In 1794 de Boré purchased seed cane from Mendez and Solis and after planting it he went ahead with his preparations for harvesting, crushing and manufacturing. The following year the sugar he produced sold for $12,000, a considerable sum of money in those days. The boiling of the sugar juice to grain was done under the direction of Antoine Morin, the former associate of Mendez. The method was naturally very primitive, the mill being driven by animal power, and much sugar was lost in the bagasse.
Following the example of de Boré, many planters set out cane and built sugar mills. Their operations were highly successful and they all became wealthy within a comparatively short period.
The industry continued to flourish and prosper, and the year 1820 marked a decided step forward. Up to that time the only two kinds of cane that had been grown in Louisiana were the Creole (from Malabar or Bengal) and the Tahiti. The cane originally planted by de Boré and from which he made his first sugar was the Creole; the Tahiti variety was not introduced from Santo Domingo until 1797. It became patent to the planters that neither of these canes was suited to the Louisianan climate, and they set about looking for a hardier plant. Toward the middle of the eighteenth century the purple and striped varieties were brought by the Dutch from Java to the island of St. Eustatius, and from there a quantity of these canes was taken to Savannah, Georgia, about 1814. They throve extremely well and a former resident of Savannah who had moved to Louisiana and become a planter there, having heard about them, secured some for seed purposes. His experiment proved wonderfully successful and from this single estate the cultivation of the new canes spread over the entire sugar-producing region. As these varieties could stand greater cold than the Creole and the Tahiti, the planters were able to extend their growing area northward and in this way greatly increase their acreage. As recently as 1897 these canes still constituted the crops of Louisiana with a few exceptions.
Of late years, however, seedling canes obtained from Demerara have come into great favor in consequence of the researches of the botanists at the experiment station. In addition to an advantage both in cane and sugar over the varieties previously used, the time of vegetation is shorter, so that the canes mature earlier, and this, on account of the short season in which Louisianan cane has to ripen, makes the Demeraran decidedly desirable. It has also been proved that Demeraran cane is better able to resist damage by storms, so that taking it all in all it would appear that the newer varieties are quite likely to displace the older kinds.
Cane is usually planted in the same ground every three years. The crop of plant cane is followed by a crop of ratoons and then maize is put in. As soon as the maize is cut the field is sown with a species of large pea (Vigna sinensis) and when summer is over the pea vines and the maize stubble are ploughed under. A month after this is done, furrows are dug about six feet apart and early in October cane is planted once more. In this operation two rows of whole cane stalks are placed in the furrows and covered with five or six inches of earth as a protection against frost. Most of this layer of earth is removed in the spring to help the growth of the young cane shoots. Stable manure, cotton-seed meal, nitrates, phosphates and kainite are used as fertilizers.
Harvesting begins at the end of November, and, weather permitting, the cane is allowed to remain standing in the fields until required for grinding. If, however, the Government Weather Bureau should predict cold, the cane is cut without delay, piled in the furrows and covered with dry cane leaves to prevent it from freezing. Cane stored in this manner keeps well so long as the weather remains cold, but as soon as warm weather comes it rapidly deteriorates.
Labor in Louisiana is both scarce and costly, consequently agricultural machinery is used in the fields as far as possible.
HAULING CANE IN THE FIELDS, LOUISIANA
