How We are Fed Part 5

Perhaps you have noticed that rice kernels have a bluish appearance.

This is not natural, but is the result of polis.h.i.+ng. The polis.h.i.+ng removes much of the best part of the grain, but the rice sells for a higher price simply on account of its appearance.

The polis.h.i.+ng machine is cylindrical or drum-like in shape. Moosehide or sheepskin is tacked to the cylinder. It is made to revolve rapidly, so that the kernels are polished as they pa.s.s over the skin. After being polished the kernels are run through screens and sorted. The rice is then put up in barrels or sacks and s.h.i.+pped.

HOW SUGAR IS MADE

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24.--Sowing Sugar Seed.]

This picture represents one of the beginnings of the great industry of sugar making. The small objects which you see in the trenches are pieces of sugar cane. These "cuttings," as they are called, are covered with soil. They soon sprout, and from them grow the tall, waving fields of cane, which resemble cornfields. The canes are taller than cornstalks, however. How high do you think those shown in the picture are?

In about ten months after planting the cane is ready to cut. In the Southern states this work usually begins about the middle of October.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 25.--Cutting Sugar Cane.]

The canes are jointed, as cornstalks are, and the spongy substance between the joints is filled with a sweet juice. It is from this juice or sap that cane sugar is made. I have seen children chew pieces of the cane, and enjoy it as you do candy; for this use it is sometimes sold in stores in the South.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 26.--Loading Cars with Sugar Cane.]

After the canes are cut they are hauled to the mill or sugarhouse on wagons. On the large plantations _tram cars_ sometimes run right into the fields.

At the mill the canes are run between heavy rollers, which squeeze out the sap. Sometimes as many as seventy-five pounds of sap are obtained from one hundred pounds of cane. The crushed stalks are used in the mill for fuel, and the ashes are returned to the land to fertilize it.

When the juice is first pressed out, it is not at all clear in color. It is then placed in great vats or kettles and heated. This heating causes the water which is in the sap to evaporate, and it also brings some of the impurities to the top, where they are skimmed off. When the evaporating has been finished, there are two products, mola.s.ses and brown sugar.

The sugar must next be refined. For this purpose it is usually sent to cities outside of the sugar belt. There are great refineries in New Orleans, San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago, and other cities.

When the _raw sugar_, as it is called, reaches the refinery, which is generally a tall building, it is taken to the top story and dissolved in hot water. It then pa.s.ses through bags which act as _filters_, and through a great cylinder which contains burned bones, known as _bone-black_. You remember that I told you that the bones of the cattle were saved. This is one of the uses to which they are put. When the liquid comes out of this bone filter it is a perfectly clear sirup, which is then crystallized.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 27.--A Sugar Mill.]

You know that we buy refined sugar in three forms: granulated sugar, loaf sugar, and pulverized sugar. When granulated sugar is wanted, the crystals are placed in a great drum, which revolves until they are thoroughly dried in the right form. To make loaf sugar, the crystals are pressed into molds, then dried, and cut into the size desired. In powdered sugar they are simply ground to a powdered condition.

Think how much labor is required to produce sugar, and yet you can buy it for five cents a pound.

There are great fields of sugar cane in the Gulf states, in Cuba, in the Hawaiian Islands, in the East Indies, in India, and in other warm, moist parts of the world. We buy a great deal of sugar from Cuba, and from the Hawaiian Islands. To what city do you think the sugar from the Hawaiian Islands is sent?

BEET SUGAR

Although the cane fields of the moist, hot countries yield great quant.i.ties of sugar, there are other sources from which this useful product comes. In the year 1747 a German scientist discovered that sugar can be made from beets, and now about two thirds of our supply come from these plants.

The sugar beet is not just like the plant of the same name which we raise for table use. It is white, and sometimes weighs as much as ten or fifteen pounds. Beets do not need so much water nor so much heat as sugar cane, so they can be raised in Germany, France, Austria, Russia, and other countries, as well as in California, Utah, and Nebraska, in our own land.

In some parts of California there are fields of beets stretching for miles. The seeds are planted in rows, which, after the plants have come up, are thinned. In four or five months from the time the seeds are planted, the beets are ready to harvest.

On most of the large _ranches_ the beets are dug by machinery. Men then move back and forth in the fields, cutting off the leaves and a little of the upper part of the beet, for this contains too much mineral matter to be of value in making sugar. The workmen use large knives, and they walk on their knees.

The beets are now taken to the factory in wagons, or, if it is far away, they are sent on trains. When the loads of beets reach the factory, they are weighed. The teamsters then drive up an inclined plane to a plank roadway. There are generally several of these. On each side of the road or platform are deep V-shaped trenches with wooden sides, in which streams of water run. When the wagon has reached the right spot, the platform upon which it rests is raised in a slanting position, and the beets fall into the trench.

A basket full of beets is taken from each load and tested, to see how much sugar they contain, for this determines the price to be paid.

The stream of water in the trench carries the beets along, just as they would be carried in a brook. This, you see, is a quick and easy way of was.h.i.+ng them.

The streams of water carry the beets into the factory, where they are cut up into strips by machinery. The juice is then washed out in vats containing warm water, and is boiled down in great tanks. The raw sugar is refined much as the cane sugar is. After the sugar has been dried, it is run through spouts into sacks held open to catch it as it comes out.

One hundred pounds are put into each sack. One workman sews the sacks up and another wheels them to the wareroom. Train loads are carried away to be distributed in the parts of our country that do not produce sugar.

MAPLE SUGAR

You would enjoy helping to make some maple sugar, I am sure, so let us make a trip to the woods of Vermont or New York, where maple sugar is made from the sap of the sugar-maple tree.

You will need your cap and mittens, as the sugar season is the early spring, when there is yet snow on the ground. Besides, some of the work is done at night, and you will not wish to miss that.

The owner of the "sugar bush" bores holes into the trees a short distance from the ground, into which he slips small spouts, called "spiles."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 28.--Tapping a Tree.]

This is called _tapping_ the trees. Underneath the spout a pail is placed. During the day the sap trickles out and runs into the pail.

During the colder hours of the night the sap flows slowly, if at all.

Sometimes it is so cold that little sap runs for two or three days at a time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 29.--Oxen hauling Sap.]

The sap is collected in barrels and drawn on sleds to the camp or place where it is to be boiled down. This is done in great pans called _evaporators_, which may be five or six feet wide, and fifteen feet long. They are divided into sections, and these are connected by means of little openings.

The sap flows into one end of the evaporator and follows a zigzag path through the different sections. By flowing slowly over so large a surface, evaporation goes on rapidly and the sap is changed to sirup by the time it has finished its journey.

The sirup is put up in cans, or boiled down into sugar, which is molded into small cakes, and brings a high price.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 30.--Sap-yoke and Pails for gathering Sap.]

"Sugaring off," as the boiling down of the sap is called, is quite an event. Often a number of people will be invited to go to the sugarhouse and take part in the operation.

Before the modern evaporator came into use "sugaring off" always occurred at night. This was necessary, because during the day the sap buckets had to be attended to. The young people would sing songs, tell stories, and eat sugar.

Some of the "sugar bushes" contain but a few trees and some contain one or two thousand or even more. A tree will yield from one to six pounds of sugar during a season.

Our country produces great quant.i.ties of sugar every year, but we use so much that we have to buy much more than we manufacture at home. It was not always in such common use, however, because people in olden times did not understand how to make it cheaply.