The sugar cane, Arundo saccharifera, is a plant of the graminiferous family, which varies in height from 8 to 10, or even to 20 feet. Its diameter is about an inch and a half; its stem is dense, brittle, and of a green hue, which verges to yellow at the approach of maturity. It is divided by prominent annular joints of a whitish-yellow colour, the plane of which is perpendicular to the axis of the stem. These joints are placed about 3 inches apart; and send forth leaves, which fall off with the ripening of the plant. The leaves are 3 or 4 feet long, flat, straight, pointed, from 1 to 2 inches in breadth, of a sea-green tint, striated in their length, alternate, embracing the stem by their base. They are marked along their edges with almost imperceptible teeth. In the 11th or 12th month of their growth, the canes push forth at their top a sprout 7 or 8 feet in height, nearly half an inch in diameter, smooth, and without joints, to which the name arrow is given. This is terminated by an ample panicle, about 2 feet long, divided into several knotty ramifications, composed of very numerous flowers, of a white colour, apetalous, and furnished with 3 stamens, the anthers of which are a little oblong. The roots of the sugar cane are jointed and nearly cylindrical; in diameter they are about one twelfth of an inch; in their utmost length 1 foot, presenting over their surface a few short radicles.
The stem of the cane in its ripe state is heavy, very smooth, brittle, of a yellowish-violet, or whitish colour, according to the variety. It is filled with a fibrous, spongy, dirty-white pith, which contains very abundant sweet juice. This juice is elaborated separately in each internodary portion, the functions of which are in this respect independent of the portions above and below. The cane may be propagated by seeds or buds with equal facility; but it is usually done by cuttings or joints of proper lengths, from 15 to 20 inches, in proportion to the nearness of the joints, which are generally taken from the tops of the canes, just below the leaves.
There are several varieties of the sugar-cane plant. The first, and longest known, is the creole, or common sugar cane, which was originally introduced at Madeira. It grows freely in every region within the tropics, on a moist soil, even at an elevation of 3000 feet above the level of the sea. In Mexico, among the mountains of Caudina-Masca, it is cultivated to a height of more than 5000 feet. The quantity and quality of sugar which it yields, is proportional to the heat of the place where it grows, provided it be not too moist and marshy.
The second variety of this plant is the Otaheitan cane. It was introduced into the West Indies about the end of the 18th century. This variety, stronger, taller, with longer spaces between the joints, quicker in its growth, and much more productive in sugar, succeeds perfectly well in lands which seem too much impoverished to grow the ordinary cane. It sends forth shoots at temperatures which chill the growth and development of the creole plant. Its maturation does not take more than a year, and is accomplished sometimes in nine months. From the strength of its stem, and the woodiness of its fibres, it better resists the storms. It displays a better inflorescence, weighs a third more, affords a sixth more juice, and a fourth more sugar, than the common variety. Its main advantage, however, is to yield four crops in the same time that the creole cane yields only three. Its juice contains less feculency and mucilage, whence its sugar is more easily crystallized, and of a fairer colour.
Besides these two varieties, another kind is described by Humboldt and Bonpland, under the name of the violet sugar-cane, for its haum and leaves are of this colour. It was transported from Batavia in 1782. It flowers a month sooner than the rest, that is, in August, but it yields less solid sugar, and more liquid, both of which have a violet tint.
In saying that the cane may be propagated by seeds as well as buds, we must remark, that in all the colonies of the New World, the plant flowers, indeed, but it then sends forth a shoot (arrow), that is, its stem elongates, and the seed-vessel proves abortive. For this reason, the bud-joints must there be used for its propagation. It grows to seed, however, in India. This circumstance occurs with some other plants, which, when propagated by their roots, cease to yield fertile seeds; such as the banana, the bread-fruit, the lily, and the tulip.
In the proper season for planting, the ground is marked out by a line into rows three or four feet asunder, in which rows the canes are planted about two feet apart. The series of rows is divided into pieces of land 60 or 70 feet broad, leaving spaces of about 20 feet, for the convenience of passage, and for the admission of sun and air between the stems. Canes are usually planted in trenches, about 6 or 8 inches deep, made with the hand-hoe, the raised soil being heaped to one side, for covering-in the young cane; into the holes a negro drops the number of cuttings intended to be inserted, the digging being performed by other negroes. The earth is then drawn about the hillocks with the hoe. This labour has been, however, in many places better and more cheaply performed by the plough; a deep furrow being made, into which the cuttings are regularly planted, and the mould then properly turned in. If the ground is to be afterwards kept clear by the horse-hoe, the rows of canes should be 5 feet asunder, and the hillocks 21⁄2 feet distant, with only one cane left in one hillock. After some shoots appear, the sooner the horse-hoe is used, the more will the plants thrive, by keeping the weeds under, and stirring up the soil. Plant-canes of the first growth have been known to yield, on the brick-mould of Jamaica, in very fine seasons, 21⁄2 tons of sugar per acre. The proper season for planting the cane-slips, containing the buds, namely, the top part of the cane, stripped of its leaves, and the two or three upper joints, is in the interval between August and the beginning of November. Favoured by the autumnal weather, the young plants become luxuriant enough to shade the ground before the dry season sets in; thereby keeping the roots cool and moderately moist. By this arrangement the creole canes are ripe for the mill in the beginning of the second year, so as to enable the manager to finish his crop early in June. There is no greater error in the colonist than planting canes at an improper season of the year, whereby his whole system of operations becomes disturbed and, in a certain degree, abortive.
The withering and fall of a leaf afford a good criterion of the maturity of the cane-joint to which it belonged; so that the eight last leafless joints of two canes, which are cut the same day, have exactly the same age and the same ripeness, though one of the canes be 15 and the other only 10 months old. Those, however, cut towards the end of the dry season, before the rains begin to fall, produce better sugar than those cut in the rainy season, as they are then somewhat diluted with watery juice, and require more evaporation to form sugar. It may be reckoned a fair average product, when one pound of sugar is obtained from one gallon (English) of juice.
Rattoons (a word corrupted from rejettons) are the sprouts or suckers that spring from the roots or stoles of the canes that have been previously cut for sugar. They are commonly ripe in 12 months; but canes of the first growth are called plant-canes, being the direct produce of the original cuttings or germs placed in the ground, and require a longer period to bring them to maturity. The first yearly return from the roots that are cut over, are called first rattoons; the second year’s growth, second rattoons; and so on, according to their age. Instead of stocking up his rattoons, holing, and planting the land anew, the planter suffers the stoles to continue in the ground, and contents himself, as the cane-fields become thin and impoverished, with supplying the vacant places with fresh plants. By these means, and with the aid of manure, the produce of sugar per acre, if not apparently equal to that from plant-canes, gives perhaps in the long run as great returns to the owner, considering the relative proportion of the labour and expense attending the different systems. The common yielding on proper land, such as the red soil of Trelawney, in Jamaica, is 7 hogsheads, of 16 cwt. each, to 10 acres of rattoons cut annually; and such a plantation lasts from 6 to 10 years.