The Sugarcane Year
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The Sugarcane Year |
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January-February-March |
April-May-June |
July-August-September |
October-November-December |
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Completing harvesting/grinding; planting cane; plowing fields and cleaning drainage ditches; chopping wood; marketing of previous year's crop
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Planting corn, peas, and potatoes; plowing/hoeing cane & food crop fields; repairing drainage ditches; marketing of previous year's crops
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"Laying by of the crop"; getting ready for harvest; cutting wood for the sugar mill, making barrels, repairing & whitewashing buildings; cleaning ditches; harvesting corn; gathering fodder for livestock; repairing cane knives and mill equipment
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Harvesting cane and making sugar; cutting cane & hauling to mill which ran 24 hours per day; putting up seed cane for next year's crop in "mattresses" to protect it until sugarmaking is complete and there are hands to plant it in the newly plowed fields; begin planting if time, but rarely started until grinding completed in January | |
| "I have been very much occupied with sugar making, which has been slow & protracted with me in consequence of the greenedd of the cane, the juice required a great deal of boiling. I should finish to morrow with about 525 hhds, a very good crop, much better than expected." - W.F. Weeks to J. Moore, Jan 4, 1853 | "Sugar is worth from 5 3/4 to 6 1/4 cts. [per pound], molasses 26 to 28 [cents per gallon] on the levee...England has made alteration in her tariff laws, that prove very beneficial to the planting interest of the south and I think to the whole United States." -W.B. Prescott to father-in-law J.Moore, April 1, 1845 |
William F Weeks, age 17 |
"We have had fine rains lately which has greatly improved the cane. I was quite disenheartened at one time, but I think we will make a pretty good crop." -W.F. Weeks to M.C. Moore, Aug. 19, 1852 |
"We are getting on very well... there had been a great improvement in the boiling of the kettles. We are now making about 10 hhds in 24 hours. The kettles seem pass anything we have ever had, ripe cane will make from 12 to 14 hhds easily. The cane up to this time has given 1 hhd per acre." -W.F. Weeks to J. Moore, Nov. 6, 1854
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Grand Cote Mill and Freed Men
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"Most of our corn is lost beyond hope [due to drought]. The Charbon [disease that killed mules] is still prevailing. I am afraid to send the mules away as in that event the crop would suffer and if we fail in our cane crop we will have nothing to buy mules or anything else, upon the Whole I think it best to go ahead & risk it." -W.F. Weeks to M.C. Moore, June 7, 1855
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"I am sorry to tell you that I find things looking as bad as they can look. We have not had a drop of rain at the Sugar house nor in the greater part of the field, the corn is smaller than it was two weeks ago...it is yellow & twisted, in short I never saw anything like it. I see no chance for us to make anything like a crop..." -W. F. Weeks to his wife, Mary P. Weeks, Aug. 21, 1860
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"[W]e have made no sugar since Tuesday night, when we discovered the boilers to be leaking. They had to be taken up and turned over and tin patches put on, which took until this morning. We have started again and I hope will be able to get on. The boilers are very old, having been in use seventeen years. They will have to be replaced by new ones next year. The cane is good yet. We have a great deal piled up at the mill hauled during the repairs of the boilers." -W.F. weeks to M. C. Moore, Dec 1857 | |
| "The southern Sugar Markets are very dull. I am told it is doing better at the north, but it is impossible to get vessels in the Teche. I sent 152 hhds. to Mobile, I fear it cannot be sold, as the market is full of clarified sugar from N. Orleans, perhaps it will be better as the season advances." -W.F. Weeks to J. Moore, Jan 4, 1853 |
"Mr. William Wagner just called to see if he could get my crop of sugar to boil this year. His price is a dollar a hogshead." -H.W. Meade to brother W.F. Weeks, June 15, 1857
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"I write to say that we are all well here-with little or nothing to do. [W]e are nearly ready for Sugar Making, but the cane is sadly deficient, & from the continued dry weather I see but little prospect of improvement-I have never seen the Island look worse, the Cane is whithering & is not larger than it should be on the first of August, indeed it has grown none since that time." -W.F. Weeks to M.C. Moore, Sept. 28, 1850
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"We have made a start, the bagasser [bagasse burning furnace] does not work well-I have written to Mr. Thompson to come up- he may be able to make it right. I can say nothing of the yield of the cane-it appears to be dry. We have had two frosts, which have killed the bud of the cane in some of the low places. The hills are as green as ever." -W.F. Weeks to J. Moore, Nov. 1, 1859 | |
| "We are having fine weather now. I will endeavor to get some sugar made, tho' I will have to cut some wood which may detain us a few days. I hope to have 800 hhds. on Monday next and to finish on the following Monday with between 850 and 900-Our windrowed cane is perfectly good, and so is the seed [cane] as far as I have examined." -W.F. Weeks to M.C. Moore, Jan. 20, 1859 | "We are having fine weather now. I will endeavor to get some sugar made, tho' I will have to cut some wood which may detain us a few days. I hope to have 800 hhds. on Monday next and to finish on the following Monday with between 850 and 900-Our windrowed cane is perfectly good, and so is the seed [cane] as far as I have examined." -W.F. Weeks to M.C. Moore, Jan. 20, 1859 "I owe the bearer of this [note], Mr. Kennedy $320 for ditching and making a levee for me and digging some wells." A.C. Weeks to unknown, April 20, 1858 |
"[H]e [William F. Weeks] has been constantly on the run to try and be prepared to have the crop of sugar taken off, has found great difficulty to get suitable workmen to put up the cane shed and to procure mules at reasonable prices-they are asking $200 to $225 for good mules." J. Moore to C.C. Weeks, Sept. 23, 1857
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William F. Weeks |
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