THE MODERN CANE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



SUGAR CANE. 



Nature and origin. — Sugar cane {Saccharum officinarum) belongs to 

 the same natural order of plants as the grasses, which it closely 

 resembles except being of giant proportions. There are both wild and 

 cultivated species of cane widely distributed throughout the tropical and 

 subtropical regions. 



All of the valuable cultivated species and varieties originated in the 

 South Pacific Islands. They show many variations in color, size, height, 

 and composition, • 



Parts of plant. — The cane plant is divided into roots, rootstock, stem, 

 leaf, and flower. The roots are small and fibrous, like those of the 

 grasses, and spring from the nodes of the rootstock and stem, spreading 

 out laterally in all directions in the cultivated soil around the plant. 

 But few of them go deeper than the land has been plowed, except in 

 very porous or dry soils, but 1 meter may be considered as the extreme 

 length of the roots and the greatest depth to which they will penetrate 

 the soil under average conditions. 



The stem or stalk is cylindrical in form and is made up of a series of 

 joints or nodes and intemodes. In diameter it varies from about 2 to 

 7 centimeters and in height from 1 to 6 meters. The color of the stalk 

 varies from a light green to a dark purple and in a general way the 

 lighter colored varieties with the long intemodes are much softer and 

 easier to mill than the dark colored woody varieties. They have less 

 fiber and rind in proportion to weight of cane, contain a larger percent- 

 age of sugar, and the Juice is of higher purity than the slow-growing 

 dark purple, j'ellow, and black canes. 



The leaves are produced from the modes and consist of a sheath and 

 blade. The sheath embraces the internode, covers the eyes and is lighter 

 in color than the blade which is continuous with the sheath, averages 

 about 1 meter in length and 5 to 8 centimeters in width. The leaves 

 of most canes are green in color, though in some varieties they are purple 

 or white. 



The flower or "plume" of cultivated sugar cane appears after the 

 plant has reached maturity and usually at some definite time of the 

 year, which varies with the different cane-groAving countries. As the 

 seeds are very delicate and only a few of them fertile, they are not 

 generally considered a practical means of propagating cane. They have 

 been successfully germinated by experiment stations and botanic gar- 

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