SUGAR-CANE CULTURE FOR SIRUP PRODUCTION. 5 



cane ") which, like ordinary sugar cane, does not produce seed in 

 the climate of our Southern States but is used to some extent for 

 sirup production, yielding a product practically the same as that 

 from the ordinary cane. 



The method of propagating sugar cane commercially is from cut- 

 tings, i. e., the stalk of the old plant, either the whole stalk, the stalk 

 cut into pieces, the top part of the stalk, or the underground part, is 

 planted. New stalks sprout from the eyes that have developed at 

 the nodes of the stalk, and roots push out in rings around the old 

 stalk immediately below the eyes at the nodes. On the underground 

 part of the stalk, the so-called " root," properly called rootstock, 

 these nodes and the eyes are especially close together and therefore 

 relatively abundant. (See further under "Planting.") If these 

 rootstocks of cane are not dug up, the small feeding roots con- 

 nected with them die, but the rootstocks themselves remain alive 

 and may send forth sprouts, called ratoons, from their eyes the fol- 

 lowing season and develop a new root system, thus producing an- 

 other crop of cane, a so-called stubble crop or ratoon crop. However, 

 as many of these rootstocks, because of diseases or decay, mutila- 

 tion at harvesting, freezing during the winter, or other causes, do 

 not survive, or because the soil is not in a favorable condition, the 

 ratoon crop is rarely as good as the first or " plant-cane " crop. The 

 second stubble or ratoon crop, if the stubble is left to grow another 

 year, is usually still smaller. It is rare that more than three crops — 

 the plant-cane crop and two ratoon or stubble crops — are taken from 

 one planting, and usually it is not profitable to take more than two 

 crops before replanting. ' 



VARIETIES OF SUGAR CANE. 



All the varieties of sugar cane commonly used for sugar or sirup 

 production are of the species Saccliarwrn officinarum. A variety of 

 cane known as Japanese cane and used extensively as a forage crop, 

 but also used to some extent for sirup production, differs so widely 

 from the ordinary sugar cane that some botanists class it as a distinct 

 species under the name SaccTiarum sinense, probably identical with 

 the Uba, which is favorably mentioned in Natal. 



Of the innumerable varieties of sugar cane that have found favor 

 in the various cane-producing countries, relatively few have proved 

 well adapted to our Southern States, primarily because the}? are not 

 sufficiently quick maturing. While tropical sugar-cane countries 

 have favorable growing conditions continuously for 12 months in the 

 year, i. e., for an unlimited period, a season of only 9 to 10 months is 

 available near the Gulf in our Southern States to mature the crop. 

 Farther north, where warm growing weather does not come in the 



