SUGAR CANE. 6’3 
into the boiling-house, where the process which 
converts the juice into a solid mass is fully ex- 
plained. The nutritive quality of sugar, which has 
long been acknowledged, is strikingly apparent 
amongst the working Negroes, and the different ani- 
mals employed upon our plantations. They thrive 
exceedingly from a free use of the cane-juice ; and 
such is the pleasure they derive from it, that the 
time of crop in the sugar islands is the season of 
gladness and festivity both to man and beast. “ So 
palatable, salutary, and nourishing is the juice of 
the cane,” says Mr. Edwards, “ that every indi- 
vidual of the animal creation derives health and 
vigour from its use. The meagre and sickly among 
the Negroes exhibit a surprising alteration in a few 
weeks after the mill is set in action. The labour- 
ing horses, oxen, and mules, though almost con- 
stantly at work during this season, yet, being in- 
dulged with plenty of the green tops of this noble 
plant, and some of the scummings from the boil- 
ing-house, improve more than at any other period 
of the year. Even the pigs and poultry fatten on 
the refuse. In short, on a well regulated plantation, 
under a humane and benevolent director, there is 
such an appearance during crop time, of health, 
plenty, and busy cheerfulness, as to soften in a 
great measure the hardships of slavery, and induce 
the spectator to hope, when the miseries of life are 
represented as insupportable, that they are some- 
times exaggerated through the medium of fancy.” 
The juice is expressed from the sugar canes by 
