Sugar Cane 
R. L. Goodwin 
The Fort Pierce Chamber of Com¬ 
merce is backing me up in a product that 
I have not heard mentioned on the plat¬ 
form, and I would like to talk about that 
a little. It is not a tropical fruit, but it 
is a tropical product; I refer to sugar 
cane. Prof. Rolfs and Capt. Rose have 
been trying to get people to grow sugar 
cane for a long time. They say every 
man to whom they have talked about it, 
says there is more profit in sugar cane 
with less labor and less expense, than 
any other single product grown in the 
State of Florida. Now, if this is the case, 
then 75 per cent of the lands in our state 
are adapted to the production of sugar 
cane. It seems we have overlooked our 
very best bet. 
Someone says, “the reason why we 
have no large sugar cane plantations, is 
because we have no sugar mills, and the 
reason we have no mills is because we 
have no large fields of cane.” 
The question has been how to dispose 
of the cane at a profit after it is grown. 
In my campaign, I am planning this; 
the planting of all the cane seed available 
at the present time. All the sugar cane 
grown now, instead of being ground for 
syrup, shall be saved and planted for seed. 
The next year, we will grind half of it 
into syrup and plant the other half. There 
is a great demand for this syrup, as you 
well know. There is the Alaga syrup, 
which is half cane and half corn syrup, 
and the other syrups have a greater or 
smaller percentage of the cane syrup. 
We import thousands of gallons into the 
state because we are unable to obtain here 
the syrup we should produce. 
In various parts of the county, Vero, 
Felsmere, Okeechobee, Fort Pierce, etc. r 
we will plant this sugar cane and then 
form co-operative organizations to build 
a small syrup plant that will cost about 
$1,200.00. We will grind our cane into 
syrup and make a standard product, 
which we have not done in the state up 
to the present time. There will be central 
organizations to market the product. 
If we have a successful start in St. 
Lucie County, the planting of sugar cane 
might extend all over the state, and it 
will give us a crop that will put money 
into' our pockets every year. We are 
aiming to have a sugar mill as soon as we 
have acreage enough to warrant it. 
I would like to hear a discussion about 
sugar cane this morning. There are 
many things I do not know about sugar 
cane, and I am anxious to get all the in¬ 
formation I can. 
I have been told the greatest problem 
we will have to contend with, is an insect, 
the borer. Some people say it never 
