To All: I read and keep a lot of the stories about the "old days". I still make molasses the old fashioned way.. My cousin and I (both retired) re-stocked a very old cane mill and have made molassess the last three years.. Some very good, some not so good! We have a 130 gallon molasses pan, it takes about three hours to grind enough cane to fill the pan about full (100 gal) Then we boil and skim it for approximately 7 hours, ending up with about 10 gal. of molasses.. Neither of us knew much about making molasses when we started.. All of our neighbors came in to help us when we started boiling and we learned a lot from them. I was about ten years old when my father made about a hundred gallons just before WWII.. We had plenty of "brown sugar" during the war when sugar was rationed.. I couldn't help but notice that some of you have been calling it the "churning stick" when talking about making butter, well that is actually the "churn dasher".. it had cross pieces on the end which "beat" the sour cream and separated the butter from the butter milk.. By adding a little hot water, the butter would form quicker but it came out white instead of yellow... I've deen down all these roads when I was a boy! G. Lee Hearl... Authentic Appalachain Storyteller.. Abingdon, Va...