{"id":84938,"date":"2020-04-07T02:57:40","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T07:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/?p=84938"},"modified":"2020-01-13T19:55:32","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T00:55:32","slug":"sugar-culture-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/sugar-culture-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Southern Field and Fireside<\/em> [Augusta, GA], April 7, 1860<\/p>\n

Mr. S. B. Buckley, who is writing a series of interesting letters to the Country Gentleman<\/em> [fold in paper] the productiveness of a Texas sugar plantation:<\/p>\n

Mr. McNeel is said to be one of the best managing sugar planters in Texas, having from six to seven hundred acres in cane, which is here planted anew once in three years; but to equalize the work, one-third of the ground is replanted each year. Some planters replant their ground only once in four years. The planting begins from the middle to the last of January, with joints of cane. It is said that cane has never matured its seed, either in the United States or Cuba. The planting is here done in drills seven feet apart\u2014but in Louisiana the distance between the rows is often less by one or two feet. There, also, a hogshead of 1,000 pounds of sugar is considered a good yield for an acre, but as much as one and a half hogsheads are occasionally grown. Here two hogsheads of 1,200 pounds each have been made from an acre in one season. Of course this is an extra amount, the average in good seasons being from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of sugar per acre. Two barrels of molasses to a hogshead of sugar is the general proportion. The cane is worked with the plow until the last of June or the first of July, when its tops meet and shade the ground so as to prevent the growth of weeds the crop is \u201claid by.\u201d The grinding of cane commences from the 10th to the 20th of November, and lasts until it is time to plow for a new crop. One acre of cane will replant six, which is generally saved at the commencement of cutting in the field for fear of frost, which commonly comes and destroys a large proportion of the crops, as was the cane this season. Dry and cold weather are the great drawbacks upon the profits of sugar making, which otherwise be much more profitable than the cultivation of cotton; besides, to carry on the latter business, a much less investment of capital is required. I have read of the severe labor required on a sugar plantation\u2014how that the negroes were worked to death, and had to be renewed every few years. So far from this being the case, the average length of life among the sugar-planting negroes is greater than that of the whites, and negroes prefer that business to the making of cotton. On Mr. McNeel\u2019s plantation \u201cold Daddy Prince\u201d died a few years ago, aged 101 years, and there is now living there \u201cJim Grandpa,\u201d a long gray-bearded patriarch upwards of 90 years old, surrounded by great great grandchildren. This old negro has been \u201claid by,\u201d and not worked for Mr. McNeel during the last thirty years. All of Mr. N.\u2019s negro houses are of brick, plastered and well-furnished. I was in one for four persons, which cost $2,000. Mr. M. is a true philosopher, who has discovered that he can realize the greatest amount of happiness in making all his dependants \u00a0cheerful and comfortable. He deserves no credit for this. It is for his interest pecuniarily; and at the same time readers his home pleasant, by surrounding it with smiling appurtenances, all of which tend to increase the sum total of his enjoyment. There is a happiness in doing good\u2014there is a pleasure in making others happy.<\/p>\n

S. B. Buckley.
\nBrazoria Co., Texas, Jan. 1860.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Southern Field and Fireside [Augusta, GA], April 7, 1860 Mr. S. B. Buckley, who is writing a series of interesting letters to the Country Gentleman [fold in paper] the productiveness of a Texas sugar plantation: Mr. McNeel is said to be one of the best managing sugar planters in Texas, having from six to seven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":84027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-84938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news-of-the-day"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/old-newspaper-thumbnail.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}