42 THE CHINESE SUGAR-CANE. 



b*^ grown on land that would make twenty-five 

 bushels of corn, with average seasons. I have 

 tried horses, cattle, and hogs, and find they eat 

 the cane, its leaves and seeds, greedily, and 

 fowls and pigeons the last. I think, however, 

 that, when allowed to mature, the cane should be 

 cut up fine for animals, as the outer coat is hard. 

 I did not attempt to make sugar, not having pre- 

 pared for that ; there can, however, be no doubt 

 that sugar can be made from such syrup as this. 

 And as they make more syrup in the West 

 Indies per acre than they do in Louisiana, only 

 because the cane matures better, it is not unrea- 

 sonable to infer that the millet, which matures 

 here perfectly, and would even make two crops in 

 one year, will yield more and better sugar than 

 the Louisiana cane. 



' ' Beginning to cut cane as soon as the head is 

 fully developed, it may be cut for a month before 

 it will all ripen, — how long after that, I do not 

 know. As succession of crops might be easily 

 arranged so as to insure cutting and boiling, from 

 the first of July, — probably earlier, — then until 

 frost, I have housed some stalks immediately 

 from the field, to ascertain, hereafter, whether 

 thus treated it will yield juice and make syrup 

 next winter. A good sugar-mill, with three 



