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576 Two Days in a Sugar Plantation. 
operation of weeding has been several times performed, 
may be left to grow and ripen. 
Some canes are cut before Christmas, for the purpose of 
obtaining plants, but they are generally waterish, and do 
not yield much sugar. Directly the canes are ripe, a 
gang is put on to the field it is intended to reap, and 
with the billhook all the trash about the root of the cane 
is removed, and when it is quite cleared away, the cane is 
cut. As some canes are very long, they require to be 
severed into lengths of about eighteen inches, which are 
tied up into bundles containing from ten to twenty pieces. 
A difficulty often arises from the hilly nature of the 
country, which renders it impossible to bring the carts 
within half a mile of the cane-piece. When this is the 
case, mules are employed to convey the bundles to the 
carts. 
The canes are now carted to the mill, where they are © 
pressed between rollers, and the juice which is ex- 
pressed runs into a bed underneath, from which it flows 
through several strainers into a large copper, or should all 
the coppers be full, is kept in a tank until one is available. 
When a sufficient number of coppers have been filled, the 
liquor is gradually warmed, until a thin scum forms on the 
top, a quantity of temper, or Bristol lime, is now added, 
which not only separates the dirt, but also causes the proper 
crystallization of the sugar; to effect this double pur- 
pose, a great deal of care and experience are requisite. As 
soon as the juice is well tempered, it is changed from one 
copper to another, to be evaporated. The tache, or last 
copper, being directly over the fire, the liquor it contains of 
course boils first. A man is stationed at each copper, with 
a skimmer to take off the scum which boils up. Gutters 
are arranged for its reception, by means of which it runs 
into vats, and is afterwards used for the manufacture of 
rum. As the syrup in the tache decreases from evapora- 
tion, the supply is kept up from the other coppers, until 
the whole of the tempered juice has been reduced to a 
proper consistency. The temperature should now be 
tested, and when the thermometer indicates 310° Fahr., it is 
time to charge the syrupinto coolers. The eye of an expe- 
rienced boilerman will generally detect when the sugar is 
formed, but to render assurance doubly sure, the thermo- 
meter should be used. 
We will now leave the sugar in the coolers, and return 
for a while to the mill, where the crushing of canes is still 
