26 



CULTIVATION OF THE SUGAR CANE. 



secreted, but when the growth becomes slower as the plant 

 matures, the juice increases in sweetness until it arrives at 

 its maximum density. 



Cane sugar is an organic substance, being one of the 

 well-known non-azotised proximate principles of vegetables. 

 It is composed of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, the two 

 last elements existing in the proportions which constitute 

 water; therefore it is said to be composed of carbon and the 

 elements of water, in the proportion of carbon 12 atoms, 

 and the elements of water 11 atoms. When deprived of 

 1 atom of water, (with which it unites as with a base, ; 

 sugar becomes anhydrous, and is then composed of carbon 

 12, and the elements of water 10, but it never exists 

 naturally in this form. 



These facts prove, that although portions of the inor- 

 ganic particles of the soil are abstracted by the plant for 

 the purpose of building up its structure, they form no part 

 of the sugar which is secreted by it, a circumstance which 

 forms a remarkable and distinctive feature in that branch 

 of agricultural industry, which has for its object the culti- 

 vation of the sugar cane. 



The sugar cane is found growing in all intertropical 

 countries, and it is cultivated extensively both in the East 

 and West Indies. In this treatise, in describing the 

 methods best adapted for producing the plant most 

 abundantly and economically, and the most perfect 

 and effective manner of converting its juices into crys- 

 tallized sugar, I shall confine my remarks entirely to 



