Sugar Loaf

“ The scum should always be reserved when charcoal or black is not used, to mix with the articles of an inferior quality.
The best refined loaf sugar should be white, dry, fine, of a brilliant sparkling appearance, when broken, and as close in texture as possible. The best sort of brown has a bright, sparkling, and gravelly look. East India sugars appear finer, but do not contain so much saccharine matter, yet they are much used for manufacturing the best sort of common sweetmeats, when clarified, instead of loaf sugar. ”

“ If you wish your sweetmeats to look bright and clear, use only the very best loaf-sugar. Fruit may be preserved for family use and for common purposes, in sugar of inferior quality, but it will never have a good appearance, and it is also more liable to spoil.
If too small a proportion of sugar is allowed to the fruit, it will certainly not keep well. When this experiment is tried it is generally found to be false economy; as sweetmeats, when they begin to spoil, can only be recovered and made eatable by boiling them over again with additional sugar ”

“ Then take half a pound of loaf-sugar in lumps, and rub on them the yellow rind of two lemons. Mix together the strained juice of the lemons, and two glasses of sherry or madeira, and a glass of brandy; pour it upon the sugar; and when the sugar is entirely dissolved, mix it with a quart of rich cream, and whip it with rods or a whisk to a stiff froth. Take off the froth as it stiffens, and add it gradually to the custard, stirring it very hard, at the time ”

“ To every pound of fruit allow a pound of the best double-refined loaf sugar. Make a syrup of the water in which the quinces were boiled, allowing half a pint of this water to every pound of sugar. When melted, set it in a porcelain kettle over a moderate fire, and boil and skim it till no more scum appears. Then put in the fruit, either whole or quartered, or cut into circular slices about half an inch thick ”

“ The sugar-maker's bark-covered hut contains his bedding and provisions, consisting of little save the huge round loaf of bread, known as the "shanty loaf"—his beverage, or substitute for tea, is made of the leaves of the winter green, or the hemlock boughs which grow beside him, and his sweetening being handy bye, he wants nothing more. A notch is cut in the tree, from which the sap flows, and beneath it a piece of shingle is inserted for a spout to conduct it into troughs, or bark dishes, placed at the foot of the tree. ”

“ But the bun was sweet and that was enough, sweetened with white sugar too, a rare flavor in those days. I write white sugar but its current name was loaf sugar. It came in cone-shaped packages wrapped in heavy chocolate colored paper, and this paper was used by women for dyeing. These packages were hung up over the counters of all country stores. The sale was small as it was expensive and limited in use, chiefly to the sick room, wedding and funeral feasts. ”

“ And possibly those who suppose that sugar has a bad effect upon the teeth of Europeans, may not be mistaken, for it is well known that refined loaf-sugar contains a considerable quantity of lime; and he that doubts whether lime will destroy bone of any kind, may easily ascertain the fact by experiment. ”

“ Considerable ingenuity is exerted in the adulteration of sugar. The moist sugars are mixed up with sand, salt, flour, and a variety of other ingredients of little or no cost. The loaf, or lump sugar receives the addition of lime, chalk, gypsum, plaster of paris, or any white material which will save expense to the “refiner.”
Lump, or loaf sugar, to be good, should be close, heavy, and shining: though, by the bye, some of the craft have lately contrived to introduce some sparkling par97ticles of marble, to produce the shining appearance. ”

“ The tree grows with us enormously and bears continuously. They are meat and drink in a thirsty land. Then we have the mango and maumee apple, fruits one soon becomes familiar with, after which, intimacy is never interrupted. But the sugar apple is, from my point of view and experience, the choicest of all. There is nothing comparable to it. “Exquisite” is a nice word, and orange, mango, maumee, avocado pear, pine-apple, banana, are names, the bare mention of which sets one’s mouth watering, but gentlemen, they are all, compared with the sugar apple, common things! ”

“ Really, if there exist anywhere on earth a Society for the promotion and encouragement of good manners, it should send a diploma to Don Juan, admonishing him only to omit the vinegar-fruit in his further walks of hospitality.
We take the Sunday to visit the nearest Sugar-plantation, belonging to Don Jacinto Gonzales. Sun, not shade, being the desideratum in sugar-planting, there are few trees or shrubs bordering the sugar-fields, which resemble at a distance our own fields of Indian corn, the green of the leaves being lighter, and a pale blue blossom appearing here and there. ”

“ Sugaring-off is the final process of sugar-making, when the syrup into which the sap has been made by long boiling down, is clarified and skimmed and boiled still until it is clear as amber, ready, when cooled, to become a solid mass of glittering sweetness. It is astonishing what a quantity of the warm brown liquid can be consumed with pleasure, and without satiety, and on sugaring-off days not even the half-acknowledged dread of Mr Fleming and his stern looks and ways prevented a gathering of young people larger than would have been welcome to less open-handed folk. ”

“ Powers' answer.
"I suppose sugar-beets are just like those in our gardens," ventured Van.
"No, they're not; they are, however, not unlike them. They differ in having more juice and in usually being white," replied Mr. Powers. "The ground has first to be plowed and harrowed, and is afterward laid off in eighteen-inch rows because beets, you know, are planted from seed. When the crop comes up trouble begins, for it has to be thinned until each plant has a good area in which to grow; the beets must also be carefully weeded and the soil round them loosened if they are to thrive." ”

“ It was either this or a straight sledge, and we happened to be using the sledges collecting sap."
"Are you sugaring off already?" questioned Bob with evident disappointment. "I understood Father to say we'd get here in time to be in on that."
"Bless your soul, Mr. Bob, you'll see all you want of it," was David's quick answer. "There's gallons of sap that hasn't been boiled down yet. It's a great year for maple-sugar, a great year."
"Are some years better than others?" Van inquired.
"Yes, indeed. What you want to make the sap run is a good cold snap, followed by a thaw. ”

“ In the north climatic conditions are not so good, and consequently all of the large sugar enterprises are to be found in the south. Ploughing by the natives is poorly done with wooden ploughs, but the modern plantations use steam ploughs with excellent results. Cane is planted every year and there are no ratoon crops. Grinding usually takes 150 days, beginning in November and ending in May.
The old-fashioned mills turn out a soft brown or yellowish white, open-pan sugar. ”

“ Visits to these sugar camps are a great amusement of the young people of the neighbourhood in which they are, who make parties for that purpose—the great treat is the candy, made by dashing the boiling syrup on the snow, where it instantly congeals, transparent and crisp, into sheets. ”

“ They throve extremely well and a former resident of Savannah who had moved to Louisiana and become a planter there, having heard about them, secured some for seed purposes. His experiment proved wonderfully successful and from this single estate the cultivation of the new canes spread over the entire sugar-producing region. As these varieties could stand greater cold than the Creole and the Tahiti, the planters were able to extend their growing area northward and in this way greatly increase their acreage. ”

“ The quantity of sugar produced in Spain, however, is small, the crop of 1914-15 amounting to less than 8000 tons.
Sugar cane thrives best in a moist, warm climate, with moderate intervals of dry, hot weather, and plenty of water for irrigation. It requires marly soil, free from saline ingredients. As a rule, it is raised on the lowlands, where the temperature is highest and where it is easy to bring water for irrigation. In Hawaii it takes eighteen months to ripen, and “tasseling” occurs about thirty days before it is ready to be cut. ”

“ Already, from the balcony of one house, no less than seven shafts can be seen puffing away the fumes of boiling syrup; and, when labour is supplied to Natal, this necessary for the artisan of the mother country will be supplied at a much reduced price, completely driving slave-grown sugar out of the market. The growing of mealies, or Indian corn, may be carried on at the same time as that of sugar. The mealies ought to be grown in every other row of the cane, and about twice the distance apart of the cane roots. ”

“ The advent of the sugaring season is looked forward to with joy by the young people in those districts of New England where the sugar-maple grows freely. When the sap begins to flow they know that there will be fun galore, and they watch eagerly for the first mild days that will encourage the farmers to get out the sugar-buckets. ”

“ In 1906 the area under cultivation in Jamaica was 750,000 acres and of this only 26,000 were devoted to cane. Sugar planting has been in a stagnant condition for years and only a limited number of the estates that still carry on the industry are making money. Many have stopped growing cane entirely and have turned to bananas, cocoanuts, coffee or cattle raising. In certain districts there is plenty of fertile alluvial land, ample water and cheap labor, but proper cultivation is lacking, so that the results are far from what they should be. ”

“ A large proportion of the agricultural area is needed for crops of food to nourish the inhabitants. The land available for sugar cane is rented at an equitable figure and, as has been said, there is always an ample supply of cheap and readily obtainable labor. The aim of the Javan planter is to produce cane carrying a high sugar content and to get as great a yield as possible. To this end, unceasing attention is paid to cultivation, fertilizing and the general well-being of the crop; in other words, the soil is worked for all there is in it. ”

“ All castes plant sugarcane, turmeric, and opium, although potatoes, tobacco, ginger, ghuiyán (arum) , shakarqand (sweet potatoes) are only grown, as a rule, by Kachhis and Muráos. "The sugar mills are always of wood. The ordinary succession is sugarcane, then wheat or gram, then barley. The produce is sold in the form of gur, or coarse brown sugar, to merchants from Shábjahánpur who make advances to the cultivators. An average crop is 1,100 lbs. per acre, and the price is about 30 tbs. for a rupee. The bye products, the crushed stalks, are in- valuable as food for cattle. ”

“ In the low latitudes of the temperate zone it is grown with only fair success.
Owing to peculiar climatic conditions, sugar cane has been raised in southern Spain for generations, notwithstanding the fact that the provinces in which the sugar cane is grown lie, roughly speaking, between thirty-six degrees and thirty-eight degrees north latitude. ”

“ But about fifty years ago, this maple sugar industry was more carefully looked after, and nowadays the well-to-do farmer has a sugar house, and a fine grove of [47] maple trees, and glittering tin sap buckets hang on all the trees; and instead of a large iron kettle for boiling the sap, evaporators have been installed, where the sap runs in thin and clear and comes out a beautiful light brown sirup.
Imagine the joy of little Oisette when she was allowed to go to a sugaring off with her little English neighbors. ”

“ Nor will he resort for a second season to a spot which does not afford ample cover, whether of heavy grass or of underwood jungle, within a certain distance, for him to fly to in case of molestation, and especially to serve as a retreat during the hot season, as otherwise he would find no shelter. The sugar-cane is his great delight, both as being his favourite food, and as affording a high, impervious, and unfrequented situation. ”

“ If the soil is not rich and moist replanting is more frequently necessary and in places like Louisiana, where there is annual frost, planting must be done each year. When the cane is ripe it is cut and brought from the field to a central sugar mill, where heavy iron rollers crush from it all the juice. This liquid drips through into troughs from which it is carried to evaporators where the water portion of the sap is eliminated and the juice left ”

“ The Indians, to whom the rising of the sap in its capillary vessels in the rock-maple is the sign of a sort of carnival, are now in the midst of their season of sugar-making. It is one of their old customs to move, men, women, children, and dogs, to their accustomed sugar-forests about the 20th of March. Besides the quantity of maple-sugar that all eat, which bears no small proportion to all that is made, some of them sell a quantity to the merchants. Their name for this species of tree is In-in-au-tig, which means man-tree. ”

“ The area devoted to cane varies year by year and runs between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000 acres, chiefly in the United Provinces, Bengal and the Punjab, although the northwest provinces, Madras, Bombay, central provinces, the Rajput states, and Burma contribute. As the cane-sugar crop of India is estimated to be between 2,225,000 and 2,500,000 tons, it would appear that the sugar realized per acre is something near one ton on an average, as against five and one-half tons in Hawaii. ”