Sugar Cane

We don't raise sugar cane no more, but when I were a boy we had sugar cane far as the eye could see. It were fun when time come to make syrup. My granddaddy had this old mule what he hooked up to a long pole what run up to a cane press. The mule were made to walk round in a circle. Now I reckon y'all could appreciate how dull that would be to even a mule, so grandpa put blinders on his mule, Old Sag, so he could only see straight ahead. That way he figured he were headed somewhere other than round and round. We brung the cane up from the fields on a wagon and use a machete to clean of all the dirt and rubble. The cane were shoved down into the press and the mule walking around caused the press to push all the juice out of the cane. The juice run down this wooden trough into a boiling pot what had a fire going under it. This is what made the syrup thick. None of us kids was allowed to push the cane into the press 'cause it were so dangerous. A lot of folks in Harper County was walking around with their arms shorter than they was supposed to be 'cause of sticking them too far into the press. Now all the syrup come from some big company I reckon.