I have received permission to transmit to your Grace
the following extract from a letter containing Sir William Macarthur's
opinion of the samples submitted to him:--"I yesterday made several
trials of the juice of the sugar cane forwarded by Mr. Aldridge, of
Maryborough.
"As I had to extract the juice by pounding the cane in a mortar, I only
experimented upon the largest and the smallest of the three forwarded.
As they appear to have excited some attention, I may mention that they
were quite ripe, of a bright, yellowish-brown colour, with the joints
from two to five inches apart, the largest being about ten feet long,
not quite eight inches in circumference, and weighing just eighteen
pounds. About three feet of the upper end, however, was too
short-jointed to yield abundantly, and hardly ripe.
"The walls of this cane were exceedingly thick, giving it great
stiffness, and solidity to resist storms of wind. It proved to be hardly
so juicy as I expected.
"I understood you to say that these canes had been produced in eight or
nine months from being planted, and without any particular care.
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