FARM CROPS. 153 



unite at the node. They serve the function of con- 

 veying the water from the root to the leaf carrying 

 food material from the soil. They contain no sugar. 

 The elaborated food material coming from the leaf 

 to be distributed through the plant is conveyed down- 

 ward through other tubes. The remaining tissues 

 that surround these tubes or bundles are mostly of a 

 modified fiber and serve the general purpose of 

 strengthening the stalk. 



Sugar Cane Territory of the United States. The 

 sugar cane is indigenous to tropical environment and 

 thrives most luxuriantly where summer heat is to be 

 had throughout the year. In the United States, there- 

 fore, cane culture is maintained upon a somewhat dif- 

 ferent status than elsewhere. Nearly all of it is 

 grown in Louisiana ; Texas produces a small quantity, 

 and a limited amount can be found in other states ad- 

 jacent to the Gulf. Louisiana, though lying without 

 the tropics, ranks fourth among the cane-growing lo- 

 calities of the world, producing annually from 300,000 

 to 350,000 tons of sugar. 



With other conditions practically ideal, the tem- 

 peratures of the Louisiana winters are too low to be 

 withstood by the cane. Hence the crop is a forced one 

 and the growing period is cut short by the necessity of 

 harvesting when the plant is yet immature. The pre- 

 vailing methods of agriculture have been especially de- 

 signed to meet this contingency, and are therefore 

 unique compared with the rest of the cane-producing 

 countries favored with a twelve-month growing period. 



That area of Louisiana devoted to cane lies princi- 

 pally along the banks of the Mississippi and smaller 

 rivers and bayous. 



The Soil is the rich alluvial formation that has been 

 deposited by these streams. At the time of high water 

 in former years when the surrounding country was 

 inundated, the deposit was greater near the natural 

 channels of the streams, and as a result the cane lands 

 of to-day, though nearly flat, have a gradual slope 



