matters, together with 

 pieces of brickbats, flakes of cement dirt, sand, 

 trash, etc., ad infinitum, and which delectable 

 compound is known as " cistern bottoms," is 

 filled into barrels and sent into the market, 

 where it is bought for refining purposes, or to 

 manufacture blacking or " essence of coffee," 

 or other articles of domestic economy, whose 

 obscure origin, if correctly known, would 

 amaze the innocent consumer. But the old 

 New England tradition, of ante-bellum days, 

 that sundry remnants of " niggers" were to 

 occasionally found in the cistern bottoms is 

 not sustained by investigation. 



The burnt sugar or "caromel," which ac- 

 cumulates in the kettles, is by many of the 

 old Creoles made into a delicate breakfast 

 beverage, which, served hot with tlie addi- 

 tion of rich cream, is similar but much supe- 

 rior to the best chocolate, and proves a grate- 

 ful surprise to the chance visitor at the plan- 

 tation. 



" Vin du cane" is a beverage peculiar to 

 the sugar house during 'the sugar making, 

 and the unwary stranger is often inducted 

 into its mysterious effects. 



It is made from the hot juice as it leaves 

 from the " grande," and with the addition of 

 a little plantation whisky and the juice of a 

 sour oranee, it makes a drink compared to 

 which the Mexican's " pulque" fades into 

 miserable insignificance, and Wabash sul- 

 phuric acid corn juice is not to be mentioned. 



The stranger " smiles" with gratification as 

 he partakes of the delectable beverage, but 

 " finds too late that men betray," and ever 

 afterward remembers with unmitigated dis- 

 gust the villainous decoction. — New Orlea.ns 

 Sugar Planter. 



THE FARMER'S HOME. 



The farmer's home is not a paradise ; who- 

 ever attempts to portray it as such, or to 

 conjecture it can be made such, is deluded. 



I would not so attempt to picture it for 

 such picture would be false. The farmer's 

 home is just what he makes it. A home 

 without labor ; a home of aimless ease it can 

 never be, and never ought to be. 



Two many young men and women in the 

 farm-house look away to social life in a great 

 city, and fancy that there could be real hap- 

 piness ; that, with all the facilities for social 

 enjoyment, these contact with superior Intel- _ 

 lects, social intercourse with educated and re- I 

 fined men and women ; opportunities to listen 

 to sermons of great divines, addresses of 

 great statesmen ; lectures of men of science 

 and letters ; access to scientific and classical 

 societies ; mingling with literary and musical 

 clubs — all the advantages of public lectures, 

 concerts, drama, opera, pulpit and forum — 

 present all there is of human happiness, but 

 very much of all this is delusion. 



It cannot be denied that intercourse with 

 men and women of superior intelligence and 

 educiition and experience to our own, is good 

 for us, but other considerations are worthy of 

 attention. The clergyman who accepts the 

 charge of a fashionable church in a great 

 city, accepts the contact with artificial so- 

 ciety life, and while he may fancy his field of 

 labor is broader and more comprehensive, be 

 finds that the results of his labor are far less 

 satisfactory and far less successfully in win- 

 ning souls from lives of vice and sin to lives 

 of purity and honesty, than it would be in 

 the country. While the lawyer or the doctor, 

 who seeks notoriety and reputation, has more 

 varied opportunities to advance his ambition 

 in the city than in the country, yet the coun- 

 try doctor or the country lawyer, who makes 

 his profession a lifetime of study and honest 

 research, finds himself sooner or later, stand- 

 ing upon a plane of professional honor equal 

 to that of his city colleague. 



So the life of the farmer, though not so 

 rich in adventure, not so full of artificial ac- 

 complishments, is fuller in that which goes to 

 make up a pure and noble life. He can get 

 nearer to God and his works. Higher is the 

 scale of mental and moral culture, nearer to 

 manly perfections, because his life is simpler, 

 more refined, less tainted with those things 

 which corrupt and demoralize. I am neither 

 a believer in total depravity, nor in human 

 perfection. Our lives are a compromise be- 

 tween both ; we find in all humanity, in all 

 walks in life, in all conditions, the good and 

 the bad. It is for us to so use the good and 

 the had, as to render our lives more or less 



