SUGAR-CANE CULTURE FOR SIRUP PRODUCTION. 35 



lations, the total outfit, including shelter for the kettle, costing about 

 $125. For a larger area than 12 acres the tendency now seems to be 

 to put in additional evaporators of the kind first mentioned and to 

 install a larger mill, using steam power. Others, in order to secure 

 s higher capacity, prefer to put in a steam outfit, including a boiler, 

 steam engine, and steam vats for boiling the sirup. Such outfits 

 with capacities ranging from 10 to IS barrels of sirup per day of 12 

 hours (or more than double that capacity per day of 24 hours) may 

 be estimated to cost from $2,000 to $6,000. 



COST OF PRODUCING THE CANE. 



Estimates of the cost of individual items in the production of sugar 

 cane and sirup were obtained by the writer from many practical 

 farmers in the sirup sections. These estimates varied somewhat as 

 to itemization and operations, but the detailed statements of two of 

 them, selected as representative, are here reported in full. 



DETAILED ESTIMATE BY A GEORGIA FARMER. 



The first of these detailed estimates was given in 1914 by a farmer 

 in southern Georgia, basing the calculation on his extensive experi- 

 ence in cane culture and sirup manufacture, operating on a scale that 

 would there be characterized as extensive. All common labor is 

 computed at 75 cents a day for men and 50 cents a day for women. 

 Mule hire is computed at 75 cents a day. To prepare the land, it is 

 calculated that 1 man and 3 mules with a disk plow will break 2 acres 

 a day, making the cost per acre as follows : 



Breaking $1.50 



Harrowing . — , . 50 



Laying off, marking, and opening the furrows 1.00 



Total (to prepare the land for planting) 3.00 



In planting, a crew sufficient to plant about 6 acres a day is em- 

 ployed and the expense is computed as follows : 



Hauling cane (4 men and 8 mules), hauling fertilizer (1 man and 2 

 mules), distributing fertilizer anil helping to cover (1 man and 1 

 mule), covering (1 man and 1 nude) ; total for 7 men and 12 mules 

 at 75 cents each per day $14. 25 



Stripping the cane, cutting it into short lengths, and trimming off diseased 

 portions (25 women), dropping the cane in the furrows (6 women) ; 

 total for 31 women at 50 cents each per day 15. 50 



Overseers, two, at $1.25 each per day _ 2. 50 



Total (cost of planting 6 acres),. 32.25 



Cost of planting 1 acre 5. 38 



The cultivation and cost of fertilizer are computed as follows: 

 Hoeing twice by hand, $1 ; six cultivations, 1 man and 1 mule cover- 



