Mule
Day, (Calvary, Georgia)
The Lions Club in
Calvary, Georgia, sponsors an annual Mule Day. This is a
phenomenally successful event, attracting about 600 vendors
and tens of thousands of people. A focus of the day is
production of sugar-cane syrup, which they do with both
horse mill & kettle as well as with power mill and
evaporator. Syrup is also produced for several days leading
up to the event. Many people favor their syrup, and some
purchase it by the case. (My thanks to Mr. Robert Lee for
identifying the mills and explaining the process.)
Slides 1,
2,
3,
and 4
show the mule-powered set-up and the typical kettle
arrangement. Circumstances did not permit me to get the
number off the mill, but I believe that it is a Golden No.
4x.
Slides 5,
6,
7,
and 8
show various shots of several men feeding a Chattanooga No.
72, which is rigged to a tractor pto.
Slides 9,
10,
11
are different views of a Golden No.36. Note the beads
welded onto the worn rollers.
Slides 12
and 13
are of a second Golden No.36. This one is in operation and
feeding juice into a storage vat inside the evaporator shed.
Note the safety shield and the conveyor for removing bagasse.
Slides 14
and 15
are of a Columbus No.18 mill that was sold by Roddenbery
Hardware Store in Cairo, Georgia.
The warming pan (Slide 16)
holds the juice before it
goes into the copper evaporator. Slide 17
puts the warming pan in the background and the "syrup
end" of the copper evaporator in the foreground. Slides
18
and 19
are full views of the evaporator pan.
Slide
20, shows syrup coming off, and Slide
21, is the bottling station.
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