SUGAR-CANE CULTURE FOR SIRUP PRODUCTION. 



YIELD OF CANE, SUGAR, AND SIRUP. 



27 



For rich Mississippi Delta land, with good care and a good season, 

 25 to 35 tons per acre would be considered a fair crop from plant 

 cane, i. e., the first crop from a planting. About two-thirds of this 

 yield may be expected from the first ratoon crop (first-year stubble 

 crop) and about one-half the plant-cane yield from the second ratoon 

 crop (second-year stubble crop). In most sections farther east, with 

 a lighter soil, the yields are lower, viz, about 18 to 25 tons per acre 

 from plant cane under favorable conditions, and about two-thirds 

 and one-half of this from the first and second ratoon crops, respec- 

 tively. 



The ratios here given between the yields of the plant-cane crop 

 and the first and second year stubble crops are estimated to be the 



Pig. 14. — Harvesting sugar cane in Georgia. 



average ratios for all seasons and all farms; however, these relations 

 are subject to great variations in different seasons and on different 

 farms. Thus, in southern Georgia during the season of 1914 the 

 stubble crops made an exceptionally good stand and growth, the first- 

 year stubble on many farms exceeding in yield the plant-cane crop. 

 The succeeding year, 1915, on the other hand, showed an equally ab- 

 normal divergence in the other direction, in that the first-year stub- 

 ble crop on most farms yielded less than half of what the plant-cane 

 crop yielded, while the stand of the second-year stubble crop in 

 most cases was so poor in the spring that the farmers plowed up this 

 cane and planted the fields in other crops. 



The composition of the cane varies with the variety, the season, the 

 time of harvesting, and other factors. It may be expected to con- 



