Of the sugar cane, and the extraction of sugar from it

—Humboldt, after the most elaborate historical and botanical researches in the New World, has arrived at the conclusion, that before America was discovered by the Spaniards, the inhabitants of that continent and the adjacent islands were entirely unacquainted with the sugar canes, with any of our corn plants, and with rice. The progre ive diffusion of the cane has been thus traced out by the partisans of its oriental origin. From the interior of Asia it was transplanted first into Cyprus, and thence into Sicily, or po ibly by the Saracens directly into the latter island, in which a large quantity of sugar was manufactured in the year 1148. Lafitau relates the donation made by William the Second, king of Sicily, to the convent of St. Benoit, of a mill for crushing sugar canes, along with all its privileges, workmen, and dependencies: which remarkable gift bears the date of 1166. According to this author, the sugar cane must have been imported into Europe at the period of the Crusades. The monk Albert us Aquensis, in the description which he has given of the proce es employed at Acre and at Tripoli to extract sugar, says, that in the Holy Land, the Christian soldiers being short of provisions, had recourse to sugar canes, which they chewed for subsistence. Towards the year 1420, Dom Henry, regent of Portugal, caused the sugar cane to be imported into Madeira from Sicily. This plant succeeded perfectly in Madeira and the Canaries; and until the discovery of America these islands supplied Europe with the greater portion of the sugar which it consumed. The cane is said by some to have pa ed from the Canaries into the Brazils; but by others, from the coast of Angola in Africa, where the Portuguese had a sugar colony. It was transported in 1506, from the Brazils and the Canaries, into Hispaniola or Hayti, where several crushing-mills were constructed in a short time. It would appear, moreover, from the statement of Peter Martyr, in the third book of his first Decade, written during the second expedition of Christopher Columbus, which happened between 1493 and 1495, that even at this date the cultivation of the sugar cane was widely spread in St. Domingo. It may therefore be supposed to have been introduced here by Columbus himself, at his first voyage, along with other productions of Spain and the Canaries, and that its cultivation had come into considerable activity at the period of his second expedition. Towards the middle of the 17th century, the sugar cane was imported into Barb a does from Brazil, then into the other English West Indian po e ions, into the Spanish Islands on the coast of America, into Mexico, Peru, Chile, and, last of all, into the French, Dutch, and Danish colonies. The sugar cane, Arundo sac char if era , is a plant of the gram in i fer ous family, which varies in height from 8 to 10, or even to 20 feet. Its diameter is about an inch and a half; its stem is dense, brittle, and of a green hue, which verges to yellow at the approach of maturity. It is divided by prominent annular joints of a whitish-yellow colour, the plane of which is perpendicular to the axis of the stem. These joints are placed about 3 inches apart; and send forth leaves, which fall off with the ripening of the plant. The leaves are 3 or 4 feet long, flat, straight, pointed, from 1 to 2 inches in breadth, of a sea-green tint, striated in their length, alternate, embracing the stem by their base. They are marked along their edges with almost imperceptible teeth. In the 11th or 12th month of their growth, the canes push forth at their top a sprout 7 or 8 feet in height, nearly half an inch in diameter, smooth, and without joints, to which the name arrow is given. This is terminated by an ample panicle, about 2 feet long, divided into several knotty ramifications, composed of very numerous flowers, of a white colour, apetalous, and furnished with 3 stamens, the anthers of which are a little oblong. The roots of the sugar cane are jointed and nearly cylindrical; in diameter they are about one twelfth of an inch; in their utmost length 1 foot, presenting over their surface a few short radicles. The stem of the cane in its ripe state is heavy, very smooth, brittle, of a yellowish-violet, or whitish colour, according to the variety. It is filled with a fibrous, spongy, dirty-white pith, which contains very abundant sweet juice. This juice is elaborated separately in each internodary portion, the functions of which are in this respect independent of the portions above and below. The cane may be propagated by seeds or buds with equal facility; but it is usually done by cuttings or joints of proper lengths, from 15 to 20 inches, in proportion to the nearne of the joints, which are generally taken from the tops of the canes, just below the leaves. There are several varieties of the sugar-cane plant. The first, and longest known, is the creole, or common sugar cane, which was originally introduced at Madeira. It grows freely in every region within the tropics, on a moist soil, even at an elevation of 3000 feet above the level of the sea. In Mexico, among the mountains of Caudina-Masca, it is cultivated to a height of more than 5000 feet. The quantity and quality of sugar which it yields, is proportional to the heat of the place where it grows, provided it be not too moist and marshy. The second variety of this plant is the Otaheitan cane. It was introduced into the West Indies about the end of the 18th century. This variety, stronger, taller, with longer spaces between the joints, quicker in its growth, and much more productive in sugar, succeeds perfectly well in lands which seem too much impoverished to grow the ordinary cane. It sends forth shoots at temperatures which chill the growth and development of the creole plant. Its maturation does not take more than a year, and is accomplished sometimes in nine months. From the strength of its stem, and the woodine of its fibres, it better resists the storms. It displays a better inflorescence, weighs a third more, affords a sixth more juice, and a fourth more sugar, than the common variety. Its main advantage, however, is to yield four crops in the same time that the creole cane yields only three. Its juice contains le feculency and mucilage, whence its sugar is more easily crystallized, and of a fairer colour. Besides these two varieties, another kind is described by Humboldt and Bonpland, under the name of the violet sugar-cane, for its haum and leaves are of this colour. It was transported from Batavia in 1782. It flowers a month sooner than the rest, that is, in August, but it yields le solid sugar, and more liquid, both of which have a violet tint. In saying that the cane may be propagated by seeds as well as buds, we must remark, that in all the colonies of the New World, the plant flowers, indeed, but it then sends forth a shoot ( arrow ), that is, its stem elongates, and the seed-ve el proves abortive. For this reason, the bud-joints must there be used for its propagation. It grows to seed, however, in India. This circumstance occurs with some other plants, which, when propagated by their roots, cease to yield fertile seeds; such as the banana, the bread-fruit, the lily, and the tulip. In the proper season for planting, the ground is marked out by a line into rows three or four feet asunder, in which rows the canes are planted about two feet apart. The series of rows is divided into pieces of land 60 or 70 feet broad, leaving spaces of about 20 feet, for the convenience of pa age, and for the admi ion of sun and air between the stems. Canes are usually planted in trenches, about 6 or 8 inches deep, made with the hand-hoe, the raised soil being heaped to one side, for covering-in the young cane; into the holes a negro drops the number of cuttings intended to be inserted, the digging being performed by other negroes. The earth is then drawn about the hillocks with the hoe. This labour has been, however, in many places better and more cheaply performed by the plough; a deep furrow being made, into which the cuttings are regularly planted, and the mould then properly turned in. If the ground is to be afterwards kept clear by the horse-hoe, the rows of canes should be 5 feet asunder, and the hillocks 2 1 ⁄ 2 feet distant, with only one cane left in one hillock. After some shoots appear, the sooner the horse-hoe is used, the more will the plants thrive, by keeping the weeds under, and stirring up the soil. Plant-canes of the first growth have been known to yield, on the brick-mould of Jamaica, in very fine seasons, 2 1 ⁄ 2 tons of sugar per acre. The proper season for planting the cane-slips, containing the buds, namely, the top part of the cane, stripped of its leaves, and the two or three upper joints, is in the interval between August and the beginning of November. Favoured by the autumnal weather, the young plants become luxuriant enough to shade the ground before the dry season sets in; thereby keeping the roots cool and moderately moist. By this arrangement the creole canes are ripe for the mill in the beginning of the second year, so as to enable the manager to finish his crop early in June. There is no greater error in the colonist than planting canes at an improper season of the year, whereby his whole system of operations becomes disturbed and, in a certain degree, abortive. The withering and fall of a leaf afford a good criterion of the maturity of the cane-joint to which it belonged; so that the eight last leafle joints of two canes, which are cut the same day, have exactly the same age and the same ripene , though one of the canes be 15 and the other only 10 months old. Those, however, cut towards the end of the dry season, before the rains begin to fall, produce better sugar than those cut in the rainy season, as they are then somewhat diluted with watery juice, and require more evaporation to form sugar. It may be reckoned a fair average product, when one pound of sugar is obtained from one gallon (English) of juice.