2 BULLETIN" 1318, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Experiment Farm and located near Jeanerette in the central part of 
southern Louisiana, which is the chief sugar-cane district of the 
United States. However, the results of the experiments carried on 
here are applicable to a considerable extent to the whole sugar-cane 
belt, which extends 100 to 200 miles back from the coast irom central 
South Carolina to eastern Texas. 
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DISTRICT 
The central part of southern Louisiana is most readily described 
as the Delta of the Mississippi River. All this section is less than 
100 feet and most of it less than 50 feet above sea level. There are 
many lakes, rivers, bayous, and large areas of land too swampy for 
grazing. The predominant type of soil is black alluvial clay, which 
is the chief difference between this district and other parts of the 
sugar-cane belt, where light sandy loams predominate. The average 
annual rainfall is between 50 and 60 inches and the average growing 
Fig. 2. — Steers of lot 2, 1915-16, fattened on corn-and-soybean silage and cottonseed 
meal 
season is 240 days. The land nearest the coast line is covered by 
tall prairie grasses ; that farther inland is heavily forested. 
An estimated average of 3,484,500 tons of sugar cane was produced 
annually in the United States from 1916 to 1919, inclusive. A ton 
of tops is removed from approximately every 4 tons of cane har- 
vested. Upon this basis the top crop averaged 871,125 tons annually. 
This quantity is sufficient, if properly supplemented, to feed more 
than 360,000 steers 40 pounds a day for 120 days. The sugar-cane 
planter generally burns these tops in the field after they have dried, 
so that even their value as humus is lost. A limited quantity, how- 
ever, is fed while green to the work animals during harvest. A few 
planters have ensiled the tops successfully. Cane-top silage keeps 
well, is bright in color, and is relished fairly well by steers. 
Much of the better-drained land in this district has been devoted 
to the production of sugar cane, cotton, and rice so continuously for 
from 100 to 150 years that it lacks sufficient fertility to produce a 
