SUGAR CANE AND ITS CULTIVATION. 
Sugar Cane and its Cultivation. 
By H. T. EASTERBY, General Superintendent, Bureau of Sugar Experiment 
Stations, Queensland. 
Authorities in general are doubtful where the sugar-cane plant 
originated, but the probability is that India was its first home. It is 
mentioned in the ancient literature of that country as having been 
stated to have been created as a heavenly food. In the sacred books of 
the Hindus, the following occurs :— 
“T have crowned thee with a shooting sugar cane so that thou 
shall not be averse to me.” : 
Sugar cane is repeatedly mentioned as being presented by way of 
tribute to different Emperors of the East, according to Geerligs. 
The word “sugar” implied at one time anything sweet, such as 
honey, sugar of lead, fruit sugar, &e. The Indian word is “ sarkara,” 
while the Persian is “schakar.” Other forms are | i sukkar’ ” (Arabian), 
“suickar” (Assyrian), “ saccharum ” (Latin), “azucar ” (Spanish), 
“sucre ” (French), and “ zucker ” (German). 
The first statements as to the manufacture of sugar, which was then 
merely concentrated cane juice, do not appear till between the fourth 
and seventh centuries; but from that time the manufacture of sugar 
from cane spread rapidly in the East, and travellers to China in the 
thirteenth century found many factories there ; and the manufacture 
of sugar gradually spread over the world in its tropical and_ sub- 
tropical zones. 
Sugar cane belongs to the graminacer, or grasses. Its botanical 
name is Saccharum officinarum, but it is sometimes called Arundo 
saccharifera. It is considered by botanists that all the cultivated 
varieties belong to one species, but there are said to be strong reasons 
’ for the belief that there are more than one species. 
These have been divided as follows :— 
1. The kind known as Saccharum officinarum. 
2, Saccharum violaceum, being canes with violet leaves, of which 
we apparently had an example in this country in a cane | 
introduced from New Guinea by Mr. H. Tryon, known 
as N.G. 64. 
3. Saccharum sinense, Chinese cane. ‘Stubbs says the chief 
specific difference is said to reside in the disposition of 
its panicle, which, unlike that of the Saccharum 
officinarum, is oval and ornamental. ’ This species would 
probably include the Uba or Yuban cane so extensively 
grown in South Africa. Other divisions have also been 
made by botanists. 
Varieties of cane naturally embrace slight to extreme variations. 
The variation between the two principal varieties grown in Queensland, 
viz., Badila and Demerara 1135, is shown in the following brief 
descriptions :— 
Bapira or New Guinea 15. 
A dark-purple to black-coloured cane. Stout sticks, with pronounced 
white waxy rings at nodes. Internodes usually 2 to 3 inches long, but 
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