72 A TEXT-BOOK OF GRASSES 



stock at the base. It is from these nodes that the roots 

 spring. The planting is best done on a cloudy day. A 

 hole is made by thrusting a spade or other sharp imple- 

 ment into the sand, the plant is placed in the opening 

 and the sand pressed around it with the foot. If beach- 

 grass does not grow in the vicinity, it may be necessary 

 to establish a preliminary plantation. It is useless to 

 attempt to grow beach-grass in interior arid regions. 



In America, notable fixation work has been done near 

 Provincetown, Massachusetts, at Manatee and other 

 points along the east shore of Lake Michigan, and at 

 Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. The latter place was 

 once a sandy waste but is now a beautiful park. The pre- 

 liminary steps here were the planting of beach-grass. 

 (See Bur. PL Ind. Bulletins Nos. 57, 65.) 



SUGAR-PRODUCING GRASSES 



95. The sugar of commerce is obtained from four 

 sources, sugar-cane, sugar beet, sorghum, and sugar maple. 

 The amount from the last two is comparatively insignificant. 

 Chemically, commercial sugar is cane-sugar or sucrose. 



96. The sugar-cane is a large perennial grass grown 

 in all tropical countries. In the United States its growth 

 is chiefly confined to the lowlands of Louisiana. This 

 state in 1900 produced 132,000 tons of sugar. The same 

 year the two largest sugar-producing countries yielded, 

 Java 650,000 tons, and Cuba 440,000 tons. These figures 

 refer to sugar from sugar-cane.* It is interesting to note 

 that Europe produced the same year over 4,000,000 tons 

 of beet-sugar, or a third more than the total world produc- 

 tion of sugar from the cane. The thirteenth census report 



*Sadtler, Industrial Organic Chemistry, ed. 3, pp. 166, 167. 



