CHINESE AND AFRICAN SUGAR CANE. 
355 
cess of water and gum in the juice. The plants have the 
habit of the true Sugar Cane in producing, besides the seed- 
panicles, eyes or bulbs, at the axils of its leaves, from which 
new plants may be propagated by cuttings and layers. There¬ 
fore the stalks do not necessarily cease maturing juice, when 
the seeds are matured, like corn or grain, but these axillar 
bulbs will push forth, and mature other seeds. The heat of 
summer is also unpropitious for the formation of sugar in this 
plant. Hence, other things being equal, more sugar will be 
held in solution when the thermometer sinks so low that vegeta¬ 
tion ceases at night. Even a slight frost has been supposed to 
increase the amount, which will be again diminished by an in¬ 
crease of temperature sufficient to induce vegetation to com¬ 
mence. 
So, if from want of moisture, the plants tend to wilt, or be¬ 
come pithy, there will be a deficiency in the quantity of juice. 
But unless this cause be brought to operate upon the imma- 
tured reeds, it will have no other effect than to produce a juice 
denser in saccharine matter—an advantage to be desired. 
This difference in the density, as noted by the areometer 
of Baume, is from 8° to 18°. The scale being distilled wa¬ 
ter at 60° Fahrenheit, and 40° pure sugar-house molasses. 
In Wisconsin we have sufficient rains in August and Sep¬ 
tember to continue the sap in full flow while the seeds are ma¬ 
turing, and yet the nights will be cool enough to perfect the 
product of sugar. In this particular, our climate is more fa¬ 
vorable to the production of sugar from the Chinese and Afri¬ 
can Cane, than is the climate further south, as in Kentucky ; 
where, if the seeds are planted the same time as corn, the im¬ 
mature reeds would suffer from the summer droughts ; and if 
planted early enough to escape these last, they would come to 
perfection in the height of summer heat; and so have an ex¬ 
cess of immature juice. If these things are so, then the far¬ 
mer of Wisconsin, by early planting of home-raised seeds, on 
warm soil, may safely calculate on his plants giving a full aver¬ 
age yield of juice, and of more than an average density. 
