102 



NORTHERN SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



iag caue, in my opinion, aside from the use of the tramway, is that 

 practised by Mr. E. W. Deming, superintendent of the sirup works at 

 West Point, Ind. 



Following is his description of the method of harvesting, taken from 

 the Eural World, of Saint Louis : 



" Stripping costs from one and one-half to three dollars x^er acre. 

 Cane with leaves on loads easier, rides without slipping, dumps bet- 

 ter, men at the mill prefer to handle it, and it feeds better at the mill. 

 Some claim the leaves fill in between the stalks as it passes through the 

 mill, giving a higher per cent, of j uice. Some claim cannot pass as many 

 stalks through the mill in a given time as with stripped cane, but this 

 surely will not compensate for the expense of stripping and inconven- 

 ience in handling. Oane is handled on platform wagons made expressly 

 for that purpose. The forward wheels average 34 inches in diameter, 3 

 inches tire, and 3 foot tread. The rear wheels average 38 inches in diame- 

 ter, 4-inch tire, and 5-foot tread. Platform JL2 feet long, 5J feet wide, 

 evenly balanced on rear axle. The wheels are entirely under the platform. 

 A good team with these wagons will haul a ton on soft ground, where a 

 lumber wagon would cut down 8 inches. The cutter with his left arm 

 bends over a few stalks of the outside row, cutting them so they fall 

 directly from the rows; following him is a man who grasps the fallen 

 stalks just below the tuft, until he has all he can clasp with one hand 

 then, taking one step directly from the cane, he drops the heads in a 

 bunch, the buts being spread out fan-shaped. Oane is cut in lands, same 

 as plowing. If cane stands up well, one cutter will keep two men picking 

 up; if down or tangled, one man will pick it up. As the cane wagon 

 follows, the driver grasps with one hand the stalks of cane just below 

 the tuft and raises the armful with the other, throwing it on the wagon 

 with the heads projecting over as far as you wish to top them. When 

 the wagon is loaded the tops are all on one side and even. The wagon 

 is then driven to some high, dry place, where you wish to deposit the 

 seed, when the driver, with a heavy hay-knife, with a straight handle, 

 cuts off the heads with a few blows. The wagon now goes to the foot 

 of the carrier, where it is dumped in ten seconds and ready to return to 

 the field. The cane is handled with no regard to the evenness of the 

 butts, and would be a little inconvenient for hand-fed mills, especially 

 if cane was unstripped. By this method the small canes or suckers are 

 left on the ground. The seed is left in piles where it can be easily 

 loaded on wagons with a fork, leaving no scattered seed for a volun- 

 teer crop." 



THE POLARISCOPE. 



The polariscope, or optical saccharometer, is an instrument designed 

 to measure the quantity of sucrose in any sugar solution. It depends 

 on the principle i hat a plane of polarized light passing through a tube 

 containing a solution of sucrose is twisted toward the right (like the 

 movement of the hands of a clock), and the degree of this rotation is 

 proportionate to the amount of sugar in solution. 



