214 ECONOMIC PLANTS 



that sugar cane when grown on poor, sandy soils produces 

 a purer sap and one which makes a lighter colored sirup 

 than when grown on dark or very fertile soils, but the 

 former soils, being very deficient in plant food, must 

 be well fertilized in order to produce a crop of suffi- 

 cient magnitude to make the growth of sugar cane 

 profitable. A crop of 15 to 25 tons an acre is quite 

 common under such conditions. Each ton will make 

 from 1 8 to 24 gallons of sirup where up-to-date methods 

 of extraction and evaporation of the sap are used. 



The sugar cane is one of the grasses. It has fibrous 

 roots and a stalk made up of joints filled with pith. 

 It varies in length from 4 feet to 15 feet, depending 

 on the variety. Although the sugar cane bears some 

 fertile seeds in its tassel, it is not through them that 

 the sugar cane is propagated, except for experimental 

 purposes. At the node under the base of each leaf 

 there is a bud, or eye, which is used for growing the next 

 crop of cane. 



For planting, the ground is prepared by deep plow- 

 ing, then rows 5 to 7 feet wide are made by throw- 

 ing up the soil into high ridges. A furrow is plowed 

 through the length of the ridge, in the bottom of which 

 the canes are laid in continuous lines and covered with 

 about four inches of soil. Here they lie protected 

 against frosts till spring, when the earth is thrown from 

 each side of the cane by plows, and all but a slight 

 covering of soil is removed from the cane. Being thus 

 laid on a well-drained ridge, the eyes commence their 

 growth earlier than they otherwise would. 



After the cane has come up, a fertilizer is applied 

 and the canes are recovered with earth. A disk cul- 

 tivator is used as often as is necessary between the rows, 



