Got My SECOND Capped Bust Ever--Cane Field Hunt!

[BuckleBoy]

Hey all,

Well, I was recently bemoaning the fact that I hadn't been out digging for so long due to the crappy rain that has been dumping on us, making all digging impossible. The rain is ok when you can walk the row tops before planting, but when there is a ton of rain after the cane has rattooned, you're asking for trouble with a property owner if you walk the tops of the rows to avoid the mud!

As luck would have it, Shanegalang and I both got the day free, so we decided to hit the fields in advance of the tropical storm brewing in the gulf! Glad we went. Hit up our old trusty tavern site. She has been pounded hard over the past two years, and the signals are few and far between. Worked about 7 hours for the combined finds you see below.

Here's the video for this excellent hunt:



One of the first finds I made I eyeballed where it had washed out of the rows from the hard rain. Laying there face-up in the sunshine was an 1832 Capped Bust half dime! It took me 20 years to find my first one (thanks, Hill Billy!)--but I'm glad it didn't take me another 20 to dig Capped #2!



Next thing I know, Shanegalang's got him a Shield Nickel. When I round the next row, he's in a digging frenzy, bagging a worn-smooth nickel (second Shield) and a silver spoon handle. I got a couple flat buttons, half a pewter button, and picked up a couple clay pipe stems to add to the collection. Next thing I know, he's got a KILLER Federal Era watch winder with a man on horseback on one side, and an angel/cherub with bow and arrow on the other!



I got part of a spur and a couple musketballs on the next swath, which was some consolation. Then I dug a tiny buckle which I think may be a knee buckle (see my finds photo below). I'd appreciate someone giving me the "yes" or "no" on the ID of the tiny buckle.

Finally I dug a piece which I suspected might be a piece of my Spanish Military Cap Badge. I have been trying to find more of this every hunt, hoping that even though the signals have dwindled at the site, that there is more of it to be found. Right now I am missing 50% of the cap badge, and was concerned that someone might have broken the badge in half before tossing it out, and only half was there. Well, this find today gives me hope that the rest is out there somewhere. It is the lowest bit of THE OTHER HALF of the badge! (Basically, the ornamental feathers terminate in an eagle claw on the lower left.)



Here are some of the other finds. Not sure what the first button means. It says "WARRANTED TO NOT CUT"



Here is a fragment of pottery of a type I have not seen before. Any ideas on the age?



Now, fragments like the one below I have found before. It is redware with a brown glaze and rim frosting on the reverse side:



At any rate, here are the finds photos for myself and Shanegalang:



And a photo of the new piece of the lower left half of the Spanish Cap Badge in the display with the right half that I had previously recovered. Nice display from that site. Shame the targets are getting thin out there.




Best Wishes,


Buck

 

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[BuckleBoy]

Nice going on the silver and the great looking watch winder .
This might be a stupid question and you might have stated the answer many times but being thick skulled I ask again, are the cane fields plowed at all or do they stay the same basically. I just don't know anything about the way they're planted or harvested.

For those who don't know, here's a quick summary of the sugar cane cycle:

The sugar cane cycle is three years. So that means that after it is planted, the next time the ground will be plowed will be three years in the future, at harvest time. The cane is planted in late summer. That is called "seed cane," and it comes from a first-year crop of existing cane, which is basically cut into long stalks and buried in an elevated row, from which it "rattoons" or sprouts out of each joint in the stalk and grows. (Due to the volume of rain in this semi-tropical climate here, the crops are all planted in elevated rows so that the roots don't rot. An elaborate system of drainage ditches allows the water to be "drawn off" the land in the direction of the backswamp as well as the River or other waterways.) The cane is cut the first time the following October (basically a 13-14 month growing cycle) and the leaves and chaff that the combine spits out are burned in huge fire lines that light up the sky at night all over South Louisiana as they burn their way across vast farm fields from mid october through mid november. Below is a short 20 second video I posted last fall. That is a small field. Imagine the fields we hunt which are several miles long and a mile wide. Looks like the gates of hell.



The fires create a heavy layer of black ash which can do awful things to your clothing and gloves, and the air quality is awful in terms of breathing the smoke from the fire lines. Those fires are part of the reason we find coins and relics that look burned or charred in the fields... Then the cane will sprout again from existing stalks a second time beginning in the early part of the year. That batch will be cut again the following october (second cutting), and and fields burned again, and the cane will start to sprout again a third time in the early spring. After the third cutting, the fields will either be burned or the shucked leaves plowed under (deep plow), and the fields rolled flat. Usually the plowing takes place a little after harvest, late in the year or early in the next year. Sometimes an intervening soybean crop will be planted, and in that case the ground will be rowed up, and planted in Spring. If the next crop is to be another 3-year cycle of cane, then the cane will be planted in mid-to-late August. If an intervening crop is planted, often the rows will be opened after harvest of the soybeans, and the new cane will be planted in the old rows within a span of several days. The beans do not ripen on their own, but are rather sprayed with a chemical to dry them out for harvesting prematurely. Crop duster planes normally fly in late summer to spray the fields to keep the cane creeper vines from choking the crop. Often the furrows between the cane rows are dug out as they wash down from the frequent rains, and the dirt heaped up on top of the rows again at the base of the growing cane. That usually happens several times a year, and it can make it hard to walk between the rows. Sugarcane is sharp, and it will cut your skin like razors if you try to walk between the rows. By summer, you'd better have long sleeves on, and later on in the year you might as well forget it (when the cane is 10 feet tall). Sugarcane (and soy) rows are a standard of about 24 inches high and the middle of the top of each row is exactly six feet from the middle of the next row. Makes it hard to cross the rows horizontally. Easier for time and especially energy to walk down a row to the end, and then cross over, or find a dry quarter drain to cross the field on a perpendicular.

Here are two more videos of the cane fires. I find these fires to be rather shocking when you see them in person.

 

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[wheatfinder13]

Awesome capped silver

 

[BuckleBoy]

He is a walking relic identifier with a gold horse shoe where the sun dont shine. All jokes aside, he teaches me a great deal about this hobby and everything that goes along with it.

Man, I'm just glad to have a good diggin buddy down here! Been a great 2 years for us, and I can't wait to see what the next dig brings. I'd offer ya the horseshoe, but you prolly wouldn't want it after where it's been.

 

[nsdq]

WOW...................................................

 

[The Rebel]

WTG BB!

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

I'll "parrott" what other have said. VERY nice watch winder, something that I've not com across as of yet. and congrats on your second capped. I did manage of of those last year.

 

[detroitdigger]

Sweet finds, congrats on the capped bust,amazing finds! HH