CANE SUGAR 



CHAPTER I 



THE CANE 



THE sugar cane is a perennial grass, the cultivation of which is confined 

 to the warmer regions of the earth. In all probability it is of palseo-tropical 

 origin, and Eastern Asia is usually assigned as its home by economic 

 botanists. Nevertheless the cane was found growing in Polynesia by the 

 first European visitors, and also in the Hawaiian Islands. Ethnologists 

 assert that these islands were settled from the South Pacific at a very early 

 date, the native legends confirming this assumption. As it is probable 

 that these early voyagers brought the sugar cane along with them, the 

 presence of the plant in the South Pacific at a very remote time would be 

 indicated, and it would then appear that the cane is indigenous equally to 

 the South Pacific as to Eastern Asia. This suggestion is made more probable 

 when the very marked difference in habit between the Indian canes and those 

 of Otaheite and other Polynesian islands is remembered. That the sugar 

 cane is indigenous to Polynesia was probably first suggested by Sagot and 

 Raoul in their "Manuel pratique des Cultures Tropicales," Paris, 1895. 

 Their conclusion is based on observation in that locality, on Maori legend; 

 and on the presence of a Saccharum violaceum in the island of Rurutu near 

 Otaheite, this last island receiving its name from the name of the cane. 



The cane plant is made up of the root and root stock, the stalk, the leaf, 

 and the inflorescence. The structure and function of these different parts 

 are described below. 



The Stalk. The stalk of the cane is roughly cylindrical, and in some 

 varieties is swollen between the joints, giving the internodes a barrel shape. 

 Its size differs not only with variety, but also with conditions of growth. 

 The diameter lies between a minimum of o 5 inch to a maximum of 3 inches. 

 The smallest diameter is found in the reed-like canes grown by the ryots 

 of British India and classed by Hadi 1 as Ukh canes. Of the canes cultivated 

 elsewhere, that with the smallest diameter is the Uba cane, itself probably 

 of Indian origin. The greatest diameter is found in the Elephant cane of 

 Cochin China, which is not, however, a commercial variety. Of the older 

 cultivated varieties, the Tanna canes are of greater and the Java or Batavian 

 of less diameter, the Otaheite cane being intermediate between these two. 

 The length of the stalk under the most favourable conditions may exception- 

 ally attain to as much as thirty feet, but an average length of twelve feet is 



I B 



