10 BULLETIN 473, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
during the last five years has been approximately double that of cane. 
In 1909 cane was grown on 278,233 farms, compared with 35,682 
farms for sugar beets. The custom in Louisiana is to grow two 
crops of cane from one planting, thus the plowing and planting of 
cane occurs only every other year on the same piece of ground. The 
time of planting cane usually begins in September and is completed 
about the 1st of March. The crop grown from this planting is called 
,; plant cane" and is harvested the following November and Decem- 
ber. The crop produced from the preceding year's stubble is called 
" stubble " or " ratoon " cane, and produces less than the initial crop 
of plant cane. The production of cane increased from 4,202,202 tons 
in 1899 to 6,240,260 tons in 1909, of which 74.7 per cent was produced 
in Louisiana in 1899 and 79.2 per cent in 1909. The yield of cane 
per acre was 10.9 tons in 1899 and 13.1 tons in 1909. The value of 
the cane per ton decreased from $4.89 in 1899 to $4.23 in 1909, but 
the total value of cane produced increased from $20,542,000 in 1899 
to $26,416,000 in 1909. The value of the cane per acre for these two 
years, respectively, was $53.08 and $55.40. Louisiana is the principal 
cane-growing State and produces nearly all of the cane sugar pro- 
duced in continental United States. A small amount of cane sugar 
is produced in Texas, but the cane grown in the other ten States is 
mostly used for sirup. In point of area in 1909 as compared with 
other crops, sugar cane was third in Louisiana, being exceeded by 
corn and cotton, but held first place in value. The total area under 
cultivation in 1909 was 5,276,016 acres, of which 1,590,830 acres (or 
30.2 per cent) was used for corn, 957,011 acres (or 18.1 per cent) for 
cotton, and 329,684 acres (or 6.2 per cent) for cane. In Louisiana the 
value of sugar cane exceeded the value of any other crop in 1909, 
and with corn and cotton formed two-thirds the value of all crops. 
The total value of all crops was $77,336,143, of which $17,752,537 (or 
23 per cent) was sugar cane, $16,480,322 (or 21.3 per cent) was corn, 
and $17,324,804 (or 22.4 per cent) was cotton. The area of cane har- 
vested for sugar in Louisiana was 310,000 acres in 1911, 197,000 in 
1912, 248,000 in 1913, 213,000 in 1914, and 183,000 in 1915. The yield 
per acre for these five years was 19, 11, 17, 15, and 11 tons, respec- 
tively. Of the 214 cane-sugar factories in operation in 1909, all but 
10 were in Louisiana. Of the total number, 192 produced sugar or 
sugar and sirup, and 22 only sirup. The production of cane sugar 
per factory was 1,702 tons in 1909, compared with an average pro- 
duction of 8,650 tons per beet-sugar factory. The power of the 214 
cane-sugar factories in 1909 was 122,189 horsepower as against 57,202 
horsepower for the 68 beet-sugar factories. Practically all of the 
power in both cases was steam. The number of people employed in 
the cane-sugar factories in 1909 was 5,313, compared with 8,389 in 
the beet-sugar factories. The capital invested in the cane-sugar fac- 
