Vol. LV. No. 2416. 
NEW YORK, MAY 16, 1896. 
*1.00 PER YEAR. 
THE SWEET SIDE OF LIFE. 
HOW THEY RAISE CANE IN WISCONSIN. 
The Whole Story Briefly Told. 
Sugar and syrups may be had at a price that, ap¬ 
parently, leaves no encouragement for the production 
of homemade sweets. But the quality of sale syrups 
is so varied and unsatisfactory, that many farmers 
are, this season, joining the few who have always 
grown cane, and will supply their table with sweets 
from their own fields. Many more would do likewise, 
if they knew that the cheap syrups of commerce have 
not an atom of sugar in them, and are not only un¬ 
wholesome, hut injurious to health. City dwellers 
know this. I have sold merchants syrup for their 
own tables at 60 cents per gallon, when they were 
selling my neighbors beautiful-looking syrup for 10 
cr 15 cents per gallon. Why ? For the same reason 
that they buy of the butcher leaf lard in preference 
to the cotton-seed grease standing in pails on their 
shelves, or pur¬ 
chase dairy but¬ 
ter of a reliable 
farmer at 20 
cents a pound, 
when they 
could get oleo¬ 
margarine for a 
few cents. They 
wish a pure 
article of food, 
and know 
where to get it. 
A light, loamy 
soil is best 
adapted for 
producing a 
1 i gh t-colored, 
sweet, amber 
syrup. Clover 
sod, manured 
i f necessary, 
plowed the last 
of August, and 
again in April ; 
or, if there be 
no weeds, thor¬ 
oughly worked 
with a disk and 
spring- tooth 
harrow, makes 
the best seed¬ 
bed for sor¬ 
ghum cane. 
Potatoes may 
be followed by 
cane, and a good crop grown with a minimum of labor. 
Any good corn soil will support a crop of cane, but it 
needs to be in finer mechanical condition for cane 
than for the coarser growing corn. 
The field is marked one way with a sled marker 
making straight marks three feet apart and an inch 
in depth. The hills are planted 18 inches apart, 
eight kernels being dropped in a hill, and the plants 
afterward thinned to a stand of five stalks. The 
dropping soon becomes quite easy and regular by 
taking, for each hill, a pinch of seed between the 
thumb and first finger. Counting will be necessary 
only occasionally. The seed is covered by brushing 
one-half inch of soil over it from the side of the mark 
with the foot. This leaves so much of the mark un¬ 
disturbed that the first cultivation may be done be¬ 
fore the plants come up. 
Cane germinates more slowly than corn, and should 
be planted earlier than that crop is. It also grows 
more slowly*than corn after breaking ground, giving 
weeds a chance to outstrip it unless cultivation pre¬ 
cede its appearance above the surface. When we 
would usually harrow our corn, say, six days after 
planting, we cultivate the cane by the marks without 
blotting them out. Frequent, thorough, shallow and 
level cultivating, with an occasional hoeing, is con¬ 
tinued through June and the crop laid by as early in 
July as possible, that there may be a long period of 
quiet growth between cultivation and harvest. The 
longer this maturing period, the better the syrup. 
When the seed is in the dough, the cane is at its 
best It loses rapidly, both in quantity and quality, 
during the process of ripening. Thin, narrow, 
straight hardwood swords are used for stripping the 
standing cane. The topping is done also while stand¬ 
ing, with a butcher knife, and knives made from old 
scythes with the back rib removed, fitted to con¬ 
venient handles. After cutting a hill, the corn knife 
is drawn down through the butts to remove all cling¬ 
ing leaves, which are usually dead and covered with 
a dark mold very injurious to the syrup if not re¬ 
moved. Stripping, topping and cutting must follow 
each other closely. It is not too much to say that 
they should be done the same half da}q and at noon 
or night, all stalks stripped or topped should be cut. 
The bundles should be bound in at least three places, 
with binding twine, slough grass or willows. If piled 
so that air can circulate through the piles, and covered 
from rain and sun, the stalks may stand some time 
before being made up, without loss or injury. 
Crusher and evaporator should be about equal in 
capacity. If the crusher have an equal or greater 
capacity than the pan, a continuous flow of sap can 
be maintained, the evaporation be steady and rapid. 
But the reverse will not do. If the fire must be 
checked to wait for sap, a decline in quality of syrup 
is sure to follow. Our 18-foot pan is filled with pure 
water. The sap started in over the fire drives the 
water back, and reaches the back end of the pan 
syruped down without being checked in the onward 
flow so necessary in producing the best syrup. Be¬ 
tween crusher and evaporator, is a system of Biters to 
remove all impurity that can be taken from the sap 
before heating. Poplar wood and shavings are used 
for fuel ; they make very little coal, and this is 
shaken through the grate into a vat of water leaving 
only a flashy blaze under the pin. The blaze causes 
rapid evaporation without overheating. 
The smaller the quantity of syrup stored in a single 
receptacle, the better. Stone jugs and jars are best, 
but are too expensive. New casks are cheap. Old 
ones should never be used. We use five-gallon, bass¬ 
wood kegs. The syrup is drawn from the cooling vat 
through a faucet near the bottom, that no particles 
or scum that will get past the skimmers may find 
its way into the finished product. The bungs are 
kept out of the kegs for a day after placing them in 
the cellar, that all steam may escape. 
Much of the help around a cane mill must be trusty, 
almost to the point of being “ expert” ; but it may be 
“ family help.” 
A boy may 
drive the horses 
on the power. 
Another boy or 
girl may feed 
the crusher. 
They should be 
provided with 
com forta ble 
seats, and 
guarded from 
the machine. 
It is steady but 
very light 
work, since the 
stalks are fed 
from a table a 
little above the 
rollers. A good, 
careful man 
should carry 
stalks, and care 
for the mill. A 
stoker for the 
fire, two skim¬ 
mers and one 
to “temper” 
the syrup and 
keep it running 
off, complete 
the “crew” 
necessary, 
though an 
extra may find 
plenty to do 
measuring, etc., and also be on hand in case of a 
breakdown, or sickness of any of the other help. 
Wisconsin. f. m. benedict. 
R. N.-Y.—As the erection of such a plant as that 
described involves considerable outlay, and the manu¬ 
facture of a first-class product requires considerable 
skill, not every farmer can avail himself of its bene¬ 
fits. But, in some localities, a considerable business 
is done in the manufacture of syrup for others, either 
for a cash payment of a certain price per gallon, or 
for a share of the product. Some man who grows a 
large area himself, and who has the capital, may thus 
be a benefactor to his neighborhood. In these days 
of low prices for farm products, the farm should be 
made to produce as many of the family supplies as 
possible. True, the price of the sale syrups is low, 
but they are most abominably adulterated, and as a 
matter of health, it pays to produce these sweets on 
the farm. This point cannot be too strongly enforced, 
for pure food is of the greatest importance. 
