|
Cultures of
Acadiana |
Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, December 30, 1997
Letter written in 1831 tells about Franklin, raising cane
by Jim Bradshaw
On March 16, 1831, 23 year old Joseph Warren Lyman, newly arrived in Franklin with his young bride, wrote a letter to his grandfather, Moses Long, of Hopkinton N.H., describing Franklin, its environs, and the range for sugar cultivation in the area.
This is part of the text of his letter. The complete text is printed in the Attakapas Gazette, Vol. 13.
My Dear Grand-father:
The receipt of your letter, which I have just perused, affords men indescribable pleasure; and coming as it does from one whom I have always looked, and whom I have ever been taught to respect as a second parent and by whose diligent care I have received much benefit in earlier life, I will not delay a single hour in commencing an answer and giving it to that attention which import richly deserves. You will see that I have commenced on a sheet of paper no regular size, and this I do that I may able to compress into one all the information which you desire, or at least as much as my knowledge respecting the subjects will enable me to give, for with some of those about which you enquire, I am as little acquainted as when I left the North.
Your first enquiry is respecting the country about Franklin. This ton, as you are aware, is situated on the west side of the Teche. Immediately back of the town, there commences a prairie, which extends from two miles, and is bounded on the west by the commencement of a swampy or marshy tract of land, which is thickly covered by a growth of timber.
You wish me to give you a description of the sugar cane seeds, this I have never seen as the cold season sets in too soon for the cane to produce it. Just before the time of sugar making, the planter cuts a sufficient quantity of cane and lays it into piles and partially or wholly covers it with dirty protect it from frost. these stalks are cut different lengths. The land is plowed four to six inches deep and furrows are made at the distance. The planter commences sometime in February to plant, by laying his seed cane horizontally in the furrow, and covering them, sometimes planting two stalks together, at others only one. As soon as the sprouts come up it is cultivated similar to corn, until the time of cutting.
When the cane is ripe enough to make sugar several Negroes are sent into the fields with their cane knives and while they are cutting stripping off the leaves and peelings, others are employed with their mules or horses and carts in gathering and hauling it to the sugar mill, where the process of grinding commences.
To form an adequate conception of a sugar mill, we will suppose a cider mill with three instead of two cylinders with the lever attached to the middle one. For the sake of description we will number them 1, 2, and 3. Horses being attached to the lever, you will readily understand the emotion of the mill. Then, when the mill is in motion, a Negro stands and feeds it by putting the cane in between the first and second cylinder. Once the juice is made it is brought to the kettles for boiling. There are four kettles in number, and are set in the same manner & resemble those used in making potash. They are called Grande, Flambeau, Caro, and battery or Grainer. The juice is turned into the Grande and made to a boil, a small quantity of lime added to separate impurities, and skimmers are busily employed to remove these. After boiling a certain time, it is dipped off into Flambeau, other juice instantly added to prevent cracking. Then the juice is moved from one boiler to another, and all the kettles are kept in constant ebullition. When it has arrived at the proper consistency in the Grainer, which is readily known by a good sugar boiler, one or two persons stand with their ladles and dip it out as fats as possible, into a trough which carries it into the cooler, leaving a little in the Grainer to prevent bursting. This whole process is described as a strike.
I have mentioned a cooler. This is a square vessel, resembling a cider mill trough, into which the syrup runs into the Grainer, to remain there until it is cool enough to be cooled with a shovel, when it will be carried up to the Hogsheads. At the foot of these there is a large cistern to catch all of the molasses that fall through the cracks in the trough. Negroes are almost constantly carrying sugar across the platform to the Hogsheads and are not overcautious about stepping into the molasses as it runs toward the cistern, neither will they turn their heads to one side to spit tobacco juice. Now don't let your stomach revolt for I am gravely informed that molasses will always work itself clear from impurities. Here closes the chapter on sugar.
The smallpox has been for some time raging in Natchez, it is now in New Orleans, also in Opelousas, and we are daily expecting it in this place. This is a hard country to get money in when it wants it. I have just presented an account of $40, to a wealthy planter, who says when he gets some money he will pay it; rather a short and indecisive answer, but there is no murmuring.
The distance of this town from the Gulf of Mexico is twenty miles; or it is 20 miles to the Atchafalaya Bay, and this last soon loses its name in the Mexico. The distance to Santa Fe I do not know. The nearest distance to Texas by land is about 120 to 130 miles, first going to St. Martinsville, then striking off in a Westerly direction.
Your enquiries about the seletoe, and Indigo Plant, and exhaustion of this land, I must defer to some future time, for want of room.
Your humble and dutiful relative. Joseph W. Lyman