SUGAR PLANTS 137 



are large enough to shade the ground. The growing 

 of the sugar cane crop requires a large amount of hand 

 labor. The planting, the stripping off the leaves, and 

 the cutting of the cane stalks are done by hand. 



Raw sugar. After the cane is cut, it is hauled to 

 the mills, where the juice is pressed out of the stems 

 and then boiled in vacuum pans until the crude or raw 

 sugar is obtained. The raw sugar is then shipped to 

 refineries, where it is changed by a number of com- 

 plicated processes into refined sugar. 



Sweet sorghum contains much sugar in the juice 

 and is used for the manufacture of sirup and molasses. 

 Sugar can be made from sorghum sirup, but this is 

 not done in the United States. 



Beet sugar. During the last few years sugar beets 

 have supplied nearly half of the world's sugar supply. 

 The leading countries in the production of beet sugar 

 are Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. In the 

 United States the sugar beet is grown in the Western and 

 Northern states. Colorado, California, and Michigan 

 are the leading states in the yield of beet sugar. 



Sugar beets are raised from the seed, which is sown 

 with drills in the spring. The rows are about twenty 

 inches apart, and the small seeds are sown close together, 

 using about twenty pounds of seed per acre. After 

 the plants come up they are thinned out until they 

 stand eight or ten inches apart in the rows. The soil 

 is tilled with horse cultivators, which work two to four 

 rows at a time. The sugar beets ripen in September 



