102 THE CHINESE SUGAR-CANE. 



You will notice I have made no reference to the possibility 

 of this interesting plant containing sufficient saccharine mat- 

 ter to enable it to be converted into sugar and molasses at such 

 rates as to successfully compete with the sugars of Louisiana, 

 Texas, and the West Indies. Yet there is no doubt but that 

 it far surpasses the sugar-beet in this respect, which has for 

 many years in France produced those articles profitably ; and 

 as little do I question but that it possesses more properties of 

 the Caribbean cane-syrup than the maple, from which consid- 

 erable quantities of sugar are annually manufactured in vari- 

 ous parts of New England. 



In fact, it may be found that it is as well adapted to the 

 manufacture of these necessary articles of domestic economy 

 as the cane of our Southern States. Should such prove to be 

 the case, an immense industrial revolution is at our doors, the 

 results of which must be as gratifying as stupendous. Many 

 millions of dollars, doubtless, are annually sent away from 

 New England to purchase Southern sugars, which will then be 

 kept at home to enrich the producer upon the hill-sides and 

 in the valleys of our section of country. And, better than 

 all, one great staple, which is almost the exclusive growth of 

 slave labor, which props up that institution and adds to its 

 continuance, will be wrested from its tottering basis. 



Vigorously pursue any practical course of economic effort 

 which will tend to make slave labor less profitable, and you 

 do more to bring about that prophetic and certain day " when 

 bondage shall exist no longer," and " the enslaved shall go 

 free," than by all the refinement of political ethics, or even 

 the crushing influence of exotic humanity. Christian sympathy, 

 and popular sentiment. 



In the latter view of this question, especially, is it our duty 

 to pursue a thorough and systematic course of experiments, 

 to fully ascertain the capabilities of this new plant. I rejoice 



