SUGAR-CANE. 



{Saccharum officiftarum L,in.) 



Has God then given its sweetness to the cane, 

 Unless His laws be trampled on — in vain? 



— CowPER : 



Charity, 190. 



This highly important plant belongs to 

 the grass faniily. It is perennial, with 

 thick, succulent, jointed rhizomes, hav- 

 ing root tufts at the joints. The stems 

 are numerous, erect, cylindrical, growing 

 to a height of six to twelve feet. Like 

 the rhizome, the stem is jointed, the in- 

 ■ ternodes being, however, much shorter 

 toward the base. The leaves are numer- 

 ous toward the apex, being deciduous 

 toward the base. The apical tuftlike in- 

 florescence is quite characteristic. The 

 individual flowers are small and unat- 

 tractive in appearance. One of the re- 

 markable things about the plant is that 

 the fruit never matures. It must be re- 

 membered that the plant referred to is 

 entirely distinct from the so-called sugar- 

 cane of the Central States from which 

 sorghum molasses is made. 



It is very doubtful whether sugar-cane 

 occurs anywhere in the wild state, at 

 present. Authorities are quite unani- 

 mous in expressing it as their opinion 

 that its original home was India. It is a 

 plant that has been under cultivation for 

 many centuries. Alexander the Great, in 

 his invasions of India, found that the in- 

 habitants of that country cultivated and 

 used it extensively as a food article. The- 

 ophrastus mentions a "sweet salt" 

 (sugar) which he obtained by evaporat- 

 ing the juice of an Indian reedlike plant, 

 which was perhaps sugar-cane, though 

 there is no conclusive evidence that the 

 earlier Greeks and Romans were famil- 

 iar with sugar, they employed honey 

 quite universally. The "sweet cane" of 

 Scripture is probably Andropogon cal- 

 amus aromaticus, or sweet calamus, 

 which was a native of India. It is pre- 

 sumed by some that the cane grown in 

 China was originally native there. The 

 cultivation of sugar-cane seems to have 

 spread very rapidly. It early found its 

 way to Persia and Arabia, and then from 

 Arabia as a center has spread to the Med- 

 iterranean districts. Sicily, Cyprus, Spain 



and Italy. It found its way to Santo Do- 

 mingo as early as 1494 and to Brazil 

 early in the sixteenth century. At the 

 present time cane is grown in nearly all 

 tropical and sub-tropical countries, the 

 Southern United States producing more 

 than any other country. 



There are many varieties recognized 

 by cultivators, dififering in color, texture 

 and other minor characteristics. 



Since cane does not ripen fruit, it is 

 propagated by transplanting the rhizomes 

 and top portions of stem, and after a field 

 is once planted new crops are permitted 

 to spring up from the old rhizomes, 

 and this accounts for the awful tangle of 

 the famous Southern canebrakes, which 

 figured so extensively in the slave days, 

 when these fields served as hiding places 

 for the fugitive slaves. The ripe cane is 

 cut close to the ground, the leaves 

 stripped off and the tassel cut off. It is 

 then carted to the cane mill and passed 

 between large rollers, which express the 

 juice, which is then clarified by means 

 of lime, animal charcoal and blood. Heat 

 further aids the purifying process by co- 

 agulating the albuminous matter, which, 

 mixed with other impurities, rises to the 

 surface as a scum and is removed by 

 means of a special ladle. The lime com- 

 bines with the free acid present and set- 

 tles to the bottom. The juice is boiled 

 until it acquires a proper tenacity, when 

 it is passed into a cooler and allowed to 

 crystallize. This sugar is then placed in 

 large perforated casks and allowed to 

 drain for two or three weeks, when it is 

 packed into hogsheads and exported un- 

 der the name of raw sugar or muscovado 

 sugar. The drainings form molasses. 

 Raw sugar is taken to the sugar refinery 

 and purified by heating with water and 

 bullocks' blood, filtered through canvas 

 bags and finally allowed to percolate very 

 slowly through large cylinders contain- 

 ing freshly prepared, coarse-grained ani- 

 mal charcoal. The filtered liquor is then 



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