6 



TH!E ILLINOIS FARMER. 



excellent forage crop, and that the juice 

 contained ten per cent of saccharine matter, 

 clear as crystal. Several persons were de- 

 termined to go into its cultivation exten- 

 sively the coming season, and fully test the 

 value of the plant. 



Mr. J. Hammond, of South Carolina, gives 

 in detail many experiments with the plant. 

 He came to these conclusions — that the cane 

 made choice syrup; he was not prepared to 

 make sugar, but he says that there can be 

 no doubt that it can be made of such syrup; 

 and he believes it will make better syrup 

 and sugar than the Louisiana cane, because 

 the Chinese cane perfectly matures, and the 

 Louisiana cane does not. 



Several other gentlemen cultivated the 

 cane as a forage plant, and with decided sat- 

 isfaction. 



Mr. Hammond states a fact which should 

 eter be borne in mind by the cultivators of 

 the Chinese cane. It belongs to the mil- 

 let tribe of plants, and if planted near broom 

 Corn will mix with it, and the seed become 

 worthless. 



-<•»- 



Failure of the Sagar Cane in Loaisiana. 



The sugar cane has been cultivated in Lou- 

 isiana since 1151. It was then introduced 

 by the Jesuits from St. Domingo. It has 

 been ^constantly subjected to vicissitudes 

 since its introduction. In the spring of 1854 

 the plants had so degenerated that the cut- 

 tings were of little service. The summer was 

 unfavorable to those which survived, and 

 when the season for making sugar returned, 

 the cane was not ripe, and there appeared 

 to be little or no crystalizable sugar in the 

 juice. Last spring it was found that a large 

 portion of the cuttings, had been destroy- 

 ed by the winter, and though attempts were 

 made to procure a supply from Cuba, these 

 failed, and we are now informed that the new 

 crop of sugar and molasses will not be more 

 than one fourth the amount of 1853. 



We notice that efforts are now being made 

 to restore the cultivation of cane in Louisi- 

 ana. By some it is contended that the pre- 

 sent condition of its culture is owing to bad 

 management, especially to the neglect of a 



rotation in crops, cane having been grown 

 on the same fields until some of the lands 

 are entirely unfit for its production. Gov- 

 ernment, to aid in this measure, has dis- 

 patched a vessel to the coasts of foreign cane 

 growing countries, to obtain supplies of fresh 

 cuttings, and thus give the planters a new 

 start in the cultivation of the cane. This 

 effort may be successful; but we apprehend 

 that sugar culture in Louisiana will ever be 

 an uncertain employment, and always will 

 be subject to disappointment in untimely 

 seasons whether of wet or frost. Sugar cane 

 is a tropical Iplant, and the experience of 

 Louisiana is sufficient to show that it cannot 

 be acclimated in temperate latitudes. Gov- 

 ernment has done what it could to increase 

 the product of sugar and molasses in Louisi- 

 ana, by giving it a protection of thirty per 

 cent; and as a great national object, the 

 protection was popular; but the production 

 having failed, it seems to be useless to force 

 the people of the country any longer to pay 

 an unwilling tax, from which neither them- 

 selves nor their country can receive any ben- 

 efit. At this very moment there are thou- 

 sands of tons of Cuban sugar in New York, 

 in bond, which, but for the present duty, 

 could be purchased in any quantity at seven 

 cents per lb. The sugar duty is felt severely 

 by the masses, and we hope that the present 

 congress will place sugar on the list of free 

 articles, with tea and coffiee. 



We have seen it suggested that the west, 

 when it goes into the cultivation of the Chi- 

 nese sugar cane, and when Illinois will make 

 not only the sugar and molasses for her own 

 consumption, (as wb are confident she soon 

 will) the sugar duty will be quite conve- 

 nient and satisfactory to us. In regard to 

 this matter then, we will only say that th« 

 sugar duty was established for a great na- 

 tional object, the production of sugar in our 

 own country, to meet the wants of our peo- 

 ple. The production has failed— the sugar 

 duty has failed to effect its object. Let it 

 be repealed. If, hereafter, a sugar duty, 

 by giving the production of sugar from Chi- 

 nese cane protection, can make the pro- 

 duction a national object, then let the duty 



