29 



sidered, for oftentimes a fertili/.er thai would make tin- best cane if there were plenty 

 of rain would ruin the crop if dry weather prevailed. 



I/iinrxthiti of CCOte.- Sirup making usually begins during the latter part of < >rtober. 

 This year (1902) grinding generally began on ( >ctober L'7, although some small mills 

 started a week or ten days earlier. Cutting begins when the juice tests about K 

 Baume or when most of the leaves of the cane, except the tuft at the top. an- dead. 

 The cane is stripped a short time before cutting, topped and cut clo-e to the ground 

 with a broad, heavy hoc. The patent stripper is very satisfactory when the cane is 

 fairly straight. The implement generally used in this section is a cane stripper 

 which has a flattened handle about ."..I feet Imiir. to one end of \\ hi,-h a steel spring is 

 attached by means of a slide bolt. The cant' in pushed through the opming int.. 

 the oval portion of the spring and the implement pushed down the stalk, thus 

 removing the leaves. 



The top, above the first red joint in the ra.se of the purple cane, is taken off with 

 a corn knife just before the cane is cut. The farmers in this vicinity make no use 

 of the tops, though they have been tried for seed and given good results, the cane 

 from them giving just as large a tonnage and as much sirup as cane from stubble. 



The cane is cut only a short time before hauling to the mill, very little In-intent 

 ahead. Negroes strip, top, cut, and pile up the cane at convenient distances apart 

 on every third n>w for from $3.75 to $4.50 per acre. An ordinary wagon is used for 

 hauling, and two large hemp ropes are laid in the wagon and the cane placed 

 straight upon them. The load being procured, the ropes are tied, and thus you 

 have two large bundles of cane on the wagon, which are lifted off by machinery at 

 the mill and placed in position. Mr. T. Wight's two-horse wagons generally haul 

 from 1,200 to 2,000 pounds of cane per load. 



Cane that is stripped but not topped and left standing in the field does not increase 

 in sucrose any more rapidly than cane that is not stripped. To try the effects of 

 stripping and topping the cane and of leaving it unstripped and untopped before 

 cutting, samples for analysis were taken under the following conditions: 



A. Samples of cane stripped ten days before cutting, and topped when cut. 



B. Samples of cane topped and stripped ten days before cutting, from the same 

 plat as sample A. 



C. Sample of cane stripped and topped when cut from the same plat as sample A. 

 Bo. Samples of cane stripped and topped when cut, to replace sample ( ', which 



was not a good average sample. 



The canes from which the different experiments were made wen- harvested at 

 Cairo, Ga., on November 11, 1902, and analyzed as soon as they reached Washington, 

 D. C. The analytical data obtained on these samples are as follows: 



TABLE XIII. 



<>f cam'* liurn-xtnl mxlir m/-/////// 



From these data it is seen that it is not a good policy to strip or top the cane before 

 cutting. Both samples A and B were inferior to samples C and B 3, and markedly 

 inferior to C. Sample C, however, is not regarded as a typical sample. Samples A 

 and B were superior to B 3 in having a smaller content of reducing sugar and a 



