differing in this respect from the juice of the cane, which is considered particularly healthy, both man and beasts growing fat on the plantations during the seasons of working among the ripe canes. When the work at the “ bush ” is fairly commenced, the boiler is filled up from time to time with fresh sap during the first four-and-twenty hours; after that, the fluid is permitted to thicken to a syrup about half the sweetness of molasses; it is then taken off and left to cool and settle. About twelve hours later, it is again put over to clarify—the white of two eggs, one quart of milk, and half an ounce of saleratus are allowed to fifty pounds of sugar—and the syrup is not permitted to boil until the scum has all risen to the surface and been removed. After this clarifying has been attended to, the syrup boils until on the point of graining, as it is called, or in rustic parlance, “ sugaring down;” it is then taken from the fire and placed in tin pans to cool and form the “ grain;” when this process of graining has thoroughly commenced, the new sugar is placed in moulds to drain—the harder particles adhering together as the sugar, the liquid portion, or molasses, dropping into a receptacle for the purpose. Of course, as soon as the boiler has been emptied it is filled up with new sap, and the same process is repeated until the season has passed, or the amount required is made.
There are at present farms in this county where two or three thousand pounds of sugar are prepared in one season. Formerly much of our sugar was sent to Albany and New York, and a portion is still sold there to the confectioners. During the early history of the county, half a century since, rents were usually paid in produce—wheat, potash, sugar, &c., &c.—for the convenience of the tenants, and it is on record that in one year sixty
