"
"I wish you would," exclaimed both boys in a breath.
"Probably in your school geographies you have seen pictures of
sugar-cane and know that it is a tall perennial not unlike our
Indian corn in appearance; it has broad, flat leaves that sometimes
measure as many as three feet in length, and often the stalk itself
is twenty feet high. This stalk is jointed like a bamboo pole, the
joints being about three inches apart near the roots and increasing
in distance the higher one gets from the ground."
"How do they plant it?" Bob asked.
"It can be planted from seed, but this method takes much time and
patience; the usual way is to plant it from cuttings, or slips. The
first growth from these cuttings is called plant cane; after these
are taken off the roots send out ratoons or shoots from which the
crop of one or two years, and sometimes longer, is taken. If the
soil is not rich and moist replanting is more frequently necessary
and in places like Louisiana, where there is annual frost, planting
must be done each year. When the cane is ripe it is cut and brought
from the field to a central sugar mill, where heavy iron rollers
crush from it all the juice. This liquid drips through into troughs
from which it is carried to evaporators where the water portion of
the sap is eliminated and the juice left; you would be surprised if
you were to see this liquid. It looks like nothing so much as the
soapy, bluish-gray dish-water that is left in the pan after the
dishes have been washed.
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