| 72°37 | SUGAR CANE
By Ww. C.’Sruses
Director of Louisiana Sugar Experiment Station

Sugar cane was introduced into Louisiana by the Jesuits
in 1757, began to be extensively cultivated in 1795, and
since that time it has been the chief crop of south Louisi-
ana. It is cultivated along the entire Gulf and South
Atlantic coasts. In Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
South Carolina, north Louisiana, and north Texas it is
manufactured into syrup, while in south Louisiana and
south Texas it is converted into sugar and molasses.

Description of Sugar Cane. Sugar cane is a gigantic
grass with fibrous roots which reach laterally in every direc-
tion. The stalk is a cylinder, varying in diameter from
one to two inches, with nodes and internodes (joints), the
latter varying in length from two to even six inches.
These stalks vary greatly in color, running through white,
yellow, green, red, purple, black, and even striped with two
or more of these colors. The leaves, grown on alternate
sides of the stalk, are clasping at first, but gradually ripen
and fall off as the cane matures. In _some varieties the
lower part of the leaves (shea with minute
prickles, which sometimés pai
the cane cutters. The joints ma
as each ripens it casts its leat ;

pee ee
Copyright, 1903, by Ginn & Company. °

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AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS

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the harvest has a few
leaves only at the top.
Under each leaf and
on alternate sides of
the cane is a bud or
eye from which the
cane is usually prop-
agated. A -elgee
examination of the
“eye” will Geveam
rows of “dots,” each
marking the place
from which a root
will sprout when the
cane is placed in a
moist soil.

In tropical coun-
tries the sugar cane
at maturity some-
times ‘ flowers” or
“tassels” iiaeee
tassels are panicles
of silken spikes on

. large. peduncles, re-

sembling very much
a plume of pampas
grass. Very few of
the seeds produced
are fertile. This is
due doubtless to the
fact that the cane

SUGAR CANE 3

has been so long propagated from cuttings (‘eyes’’) that
the flowers have lost vigor. The sugar is found in solu-
tion in the large pith cells of
thecane. At maturity the cane,
after being stripped of leaves
and topped, is cut at the ground
with a cane knife or machete.
Where grown. Formerly it
was thought that sugar cane
could be grown only in tropical
islands, but it has now been
shown that it will grow any-
where be-

fe}
Cross SECTION oF CANE Mac- tween 30°
NIFIED ABOUT 200 TIMES and 35° north A~\

P, pith cells; V, vessels; S,sieve or south of
tubes

the equa-
tor, where suitable soil and an abun-
dant water supply (either by rainfall
or irrigation) can be obtained. Actual
cultivation now extends from Spain,
37° north, to New Zealand, 37° south, X- Nees
on both sides of the equator.

Cane requires an enormous amount
of water for its best development, and
where the rainfall is deficient, irriga-
tion is practiced — often with wo
ful results, as in Hawaii, where
one estate over eleven tons of
per acre have been produced
has been found in practice that

UGAR CANE

yes; B, joint;
; D, internodes
s; X, semitrans-
nt dots in rows,

4 AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS

seventy-five to one hundred and one gallons of water are
required to make a pound of sugar, and that a rainfall
of two inches every week during the cane’s growth will
produce the largest yields of cane. While this crop
requires an abundance of water, it is also true that a well-
drained soil is absolutely essential to vigorous growth and
to large, maturedcanes. This is easily understood when it
is learned that cane, like all grasses, requires a large quan-
tity of nitrogen for perfect growth, and this must be fur-

CUTTING SUGAR CANE

nished usually by the soil. Only well-aérated, moderately
moist soils furnish the conditions which render the nitrogen
of the soil available ; hence on every estate the lands should
be well drain open ditches or tiles.

There is r of varieties of cane, but the
kinds usua South. are the purple, purple-
striped or e green. Recently there have
been distribut arieties of “seedlings,” which are

SUGAR CANE 5

now being tried throughout the cane belt. Reference has
already been made to the large number of infertile seed in
every cane tassel. By extreme care a few of the fertile
seeds can be made to germinate. After germination every
plant varies greatly from its parents and from the plants
grown with it. Therefore each plant is carried to maturity
and then tested, and if found of merit is propagated in the
usual way by planting the stalk. In this way a number
of promising “seedlings” have been given to the world.

A FIELD OF CANE PROSTRATED BY WIND

Soils for Cane. The soils best adapted to canes are,
broadly speaking, those which contain the largest amount
of fertilizing material and which nave a large water-holding
capacity. In south Louisiana a
clays are cultivated, while 1
Florida light, sandy soils, when zed and cul-
tivated, produce fine crops. So
and fertilizers can frequently b:

s and loamy

olding water
cultivated by

SUGAR CANE 7

artificially supplying these essential factors of heavy cane
growing.

Cane is usually planted in five to six foot rows. A
trench is opened in the center of the row with a plow,
and in this open furrow is deposited a continuous line of
stalks, which are carefully covered with plow, cultivator,
or hoes. From one to three continuous stalks are placed
side by side in the furrow, thus requiring from two to six
tons of cane for an acre. In a favorable season this cane
soon sprouts and then cultivation begins. Each young
sprout, like all grasses, suckers vigorously and soon the
entire row is filled with cane.

The cultivation best adapted to corn will meet all the
requirements of cane. It should be cultivated at short
intervals until “laid by,’ which should occur when the
cane is large enough to shade the soil.

In Louisiana large quantities of tankage, cotton-seed
meal, and acid phosphate are used to fertilize the cane
crop, the quantity used per acre varying from four hun-
dred to seven hundred pounds.

In Louisiana one planting of cane usually gives two
crops, the first is called “plant cane’’ and the second
“first-year stubble” or “‘rattoon.’’ Sometimes second-
year stubbles are grown.

In tropical countries the cane produces crops for many
years, sometimes for as many as fifteen or twenty years.
It is extremely doubtful, however, whether it pays to carry
stubbles so long.

In Louisiana canes are plante
some preferring fall, others spring
try has its season for planting and

ber to April,
» Every coun-
ting.

8 AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS

In the United States the cane is harvested annually,
because of the frost of our winters, while in tropical coun-
tries it is permitted to grow from fifteen to twenty-four
months before harvest. |

It is necessary in the United States to save seed from
the fall harvest for the next crop. Sometimes the cane is
planted in the fall as soon as it is cut, and covered deep to
exclude the frost. Oftener, however, it has to be pre-
served through the winter for spring planting. This is
done either in horizontal or vertical mats, or by throwing
the cane into the middles between the rows and covering
with dirt by means of large plows.

The juice of the cane varies in different countries,
and even upon different soils and in different seasons. In
some countries it may contain as high as twenty per cent
of sugar and with very little other matter present, making
it easy to work. In Louisiana the juice varies from eleven
per cent to fourteen per cent, with two per cent to three
per cent of impurities present. Upon the sandy soils of
Georgia, Florida, and Alabama the sugar content is higher,
often reaching sixteen per cent, with of course a diminu-
tion of impurities. The yield of cane per acre in tons is
also a variable quantity, depending upon country, season,
and soil. Over one hundred tons per acre have been
grown in Hawaii, and sixty tons in Louisiana, but the
average is much below these figures. In Louisiana an
average of twenty.to thirty tons per acre on a large estate
is considered affff Upon the sandy lands of the
coasts fifteen/t ons per acre are good yields.

Making of Syrup “Sugar, and Molasses. A small mill,
for crushing the cane, and a kettle or

LOADING CANE

10 AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS

pan for evaporating the juice, constitute the outfit for
making syrup. This equipment is very cheap and can be
easily operated by a small family. While these small mills
rarely extract more than one half of the juice in the cane,
the syrup made by them is exceedingly palatable and
usually commands a good price in our markets.

In our large sugar houses nine-roller mills, with a
crusher in front, clarifiers, evaporators, multiple effects,
vacuum pans, centrifugals, pumps, filter presses, boilers

A COMMON TYPE OF SyRUP FACTORY

and engines, anc MD éars are found. A modern, up-to-
date sugar house, capable of handling from five hundred
to one thousand tons of sugar cane, will cost from one

SUGAR CANE AI

hundred thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars, and a large number of both skilled and unskilled
laborers is required to operate it. Such a mill as the
above will extract from seventy-five to eighty pounds of
juice from every one hundred pounds of cane. The
refuse left after the juice is extracted is called ‘ bagasse’’

TRANSFERRING CANE FROM WAGON TO TROLLEY

or ‘“megass,’ and can be used as fuel under the boilers,
or made into wrapping paper. The juice is usually treated °
with sulphur and lime, and then boiled. This treatment
brings to the surface a heavy blanket of scums, which is
removed and, with the settlings, sent through the filter
press, where the juice is extracted and the solid matter
(cake) retained in the press. Thiggglarified juice is now
evaporated into syrup, either in open vessels or in multiple
effects. The syrup is now drawn into the vacuum pan,
where it is cooked to grain at a high vacuum and a low

12 AGRICULTURE FOR JBEGINNERS

temperature. This mixture of sugar and molasses (called
masse cuite) is drawn into a centrifugal machine with
perforated wire gauze sides placed within a solid iron
vessel. By a rapid rotation of this machine, the liquid
molasses is thrown through the wire gauze into the outer
vessel, while the sugar is retained in the centrifugal. By
using water or other washes, any grade of sugar may be

MACHINE FOR TRANSFERRING CANE FROM CARS TO CARRIER

made. By again cooking the molasses separated from the
first sugar, second sugar, usually termed “seconds,’”’ may
be obtained. The molasses from the second sugar may
be made to yield third sugar, or “thirds.”

There are a few open-kettle sugar houses left in Lout-
siana. These diffemgfrom the above in that the syrup is
cooked directly in open pans or kettles to a heavy density
and placed in vessels (ca led coolers) to crystallize. In

a few days this crystallized mass may be either potted

SUGAR CANE ie

in hogsheads or run through a centrifugal machine as
described above. Open-kettle sugar and molasses are
thus obtained, the latter fetching a high price on account
of its delicious flavor and agreeable aroma.

Write to the Louisiana Sugar Experiment Station,
Audubon Park, New Orleans, Louisiana, for bulletins
on sugar cane.

SUGAR SHED IN NEW ORLEANS

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