14 SUGAR 



native, the Chinaman in Formosa, or the inhabitants 

 of the Philippine Islands may still be squeezing out 

 the juice with primitive rollers, boiling it in iron pots 

 till it solidifies, and then selling it for what it will fetch, 

 but this is not sufficient to supply the world with eight 

 million tons of cane sugar every year. The growing 

 of the cane and the making of the sugar have now be- 

 come industries of the very highest scientific perfection. 

 Accurate chemical knowledge of the constituents of the 

 cane, of the constituents of the soil where it happens 

 to be growing and, consequently, of the nature of the 

 manures necessary to maintain in the soil the various 

 foods required for the healthy growth of the plant, are 

 the first requisites for the successful cane farmer. He 

 must also know which particular kind of cane for 

 there are many is most likely to flourish in his soil 

 and climate. As to cultivation, the ordinary rules for 

 good ploughing, good drainage, and careful hoeing 

 during the early growth, are just as imperative in the 

 tropics as in the European fields of sugar beet or any 

 other crop. 



The sugar cane is planted, not sown. A bit of cane, 

 long enough to include two or three of the rings, is 

 laid lengthways, or stuck in in a slanting direction, 

 along a furrow running the length of the field, or in 

 holes dug at regular intervals. When the trench is 

 planted the pieces of cane are lightly covered with 

 earth. In a few weeks they show growth above ground. 

 The germ-bud at the ring has begun to shoot out into 

 young cane, and the ring at the same time has thrown 

 out rootlets into the soil. The parallel trenches must 

 leave room between them to enable the labourers, 

 when the wide-spreading canes, double the height of 

 a man; are getting ripe, to reach between the rows 

 and remove the dying leaves which cumber the ripening 



