A CHAT ABOUT SUGAR-CANE 11 



kind, but, for a reason which I will explain to you in 

 a few minutes, there are now numerous varieties of 

 the plant ; all the different kinds, however, retain 

 certain family characteristics. 



Each cane is composed of root, stalk, leaves, and some 

 species have a head of flowers. The stalk, which har- 

 bours the sugar-juice, is ringed with joints at intervals 

 throughout its whole height of from eight to twelve, 

 maybe twenty feet ; each joint contains a bud, the 

 germ of a new cane. Luxurious, bladelike leaves 

 spring out at every joint of the stalk, bending at 

 graceful angles under their weight ; the topmost leaves 

 cluster into a thick bunch. As the cane ripens, some 

 of the lower leaves fall off, and, in the case of the 

 flowering varieties, out from the sheath aloft shoots 

 an arrow, long and slender, and richly adorned with 

 white or grey feathery heads of countless little silken 

 flowers. 



Broadly speaking, the system of sugar-cane cultiva- 

 tion is the same in all parts of the world. Every cane 

 crop not only gives a sugar harvest, but supplies a 

 stock of cuttings for the next season's crop. At harvest 

 close the ground is ploughed or hand-forked, and either 

 furrowed or drilled in rows, from three to six feet 

 apart ; plant canes, or cuttings from the tops of ripe 

 canes, are then laid horizontally in the furrows or 

 holes, or thrust in at an angle, a foot or two apart, and 

 lightly buried. The eyes of the buried joints soon 

 begin to spring, and young canes enter on the life of 

 about sixteen months which they require to reach a 

 state of perfection. The roots split up and spread out 

 in all directions to a considerable distance ; as it is 

 essential for each division to get a firm grip of the 



