206 
THE PHYSICIAN AN AGRICULTURIST. 
size and form of the boiler, where it will serve 
ever afterward as an unerring guide.* 
General Observations .-^-Many and various have 
been the changes in the manufacture of sugar 
within a few years. Mr. Howard’s discovery of 
evaporating syrup in vacuo, or a temperature of 
70°, was a great one, and resulted in giving him 
more wealth than his brother, the Duke of Nor¬ 
folk, probably ever possessed, but is, I believe, im¬ 
practicable on plantations, and this was the opin¬ 
ion of Mr. Howard himself. Some modifications 
had taken place of this plan before the ruin of the 
British colonies; to what useful end I know not. 
A distillery in Edinburgh introduced the con¬ 
cave bottom instead of the convex, in the form of 
his stills. Tiie excise in the British islands was 
charged upon the measure of the stills, and the 
number of hours it was worked, supposing it would 
check frauds upon the revenue. The distiller 
modified the form of his stills, and procured great 
increase of quantity; the excise law was amended 
to meet his case; he again changed his form of 
stills, and ended in being able to blow off as 
much spirits in 30 minutes as used to require 24 
hours to produce. The distiller made his fortune; 
the excise law was altogether changed. This 
form of stills was introduced into France, but the 
chemist complained, that so rapid was the evolv- 
ment of the spirits, that the brandy was deprived 
of its aroma, of all flavor from the fruit. The ac¬ 
count of this distiller’s discovery, wth the form of 
his stills, you will find in the last supplement of 
Vol. YI. to the Encyclopedia Britannica, worth all 
the rest of the work twice over. And here I will 
observe, that you can in any bookstore in New- 
York, find much better drawings than I could send 
you of either mills or boilers; even Mr. Ellsworth’s 
report for ’42 will give you every form of sugar 
mill, from the $25 mill for domestic use, to the 
horizontal mill propelled by steam or water, to 
which alone it is adapted. 
In this country, where cattle are cheap and 
abundant, and fuel neither good nor cheap, in the 
lower regions, I would recommend the vertical 
cattle mill. I fancy Louisiana has paid dearly for 
her steam mills, that have descended to her down 
the Mississippi, although they are the best for 
their cost in the world. 
Wood in Louisiana is dear and bad ; high pres¬ 
sure engines require much fuel, but little water: 
and the change they have made from cattle mills 
to steam mills has not bettered individually their 
condition. They have, however, recently adopted 
the form of the Edinburgh stills for the form of the 
bottom of their evaporating kettles, and there is 
no knowing to what extent that improvement will 
go. You can not evaporate the cane juice too rap¬ 
idly, for the first law in making raw sugar is, that 
“the cane juice should be the shortest possible 
* I am aware that Detrone, a French chemist had intro¬ 
duced both instruments upon one plantation in St. Domin¬ 
go ; but his general plans were rejected, and these two 
instruments were neglected, and it is only within a few 
years past Detrone’s plans have been published in Eng¬ 
land or America, by Porter, Philadelphia, 1831, 10 years 
after I was using the thermometer, and 20 years after I 
was using the hydrometer, which guides you as to liming 
the juice.. 
time in transito;” that is, from first being boiled 
to being finally ladled into coolers for crystalliza¬ 
tion. As to the cane sustaining any injury from 
being kept 24 hours in this climate, it is all non¬ 
sense. In Jamaica it suffers no injury in 48 hours ; 
here I have known better sugar made from cane a 
week after it was cut, than it would have made 
the first day; some of the aqueous matter has 
evaporated, and if, upon looking to the cane where 
the hatchet has separated the stalks for the 
mill from the roots, you find it red, why chop it 
off, as far up as redness extends. This is better 
far than any litmus paper will direct your black 
man what cane to give to your mill, and preserve 
you from acidity, which in our climate is rather a 
hobgoblin than a real personage. 
Since the first introduction of the cane plant, my 
friend Mr. M‘Queen, of Savannah, brought from 
Jamaica two varieties of cane, a blue riband cane, 
that is, the stem of which was beautifully striped 
down its whole extent blue and yellow, and an¬ 
other variety of cane, white and yellow. These, 
at the same time, had been introduced, with the 
green cane, by Lieut. Blight, from Otaheite. The 
first, the blue and yellow, was carried from Mr. 
M‘Queen’s plantation near Savannah, and from my 
plantation upon Sapelo Island, Georgia, to Louisi¬ 
ana, by Mr. M‘Queen’s brother, and by a Mr. Que- 
ron, who purchased some acres from me. This 
cane is so hardy, that I think it might be grown 
in warm, sandy soils, dressed with animal ma¬ 
nures and with diluted ashes, even to New York, 
for the feeding of cattle, and other useful purposes; 
the cane for planting being preserved in dry cel¬ 
lars, and only taken out for planting in warm days 
in April. The white striped cane is the tenderest 
of all the species, and in our cold seasons of years 
past, has disappeared from among us—no loss, al¬ 
though a very soft cane, and easily expressed. 
The objection to the blue striped cane, it is very 
hard to grind, and really gives but little juice at 
best; it, however, grows higher, and is adapted to 
lower grounds, to moister soils, and shorter sea¬ 
sons, and the plants are much easier preserved for 
the next year. Light frost upon the cane improves 
the juice, and we have known the green cane upon 
Sapelo Island, for a few days, give juice that gave 
13 by the hydrometer when three pounds of juice 
made a pound of sugar ; no cane in Jamaica ever 
did more. 
I will now conclude. If there are any particu¬ 
lar points you may require information upon, they 
will be replied to with pleasure, if in my power. 
Thomas Spalding. 
Sapelo Island , Ga. 
THE PHYSICIAN AN AGRICULTURIST. 
Who can be a better farmer than the country 
doctor ? With usually sufficient leisure on his 
hands to spend the necessary time in the cultiva¬ 
tion or superintendence of his acres, more or less, 
and by profession, as he should be, a tolerable nat¬ 
uralist, chemist, and an observer of the physical 
laws, with the important advantage of daily obser¬ 
vation of their husbandry, and continual and friend¬ 
ly intercourse among the farmers and gardeners of 
