59 



Sugar was known to the ancients. Dioscorides refers to the canes 

 of India and Arabia Felix as producing honey; and Pliny speaks of 

 the saccharuni of Dioscorides as being used in medicine. 



Sugar lands, unless naturally rich, require an abundance of 

 manure; but saline matter should be avoided, since common salt 

 (chloride of sodium) and muriate of ammonia form non-crystal- 

 izable compounds with sugar. Within the crisp rind of the cane is 

 a whitish, porous pith, saturated with saccharine matter. The juice 

 is expressed by passing the cane through revolving cylinders. From 

 mill it runs into large boilers, in which it is heated for purifica- 

 tion. Lime is used in sugar boiling for the purpose of neutralizing 

 the free acetic acid which exists ready formed in the woody parts of 

 the cane, and to clear it from various foreign materials mingled with 

 it. By application of gradual heat, the impurities which sugar con- 

 tains form a cake with the lime at the surface of the saccharine 

 liquid, which is drawn oft' and conveyed to the boilers. After having 

 passed through several boilers, it becomes a dark thick syrup, when 

 it is put into flat coolers to crystalize. 



The crushed cane, known as begasse, is used as fuel in evaporat- 

 ing the juice, but it would be far more preferable to return it to the 

 land as manure. 



Cane juice is a solution of sugar in water, with traces of albumen, 

 gum, and a peculiar substance resembling gluten, or vegetable gela- 

 tine ; also a minute proportion of cerasin and of a green vegetable 

 wax. It has usually a yellowish color, but is sometimes colorless. 

 It has an agreeable, but rather insipid taste, and a peculiar balsamic 

 odor. It contains from seventeen to twenty per cent, of cane sugar, 

 but the planter only obtains from seven to ten per cent. There is a 

 loss of sugar in the mode of pressing the juice from the cane, and a 

 loss from chemical change due to the exposure to the air, by which 

 the crystallizable sugar becomes degraded into non-crystallizable 

 mucilaginous sugar, called molasses. 



Raw sugar is refined by mixing with it a small portion of lime 

 water, bullock's blood, and a quantity of animal charcoal. 



Louisiana produced, in 1860, about five hundred millions of 

 pounds of sugar, at the value of twenty-five millions of dollars ; and 

 thirty-five millions of gallons of molasses, at the approximate value 

 of seven millions of dollars. It has been estimated that before the 

 war Louisiana produced an average crop of four hundred and forty- 



