779 



Saccharum, Linn. 



Saccharum officinamm, Linn. ; Fl. Trop. Afr., IX. p. 96. 



//Z.— Bentley & Trimen, Med. PI. t. 298; Duthie, Field Crops, 

 t. 14; Church, Food Grams, India, p. 77; Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 xxviii. (1891), t. 33; Koehler, Med. Pflan. i.; Engler, Pflanz. 

 Ost. Afr. Th.B. p. 75; West Indian Bull. xii. 1912, p. 378 

 (vars., showing type? of eye-buds — " White Transparent," 



Bourbon," "White Tanna," " Samsara," " D. U5 White 

 Sport ") ; Hitchcock, Grasses, U.S. De23t. Agiic. Bull. No. 772, 

 1920, p. 257, f. 156, and numerous other works. 



Veniac. names. — Rake (Hausa, Kano, Dalziel) ; Deke (Hausa, 

 Dudgeon); Sugar Cane, Ribbon Cane (Gulf States, Ball). 



Grown in Nigeria, Gold Coast, other parts of West Africa 

 and Tropical Africa — chiefly by the Natives for chewing; in 

 Egypt, Natal, Mozambique, Cuba, British India, Java, Mauritius, 

 Formosa, Philippine Islands, Queensland, New South Wales, 

 Fiji, West Indies, Guiana, Surinam, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, 

 Peru, Louisiana, Central America, Porto Rico, and Hawaii, on 

 a commercial scale, imported into the United Kingdom to the 

 extent of more than 800,000,000 lb. annually. The chief 

 producers are Cuba, Java and British India, where the annual 

 production exceeds 1,000,000 tons. Some 40,000 tons are 

 manufactured in Portuguese East Africa — three estates situated 

 within 100 miles of the mouth of the Zambesi River, it is stated, 

 producing of this amount some 10,000 tons each in an average 

 season (West India Comm. Circ, April 28th, 1921, p. 165). 



J ■ 



The sugar prepared from the juice of the cane is an important 

 food throughout the world. The molasses (the liquid remaining 

 after separation of the sugar crystals) is also used for food 



purposes, and mixed with o1 

 nut shells " (see " Soga Meal 



ti 



ground- 



Crushed Sugar Cane or '' Megasse " (sold as '' Molascuit ") and 

 Sphagnum Moss (sold as *' Molassine ''), it is a recognised cattle 

 feed. In Louisiana a complete ration for a mule is given as 

 15 lb. molasses, 15 lb. chaffed hay and 2 lb. of cotton-seed meal, 

 well mixed together (Agrie. News, Barbados, Jan. 9th, 1909, 

 p. 12). In Mauritius and many other sugar-producing countries 

 during the harvesting season, the tops of the cane are used for 

 feeding both horses and cows and in some instances the cane is 

 cut before it becomes woody, for forage. The green stalks are 

 used for chewing by the Natives and are fed to cattle in Nigeria 

 (Dudgeon, Agric. & For. Prod., W. Africa, p. 151). The " Uba '* 

 cane, grown largely in Natal for sugar, is also recommended there 

 and in other parts of South Africa for forage especially in uplands 

 where the growing for sugar becomes less profitable (Transv. 

 Agric. Journ. iii. 1904, pp. 120, 121). A sugar cane called 

 '* Zwinga," with numerous slender stems, is cultivated in the 

 Southern United States — introduced from Japan in 1S78~ 

 for the extraction of syrup and as forage — as dry fodder, silage 



