314 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



of sugar. The Batavian cane, of a deep purple color outside, is 

 fit to grind in sixteen to eighteen months. 



Culture of this Sugar Cane. 



In India, pieces of cane having tliree joints are planted hori- 

 zontally, no seeds. 



In West Indies, canes are divided into plants and suckers, 

 which spring from the stalks of the plants. These suckers are 

 commonly called Rattoons. The top of the cane, with its two 

 or three joints, the leaves stripped off, are laid horizontally in the 

 ground, and covered one or two inches with earth. The young 

 plants appear in about fourteen days after being })lanted. The 

 rattoons are planted also. In India, from 1,500 to 1,900 pounds 

 of sugar per acre, is a good crop. 



Relative Quantity of Sugar and Cane Juice in Jamaica — Eight 

 years^ observation on a plantation. 



2,200 gallons of juice, average a ton of sugar, 2,000 lbs. Hogs- 

 heads of sugar, average 400 lbs. So that a gallon of cane juice yields 

 about one pound of sugar. 



As our new sugar canes from China and southern Africa yield 

 here (say) four hundred gallons of syrup per acre, being about 

 one in five of the juice, which therefore must be about two thou- 

 sand pounds. We believe the result in sugar will be as great as 

 on the Jamaica plantation. When these stalks have grown three 

 or four inches high, he gently hills them up by hand, so as to 

 avoid doing them the slightest injury. As they grow he hills 

 them up again, finally surrounding each stalk with a good stout 

 hill, which is rounded. All this is done by hand. All weeds 

 are taken away. He never uses any implement about them. He 

 obtains, in this way, surprising results, in both size and quality. 



It is true, that the degree of sugar will vary with soil, culture, 

 climate, weather, &c. But the seed gives us the canes by a labor 

 ten times less than by the cuttings of cane, as any one will see who 

 examines the best sugar plantings of the West Indies or Louisiana. 

 And this, too, in all the temperate regions of the earth where 

 men that are not black may work with health and long life. The 

 suo-ar produced by these new canes may well be called the White 

 Man's Sugar. And in any soil or season which may fail in the 

 sugar, the seeds and stalks will pay richly to the farmer for feed. 



