26 
RURAL HOURS. 
differing in this respect from the juice of the cane, which is con- 
sidered particularly healthy, both man and beasts growing fat on 
the plantations during the seasons of working among the ripe 
canes. When the work at the " bush " is fairly commenced, the 
boiler is filled up from time to time with fresh sap during the first 
four-and-twenty hours ; after that, the fluid is permitted to thicken 
to a syrup about half the sweetness of molasses ; it is then taken 
off and left to cool and settle. About twelve hours later, it is 
again put over to clarify — the white of two eggs, one quart of 
milk, and half an ounce of saleratus are allowed to fifty pounds 
of sugar — and the syrup is not permitted to boil until the scum has 
all risen to the surface and been removed. After this clarifying 
has been attended to, the syrup boils until on the point of grain- 
ing, as it is called, or in rilstic parlance, " sugaring down ;" it is 
then taken from the fire and placed in tin pans to cool and form 
the " grain ;" when this process of graining has thoroughly com- 
menced, the new sugar is placed in moulds to drain — the harder 
particles adhering together as the sugar, the liquid portion, or 
molasses, dropping into a receptacle for the purpose. Of course, 
as soon as the boiler has been emptied it is filled up with new sap, 
and the same process is repeated vmtil the season has passed, or 
the amount required is made. 
There are at present farms in this county where two or three 
thousand pounds of sugar are prepared in one season. Formerly 
much of our sugar was sent to Albany and New York, and a 
portion is. still sold there to the confectioners. During the early 
history of the county, half a century since, rents were usually 
paid in produce — wheat, potash, sugar, &c., &c. — for the conveni- 
ence of the tenants, and it is on record that in one year sixty 
