CHAPTER III 

 SUGAR-CANE 



TALLEST and most valuable of all grasses is the 

 sugar-cane, which grows to a height of twenty 

 feet, in the most favorable situations, and furnishes 

 one of the most important of human foods. Its 

 name, Saccharum, gives us a root for words that 

 mean sweet; and it is the adjective part of the 

 Latin names of several other plants whose sap 

 yields more or less sugar. 



The cane is very much like maize in general 

 appearance, except that the "joints" are shorter 

 and the leaves narrower. When the time of 

 flowering arrives, the stalk is topped by a full, oval 

 plume, like that of pampas grass. The sections 

 of the stem are covered by a tough rind, and filled 

 with soft pith, strung with thread-like fibres, and 

 saturated with the sweet sap. The time when 

 the percentage and the condition of sugar is best 

 is just at the fading of the flowers. After that 

 the plant draws upon the store of rich sap to ma- 

 ture the seeds. 



79 



