THE GROWING OF SUGAR CANE

Sugar cane grows almost exclusively in the tropical belt, extending from twenty-two degrees north to twenty-two degrees south latitude, where the three essentials for its successful culture, viz., fertile soil, hot sunshine and plenty of moisture, are present. It flourishes in the islands of the Pacific ocean, particularly in the Hawaiian group, in Cuba, Mexico, Central America, the islands of the East and West Indies, Australia, China, India, along the shores of the China sea and the Indian ocean, and in certain parts of Africa and South America. In the low latitudes of the temperate zone it is grown with only fair success.

Owing to peculiar climatic conditions, sugar cane has been raised in southern Spain for generations, notwithstanding the fact that the provinces in which the sugar cane is grown lie, roughly speaking, between thirty-six degrees and thirty-eight degrees north latitude. The Gulf Stream is no doubt largely responsible for this phenomenon. The quantity of sugar produced in Spain, however, is small, the crop of 1914-15 amounting to less than 8000 tons.

Sugar cane thrives best in a moist, warm climate, with moderate intervals of dry, hot weather, and plenty of water for irrigation. It requires marly soil, free from saline ingredients. As a rule, it is raised on the lowlands, where the temperature is highest and where it is easy to bring water for irrigation. In Hawaii it takes eighteen months to ripen, and “tasseling” occurs about thirty days before it is ready to be cut. In Louisiana and Texas, because of the short seasons, cane is harvested in from nine to ten months from the time of sprouting, and, consequently,before it has attained maturity. In Cuba it is cut in twelve months, whether it is ripe or not.

ROOTS OF SUGAR CANE

JUNGLE-LIKE VEGETATION OF CANE FIELD

As the scientific culture and manufacture of sugar is probably further advanced in the Hawaiian islands than in any other part of the world, a description of the industry as carried on there will serve to illustrate the intensive cultivation and scientific methods of the present day.

The Hawaiian islands are situated in the Pacific ocean, in latitude nineteen degrees to twenty-two degrees north and in longitude one hundred and fifty-four degrees to one hundred and sixty-one degrees west, and are free from the destructive hurricanes of the East and West Indies. They are of volcanic formation and, as a rule, their centers are mountainous, in some instances reaching an elevation of nearly fourteen thousand feet. During the ages, torrential rains carried volcanic ash from the mountains toward the sea, near which it was deposited, thus forming alluvial areas of vast richness around the circumference of the islands. Parts of some of the islands are fringed with coral reefs, barriers that retain the washings from the mountains. In these low-lying areas the soil is extraordinarily fertile, and it is on such ground that the most generous crops are raised.

The soft, warm trade winds that blow from the northeast become laden with moisture as they sweep over the ocean; when they strike the cold mountain peaks the moisture condenses immediately into copious rains. The precipitation in some places reaches the astounding total of three hundred inches per annum. The rain water is conserved and, when needed, is carried to the various plantations by immense irrigation ditches.

In this tropical region there is an abundance of sunshine, accompanied by humid heat, exactly the conditions needed. It required only man’s ingenuity to utilize what nature so lavishly provided.

The commercial cultivation of sugar cane in these islands began about 1850, when a few hundred tons of raw sugar were produced, but the methods of husbandry and manufacture were crude. Time and experience worked great changes, until in 1914-15 the crop of raw sugar totaled 646,448 tons of 2000 pounds each.

For many years past the sugar planters have maintained in Honolulu an experimental station that is the marvel of the agricultural world. The bulletins issued by it are recognized as authoritative, and are read with interest in every sugar-producing country.

The most important features of the work carried on at this station are:

Skilled chemists examine the soils of the various plantations and, when occasion demands, advise the planter what necessary element is lacking, as well as how to obtain and apply it. A few years ago this branch of the work was considered highly important. Recently, however, the agriculturists have been depending more upon well-defined systems of experimentation. Each plantation has on its own lands plots of ground on which different methods of culture are tried and on which various kinds of fertilizer are used. Experiments are also made to determine the exact amount of water needed for irrigation. Particular attention is paid to seed cane, and a number of types of it are planted in order to obtain seed that will produce stalks that grow rapidly, yield a large tonnage per acre, contain a maximum amount of sugar, and have a high resistant power against disease and insect pests. The success attending this practical experimental work is such that soil analysis is being relegated to second place.

A staff of trained experts assiduously study the insect life and eagerly watch for harmful, troublesome pests, which in the pasthave wrought great damage. It is their duty to find the means of eliminating these pests, and this they usually accomplish through the skillful use of insect parasites.

The pathologists attached to the station supplement the scientific labors of the chemists and the entomologists by prescribing for any disease that may attack the cane. Plant life is subject to as many ills as the human family, and the work of these specialists in restoring health to ailing cane is of the highest importance.

To fully illustrate the character and scope of their work, a particular instance for each department may be cited:

A certain planter found that the amount of sugar obtained from his cane was decreasing yearly, though he could see no good reason for it. The land looked right; he ploughed deeply, harrowed well, kept the weeds down, gave the cane plenty of water, could find no reason to complain of climatic conditions, but still did not get satisfactory results. Finally the head of the experimental station was consulted and an agricultural chemist was sent to the plantation. This chemist, after careful investigation, took samples of the soil from various parts of the land; these were analyzed and the source of the trouble was found to be the lack of potash. Just here it may be explained that when the same crop is taken from the land many years in succession, without adequate fertilization, some of the essential properties of the soil become exhausted. Speaking generally, these are lime, soda, potash, phosphates and nitrogen. In this particular instance, as has been said, the land had been gradually drained of its potash. The experimental station recommended the planter to scatter a certain fertilizer over his fields. This advice was followed and the next crop showed remarkable improvement, the yield of cane and sugar per acre being greater than ever before.

At one time the sugar industry of the Hawaiian islands was threatened with annihilation by a little insect called the “leaf-hopper.” The harm done by this pest was so enormous that one plantation having an average yearly crop of 19,000 tons was so severely affected that the yield dropped from 19,000 to 12,000, and then to 3000 tons in three successive crops. All the plantations on the islands suffered to a greater or lesser extent, and the entire sugar industry of Hawaii was jeopardized.

The hoppers punctured the stalks and leaves of the young cane, and in the holes thus formed laid their eggs by thousands. When the young hoppers hatched out, they fed on the juices in the stalk and in the leaves, thus destroying the leaves and depriving the cane of its protection and principal means of absorbing nourishment from the air.

As soon as the leaf-hopper by its ravages made itself known in the islands, the entomologists were consulted, and they were confronted with the task of studying the life and habits of the hopper for the purpose of finding, if possible, some other insects that would attack and exterminate it. It is well known to entomologists that every insect pest has natural enemies; the vital question in this case was—what were the natural enemies of the leaf-hopper and where were they to be found? Obviously, too, the problem was to discover insectivorous enemies that would not themselves attack the cane after they had destroyed the hopper.

After careful investigation it was concluded that the leaf-hopper had been introduced in Hawaii in new varieties of seed cane imported from Australia, and, as the hopper was not doing material damage on the plantations in Australia, the inference was that it must be controlled there by its natural enemy. The chief of the Department of Entomology was sent to London. There in the archives of the British Museum he found a full description of the leaf-hopper and that its native habitat wasQueensland, Australia. On his return to Hawaii, entomologists were sent to Australia and the search for the enemy of the hopper began.

LEAF-HOPPER (GREATLY MAGNIFIED)

SUGAR CANE

For weeks the entomologists virtually lived in the cane fields, undergoing extreme privations, but at last their faithfulness was crowned with success. Several species of parasites that kept the Queensland leaf-hopper in check were discovered, and later on more were found in the islands of Fiji. These tiny creatures as a rule were invisible to the naked eye and could only be seen with the aid of a powerful magnifying glass. All of these insects were parasites either of the leaf-hopper or its eggs. Two of them were particularly efficacious. One, quicker in movement than the hopper, caught it unawares and attached itself to the hopper’s body much in the same way that a mosquito does to a human being. After catching it, the parasite would sting the hopper and lay an egg in its body. In a few days a young parasite was hatched from the egg, and so ravenous was this young insect that it devoured the hopper in a short time and then sought a fresh victim in which to lay its eggs.

The other insect was even more effective. It liked the hoppers’ eggs and for a long time found plenty in Hawaii to stay its appetite. As soon as the leaf-hopper laid its eggs in the cane, this particular insect would appear and lay its eggs in the eggs of the leaf-hopper. When the little enemies hatched out, they fed on the hoppers’ eggs and in turn laid their eggs in the eggs of the hopper. It came to pass that the hoppers, attacked by the parasite on the one hand and by the enemy on the other, rapidly dwindled in number until only a few remained, and these not enough to do material damage. As the hoppers and their eggs diminished, so did the parasite and the enemy, for the latter could live on insect food only.

How the scientists collected these tiny animalcules, kept them alive, transported them thousands of miles across theocean, bred them in Hawaii and saved the Hawaiian sugar industry, reads like a romance.

The study of entomology is extremely interesting and the every-day business man rarely understands its importance. The finding, breeding and distribution of parasites of insect pests vitally affects the world’s food supply. The entomological name of the leaf-hopper family isHemiptera, and Dr. Sharp, an authority on the subject, has said: “There is probably no order of insects that is so directly connected with the welfare of the human race as the hemiptera; indeed if anything were to exterminate the enemies of hemiptera, we ourselves should probably be starved in the course of a few months.”

It has been estimated by competent authority that the damage done in the world each year by the hemiptera, in spite of all their parasites, is conservatively $600,000,000. Were it not for the parasites, it would only be a year or two at most before every green leaf and spear of grass would disappear from the face of the earth. The direct influence of the practical application of this science to the production of sugar is readily apparent.

Pathology is almost equally important. In former years when cane failed to grow strong and sturdy and did not yield much sugar, the planter usually attributed the difficulty either to lack of water, poor soil, cool weather, too much rain or insufficient cultivation of the field by his manager, when in fact the trouble was due to none of these causes. He would personally oversee the operations of the following year, but with no better results.

EXPERIMENT STATION

PLANTATION SCENE IN HAWAII—LIGHT-COLORED FOLIAGE IS SUGAR CANE

When the roots of the cane became matted, stuck together and turned black, when a thick gum exuded from the stalk and leaves, preventing the plant from drawing proper nourishment from the air, it was thought that these troubles arose from climatic or local conditions, while in reality the plant was sick and needed a doctor. Today, under the new régime, whenever theplant shows any symptoms of ill-health, the pathologists are called in to eradicate the disease by scientific treatment.

Insect pests and plant diseases are generally brought into a country through planters sending to other cane-raising countries for new varieties of cane for seeding purposes that they think may produce more sugar than their own. Great trouble and heavy loss have been occasioned in this way and, as a consequence, the United States government has established a strict quarantine, allowing plant life to be landed only after rigid examination and when it is clear that no danger exists.

Another example of the work of the entomologists may be of interest:

During the visit of a well-known Hawaiian to Mexico many years ago, his attention was attracted by a beautiful shrub that he thought would make a splendid hedge around his home. It grew about five feet in height and its foliage was of a rich green, with a brown, red and yellow flower. The slips he brought to Honolulu thrived wonderfully and cuttings of the plant were taken to the other islands for a like purpose. Wherever planted it grew amazingly fast. It quickly spread over the hillsides and became so dense that cattle could not penetrate the thickets formed by it. It made valueless large areas of land that formerly had been used for the pasturing of cattle and plantation stock, and reduced the grazing area at an alarming rate. Land that adjoined the plantations and that in the course of time became needed for plantation purposes was also over-run by it.

The curtailment of the grazing lands and the increased cost of clearing were so great that the entomologists were finally sent for and asked if they could not eradicate the trouble. After a careful investigation they went to Mexico, whence the lantana, as the shrub is called, had come. On their return journey they brought back with them a fly. The fly laid its eggs in thebud of the lantana, and when the young flies were hatched they fed upon the lantana seeds. The flies multiplied rapidly and soon made away with the seeds, thus preventing the shrub from spreading any further. When it was once cleared from the land or the plantation it did not reappear.

These illustrations demonstrate the fact that the culture of sugar cane involves a constant struggle between science and unrestrained nature.

As a rule, Hawaiian sugar plantations are located close to the seacoast, between it and the base of the mountains. The lands slope gently toward the sea, thus insuring good drainage and easy application of water for irrigation. Most of the cane is grown on land less than five hundred feet above sea-level, although in a few rare instances it is cultivated at an elevation as great as three thousand feet. Parts of the leeward side of the islands, where it is extremely dry and hot, and where the cane thrives best, depend entirely on irrigation, the water being brought to the plantations by ditches or pumped from wells. On the windward side of the island of Hawaii, where the rainfall is abundant, irrigation is unnecessary except during very dry periods.

In cultivating, the ground is turned with steam ploughs to depths up to twenty-four inches. These ploughs are operated by powerful engines that work in pairs, one on each side of a field, usually from one thousand to fifteen hundred feet apart. One engine pulls a gang-plough across the field and the other draws it back. By this method the rich soil is thoroughly loosened and a wonderful vegetable growth results. Ordinarily in California the farmer ploughs only from four to six inches deep.

STEAM PLOUGH

PLANTING CANE

After the lands are ploughed and harrowed and all the weeds turned under, double mould-board ploughs are used to make the furrows in which the seed is planted. The furrows are not like those made for planting potatoes, but are about five feet apartand eighteen inches deep, each furrow and hill being symmetrical. They follow the contour of the land so that the irrigation water will fill the furrow and remain there until it is absorbed by the soil and penetrates to the cane roots. At regular intervals of about thirty-five feet, lateral ditches are cut, from which there is an entrance into every furrow. These lateral ditches deliver the water from the main ditches to the various parts of the fields. The land is now ready for the seed.

Meanwhile, the harvesting of the ripened cane in other fields is going on. As the laborers cut the cane, they top it, that is to say, they cut off about twelve inches of the upper part of the solid stalk. Sugar cane resembles bamboo, in that it is cylindrical in shape and divided every few inches into sections by rings or joints. In every joint there is a bud or eye, from which a shoot of cane will sprout, if properly planted in the ground and watered.

These tops, always cut from untasseled cane, contain very little sugar. They are carried to the newly prepared field and placed in rows in the furrows, end to end, lengthwise, the ends overlapping a trifle in order to guard against blank spaces in the growing cane. They are then covered, according to the season, with one to one and a half inches of earth, and the water is turned in until the furrow contains from three to four inches of water. Between six and ten days afterward, the little green cane shoots appear above the ground. From this time forward continuous irrigation and cultivation, together with proper fertilization, are required until the cane matures.

Planting usually begins in March and continues until September, sometimes later, and the cane ripens one year from the following December.

Growing cane should be watered every seven days, and the amount of water used for this purpose is enormous. For example: a plantation producing thirty-five thousand tons of sugarper annum needs twice as much water per day as the city of San Francisco.

The appearance of growing cane is much like that of Indian corn. The whole field area is covered with a dense, jungle-like vegetation of brilliant green. The leaves are long and narrow and hang in graceful curves. The cane grows so thick that it is almost impossible to crawl through it, and so seldom do the sun’s rays penetrate to the ground that rapid evaporation of the irrigation water cannot take place, hence the cane gets the full benefit of the moisture.

In certain varieties of cane, the great weight of the juice in the stalks causes them to bend, droop and take fantastic shapes. Sometimes they lie on the ground with the ends turned upward, and in fields where the stalks grow to a length of twenty-four feet, the average height of the tops above the ground is not over twelve feet. In other kinds the stalks stand straight up to a height of from eight to fourteen feet.

The production of cane per acre varies in different countries and in different parts of the same country, according to the character of the soil, climatic conditions, care and attention, use of fertilizer and amount of rainfall or irrigation. In Hawaii it ranges from twenty to eighty-five tons, and the amount of sugar obtained per acre runs from two and one-half tons to twelve tons, the average being about five tons.

Broadly speaking, lack of a normal amount of cane per acre, lack of sugar in the cane, or the prevalence of disease, is primarily due to an unsanitary or unsuitable condition of the soil. This can usually be corrected by proper cultural methods, such as adequate aeration of the soil, the turning under of the cane tops and leaves, application of lime and suitable combinations of fertilizing ingredients. Fundamentally, cane requires a well-aerated, moist, alkaline soil and a fertilizer in which the nitrogen content is high and in excess of the potash and phosphoricacid. It is found that nitrate of soda, when applied alone or in combination with potash and phosphoric acid, produces a very strong growth. The proper sanitation of the soil tends to promote the beneficial bacterial action so essential to the growth of the cane.

IRRIGATION DITCH—SHOWING TUNNEL

IRRIGATION DITCH

In December and January the cane tassels or flowers, which indicates that it has about reached maturity and is ready for cutting. Thenceforward very little irrigating is done, as additional water applied at this time might retard ripening, which would mean a reduced amount of sugar stored up in the cane.

It is interesting to note that while the cane is growing and in an unripe state, there is no discernible sucrose or pure sugar in it. As the ripening process goes on, the content of the cane juice is changed by the action of the sun’s rays, and the amount of sucrose as determined by polariscopic test shows when the time for harvesting is at hand. Nature’s operation in thus changing glucose or invert sugar into sucrose or pure sugar cannot be accomplished by any human means.

The harvesting then begins and continues until the end of July or August. Usually the field is set on fire before cutting. On account of the great amount of moisture or juice in the cane, the stalks do not burn, but the leaves are thoroughly consumed. This operation eliminates a good deal of leaf material that is not only useless, but which, if sent to the mill, would increase the cost of crushing, besides absorbing a certain quantity of the juice expressed from the cane.

Formerly men stripped the leaves from the cane in the fields, but it was a difficult matter to accomplish such work, and the cost was heavy. An accident changed the method of doing this work. A field took fire and it was found that while all the leaves were consumed, little or no damage was done to the stalks provided they were cut promptly and sent to the mill to be crushed. The practice of burning has since become general, although theadvisability of continuing it is now being given very careful study.

Burning eliminates the arduous labor of stripping, and no doubt does away with many harmful insects and fungi, but at the same time it destroys the enemies and parasites of these insects and this loss is severely felt. Another disadvantage of burning is that the nitrogen contained in the cane leaves is liberated and not returned to the soil as would be the case if the leaves were stripped and ploughed under. In the latter case the leaves rot rapidly, add humus to the soil, help aeration, and improve the sanitary condition, all of which tends to increase the yield of cane per acre. From recent experience it is not improbable that burning will be discontinued in the near future.

As soon as the field is ready, whether burned or not, the laborers go in to cut the cane. A long, heavy knife is used. The cutter grasps the stalk and drives the knife into it, severing it just at the ground. He then tops it, that is, he cuts off the upper part that contains no sugar, and, to aid in subsequent handling, the long stalks are cut into convenient lengths.

As the burning destroys the eyes or buds, certain fields are cut and topped for seed before the burning takes place.

There are two general methods of transporting the cane to the mills. One is by rail and the other by flumes. On the irrigated plantations where water is never overplentiful, railroad tracks and locomotives are invariably employed, while on the non-irrigated plantations, located in districts where there are copious annual rains, V-shaped flumes are extensively used. In some cases a combination of both systems is adopted to advantage. From the upper lands where it is difficult to construct railroads, the cane is flumed to a convenient point on the railroad system, at a lower elevation, and delivered into cars, while the water is conducted into ditches and used for irrigating the lower cane lands.

YOUNG SUGAR CANE

RIPE SUGAR CANE—SHOWING TASSELS

In the case of rail transportation, paths one hundred and fifty feet apart are cut through the fields so that temporary railroad tracks may be laid and cars run in and loaded on these tracks. The whole field is then cut in the same way and the work continued until the entire crop is harvested.

The loaders follow up the cutters. These men lay a strap on the ground and pile the stalks on the strap until they have a bundle of cane weighing from seventy-five to one hundred pounds. With a dexterity born of long practice, they sling a bundle upon their shoulders and carry it up an inclined runway to a railroad car not over seventy-five feet away and dump it on the car. The cutting and loading are usually done by contract, at so much per ton, and it is remarkable how proficient the men become.

When flumes are used exclusively, much the same methods are adopted. Paths are cut through the fields and in these paths are placed the flumes which, like the temporary railroad tracks, are moved from time to time as necessity demands. The mill is located at the lowest point on the plantation and the flumes are placed so as to insure a good grade from the cane fields on the uplands to the mill below. The flumes are either carried on low trestles or run along the ground, but always at a height which enables the laborers to throw the cane into them conveniently.

Water is turned into the upper end of the flume and, rushing rapidly down, carries or floats the cane to the mill. Cane is flumed in this way for distances up to seven miles at low cost and with satisfactory results.

The cars when loaded in the fields are made up into trains and hauled by locomotives to the mill, which is generally located about the center of the plantation, or at a point where most of the cane can be delivered on a downward grade. Each car is carefully weighed on a track scale and the exact quantity of its load of cane is ascertained and recorded.

For years past the planters have been offering large rewards for the invention of a machine to cut and load the cane, but the old hand method is still employed, although some experimental loading machines are meeting with more or less success, but none are in common use.

The problems involved in cutting cane by machinery seem insurmountable, and, while many devices have been tried, not one has proved successful.

After the cane is cut the first time, ploughs are sent through the fields and a furrow is ploughed along each side of the stubs of the cane which are left in place. This ploughing opens up the ground, aerates the soil, and affords the irrigating or rain water a means of easy access to the cane roots. The water tenders follow up the ploughs and the furrows are filled with water, which is gradually absorbed by the old cane roots left in the ground. In time new sprouts spring up from buds on the old stalks of the cane and another growth begins. The second crop is called “first ratoons” and, when cultivated for a single year only, it is designated “short ratoons.” As a rule it does not yield as much sugar as plant cane, but the saving in seed, in the preparation of the fields and in other labor frequently makes up for the reduced amount of sugar. If allowed to grow for two years, as is generally the case, it is called “long ratoons” and produces proportionately more sugar. In the past a very large percentage of the Hawaiian crop was planted with fresh seed every year and but a small percentage ratooned. Nowadays, however, the tendency is to ratoon the crop as long as the yield justifies, which in many cases is from three to four times. In Cuba the cane when once planted is ratooned for many years.

There have been specific instances in Hawaii where ratoons that have been allowed to grow for two years (long ratoons) have shown a better yield than the first planting. According to the best information, this is due to the presence of poisonousmatter in the ground, turned up for the first time at the first planting.

CUTTING CANE

LOADING CANE

The object of all the ploughing, weeding, cultivating, fertilizing and irrigating, is to produce a large number of strong, sturdy stalks of cane, yielding a maximum amount of sugar. The sugar is contained in solution in the sap or juice and the amount can be materially increased by due care and attention.

As some of the elements which form the plant are absorbed from the air through the leaves, favorable climatic conditions are essential to its full growth and development. Proper fertilizers must be added to the soil, and water applied regularly and in sufficient quantity.

Commercial fertilizers are used in Hawaii probably to a greater extent than in any other country in the world. It is quite common for plantations to use half a ton of fertilizer per acre per crop, and at times as much as two thousand pounds per acre. The yearly fertilizer cost per acre will probably average twenty-five dollars.

As it takes eighteen months for a crop to mature in Hawaii, it will readily be seen that the plantation area must be at least double that used for any one crop. While one crop is being harvested, another crop is in the ground growing. As soon as the cane is cut, the lands are immediately prepared for replanting or ratooning, as the case may be. During certain periods each year, usually in June and July, a visitor on an Hawaiian plantation can see one crop growing, one being harvested and one being planted.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the harvesting begins in December and ends in July or August. The planting begins from March to June and usually ends in September, according to plantation conditions and whether or not the land is irrigated.

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