The world's cane sugar industry has expanded remarkably since the beginning of this century. Columbus appears to have been responsible for the first introduction of sugar cane to the islands of the West Indies in 1493.
THE PRINCIPAL CANE-SUGAR PRODUCING COUNTRIES
Detailed discussions of cultivation and planting. methods and drainage are given in Chapters 5 and 9. The industry has been quick to adopt new and approved methods in all phases of the sugarcane work. A territory of the United States of America, it is self-supporting. and mainly dependent on the cane sugar industry.
Fertilizers
The high yielding characteristics of B.H.10/12 and S.C.12/4 led to the replacement of Uba, although their susceptibility to mosaic was a disadvantage. The position of mosaic disease in Puerto Rico appears to be better under control than in Jamaica.
Government Control
Mechanization
Harvesting
Cultivation
In other parts of the island, the variation in rainfall with altitude is illustrated by Olaa's data. The eight sugar plantations use full or partial irrigation, with average rainfall much lower than in the sugar cane areas of Hawaii Island.
Cuba
This is derived from 63 bore wells, 5 surface wells and a system of shafts and tunnels from which 22 pumps raise the water to heights varying from 20 to 200 ft. The extent of the system is characterized by a length of 41 tunnels, which is up to 15 miles with 27 miles of open ditches and numerous reservoirs supplied by the mountain water system, while there are 39 pumping units which provide about 70%.
18 AGRICULTURE OF THE SUGAR-CANE
Agricultural Conditions
Sugar Production
Irrigation
Production
Over the past 16 years, sugarcane farmers' production has increased sharply; thus in 1934 they supplied 13% of the cane used to produce 72,420 tons of sugar, while in 1949 they were responsible for 28.81% of the cane used to produce more than three times as much. The relationship between sugar cane farmers and factories is subject to the provisions of the Sugar Industry Control Act.
The Leeward Islands
Since 1938, sugarcane farmers have been required to register with the factories they supply, and factories can only buy sugarcane from registered farmers.
St. Kitts
It processes all the sugar cane produced on the island and has now been in successful and highly efficient operation for 40 years. Apart from the efficient extraction of the factory, improved sugarcane yields have been achieved by the estates as a result of organized surveys carried out since 1933 by the Sugarcane Survey Committee and various workers.
Antigua
Barbados
The dominance of sugar is more evident than on any other of the sugar islands. The former is partially controlled by the egg parasite Trichogramma minutum, which has been specially bred by the Ministry of Agriculture for release in the sugar cane fields.
Trinidad
The cultivated area is in these respects similar to the fields of England and the reclaimed and drained areas of Holland. The Ozama Sugar Company and the Central Romana Corporation (operated by the South Puerto Rico Corporation) contribute to the B.W.I.
Mexico
South America Peru
Brazil
Many of the factories are equipped to produce fuel alcohol directly from the sugarcane juice, instead of sugar, in accordance with market demands.
Argentina
Indian Union
Intensive methods of sugarcane production are gaining attention due to the Indian Union's policy to increase the supply of food grains.
Research and Extension Services
Java
Sugarcane is grown in the eastern and central districts, being mostly confined to areas that experience a dry season lasting up to four months of the year. The aspect of the work which has attracted the most attention is cane breeding, originally begun in 1893 with the object of producing a cane resistant to Sereh.
The Philippines
Taiwan (Formosa)
There are now 35 of the latter with a total daily crushing capacity of 69,400 tons of sugar cane. The western side of the island has poor soils and is exposed to strong monsoon winds.
Australia
About 72% of the total sugar harvest comes from sugar cane grown under natural rainfall conditions. Irrigation is used in the Lower Burdekin and Bundaberg districts, each producing about 14% of the total.
Crop Cycle and Preparation
Local quarantine areas have been proclaimed for the same purpose - prevention of the introduction and spread of diseases. The following description of general agricultural practice in Queensland has been prepared from a private communication from Mr.
Planting
Both machine and manual methods are used, the former being carried out using a cutting planter. There are several types, which vary depending on the method of cutting the setts and stacking the stems in the trays of the machine (Fig. 57). . The usual method of planting by hand is to draw a furrow, lay the entire canes in the furrow, and cut them into groups in that position, covered with a harrow or plough.
The blade is usually of a rotary or reciprocating type, but in more recent designs a fixed blade is used. Older machines do not have the cutter link, but perform the same operations, except that the sets are cut by hand or with a small circular saw and inserted into the planting hole by hand.
Ratoons
Pests and Diseases
Reaping and Transport in Queensland
Individual farms comprise 10 to 12 hectares and are divided into four approximately equal parts, of which at any given time one is in young plants, one in cane, one in first ratoons and one in fallow. Due to the prevalence of the severe Fiji disease, which was first discovered in 1907 and is most damaging in fertile areas, only one crop of ratoon can be grown.
Mauritius
The Sugar Research Station, a division of the Department of Agriculture, conducts cane breeding work and general investigations of sugarcane problems. The sugar industry maintains a laboratory for determining the fertilizer requirements of sugarcane by the leaf diagnostic method.
Natal
134/32, a vigorous rich cane with high disease resistance, which now covers 95% of the total planted area. In this respect conditions are similar to those in Jamaica and other parts of the West Indies.
Location of the Industry
From the earliest days of the industry, the subject of cane varieties has been of vital importance. The work of this station has been a great contribution to the progress of the industry in many ways, especially in regard to improved commercial varieties.
Provision for Research
Final selections are released for commercial planting after approval by the Department of Agriculture and publication of a Gazette notice. In June 1951, the foundation stone was laid for the laboratories of the Sugar Milling Research Institute, established in 1949.
Organization of the Industry
Owing to the rapidly expanding work, it has become necessary to obtain an additional 300 acres of land for the cultivation of these final selections on a much larger scale, so that larger quantities of plant material of approved new varieties may be made available to planters who will pay for it at a fixed rate per ton.
THE PLANT AND ITS PROPAGATION
Description of the Plant
The root system of the cane consists of relatively thick buttress roots that are visible at the base of the stem. This main root system of the cane provides the means by which the plant obtains food supplies for growth and development through the root hairs.
Propagation
Reproduced from the Queensland Canegrowers' Handbook courtesy of the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, Queensland, Australia. The depth of planting should not be confused with the thickness of the soil used to cover the sets.
Preplanting Treatment
Germination and development are influenced, among other things, by the planting depth, which must be determined experimentally for the variety of sugar cane and the type and condition of the soil. McMartin found that Aretan was the best of the organic mercury agents tested, and that of all the antifungal materials tested, only the mercury-containing materials showed promise.
SUGAR-CANE SOILS Agencies Affecting Productivity of Soils
Principal Soil Types
The Soil Regarded as a Living Material
It forms a medium for a variety of bustling life in the form of tiny organisms and larger creatures that have a good or bad effect on the soil material and the plants that grow in it. In this way, plants growing in the soil are provided with an environment that is favorable for the development of their roots and for the intake of nutrients that are essential for proper growth and development.
Origin and Translocation of Soils
The Function of the Soil
Soils are such complex mineral deposits that are composed of the same constituents as the parent rocks from which they originate, although not necessarily in the same proportions, because the rate of decomposition of the various substances varies greatly. The mineral content of such soils is derived from the silt and from the mineral remains of the decayed vegetation, and, as will be seen, they often lack certain important elements essential to plants.
The Elements Necessary for Plant Growth
Some plants can "f i x" take up nitrogen from the atmosphere and make it available as plant food. These are present in large quantities and their compounds make up most of the soil material in clay soils.
Soil Regeneration
Under natural undisturbed conditions, the processes of growth and decay build up the soil reserves, and the fertility of the soil increases. In the process they "fix" the nitrogen from the air into the soil in a form in which the plants can assimilate it.
What the Planter Should Know
The growing and removal of cash crops reduces the available nutrient reserves in the soil, which must be continuously replenished if the soil's fertility or productivity is to be maintained. They not only renew the supply of nitrogen available to sugarcane, but improve the condition of the soil in general, and in particular increase its capacity for holding moisture.
Soil Grouping in Relation to Cultural Requirements
Although, therefore, the importance of soil survey work cannot be exaggerated, the planter's requirements depend on the application of such information to his own practical needs, which are first the broad cultural operations best suited to the crops he grows, and the help he can provide in the form of fertilizer dressings, water application if rainfall is deficient, drainage and treatment aimed at maintaining and improving its fertility. In these matters he is guided by experience and knowledge gained from scientific research conducted on subjects of fundamental importance and subsequently applied to the problems of crop production.
Four Main Soil Groups
This treatment brought a spectacular stimulation of growth and quickly led to the expansion of the industry. The sulphates of copper, manganese and zinc are used at doses related to the requirements of the country.
Physical Condition
Within certain limits all these can be influenced by cultural practices, and the objectives of cultivation, drainage, irrigation in the absence of sufficient and well-distributed rainfall, fertilization and soil improvers must be achieved and maintained as long as desired, com - the combination of all these factors that is most suitable for optimal returns.
Moisture Relationships
The extent to which natural drainage must be supplemented varies greatly, not only with soil and subsoil types, but with natural slope of the land, and the wide range of rainfall in total amount and precipitation rate. The discussion of the group system indicates the essential role played by drainage in the maintenance of slope under conditions favoring the use of the vaulted bed system of field arrangement in its various forms.
Plant Nutrients
Artificial watering by surface or overhead irrigation is of no value unless the soil is in a suitable physical condition to receive, use and release the applied water. Drainage and irrigation are discussed more fully in other chapters, but reference to them should also be included in a consideration of sugarcane soils.
THE DRAINING OF SUGAR-CANE LANDS Reasons for Drainage
A Simple Method of Soil Examination
Except for dry sandy soil, the soil will be held in tail coils from where it can be removed, inspected and fingered. Such tests should be done at different points in the fields at appropriate time intervals during the wet and dry seasons, and at different stages of the crop cycle.
Field Drainage Systems
After some experience the observer will be able to relate the soil conditions thus noted to the general appearance and requirements of the cane as far as moisture relations are concerned. An important part of the drain is the cut made by the blade to which the casting tool is attached.
Tile and Stone Drains
The stone drain is made in the same way, packing the bottom of the trench with stone, which will pass through a 4-in. The distances between them depend on the nature of the soil, rainfall conditions and the slope of the land.
Advantages of Under-Drainage
In both types, it may be desirable in some cases to raise the surface of the land slightly between the drains, leaving a small depression above them to aid the movement of surface water towards the drain. While strong drains can only be used in subsoil where the channel and cut above will not seriously collapse during the life of the crop, tile drains and their substitutes, the stone and bamboo types, can be laid in any cane soil, through which water can pass freely from the surface, including all but very heavy clays.
Open Trench Systems
Once the drains have been cut and the beds formed, subsequent operations during the crop cycle should be carried out in such a way as to cause minimal damage to the drains. Any lack of attention in wet weather is quickly accompanied by damage to the crop.
Cambered Beds in British Guiana
The Bank and Furrow Method
They are disturbed and filled with each tractor processing of the beds and must be reshaped m a n u a l y. To allow the use of the intervals for headlands, the cross drains are not cut at the ends of the fields, but a few years away.
Natural Drainage
Water control in the sub-drainage area depends on embankments built on the boundaries to prevent water intrusion and an internal system of main and subsidiary canals with low-lift, high-volume pumps to discharge water from the area or bring it in as required. Pumping for the subdrainage area is provided by pumps with a capacity of 30,000 to 60,000 gal.
Sugar-Cane Lands Below Sea Level
The capacity of the drainage system is designed to provide runoff that is adequate for local rainfall, typically 1 in. Either diesel or electricity can be used, the latter being preferred as it is suitable for automatic operation of the pumps.
PESTS AND DISEASES, THEIR EFFECTS AND CONTROL
Insect pests of sugarcane include those that cause damage by boring into and feeding on various parts of the plant, some of which transmit disease. The effect is caused by the destruction of chlorophyll, which is vital for normal plant growth processes.
SUGAR-CANE VARIETIES AND PLANT BREEDING
The relative strength and suitability shown for the various soils and climates encountered in the cane lands of the country will emerge from these trials. The study of these parent canes forms an important branch of the work of a cane breeding enterprise.
PLANTATION AND FIELD PLANNING Importance of Planning
Progressive Amalgamation of Estates
In the course of this preparatory work, what can be called the focal point of the plantation is determined. At the same time, there should be easy access to all other parts of the central building area.
THE PLANTING AND CULTURE OF THE CANE Crop Planning
It has been found that the nature of the work to be done is related to the type of soil. The cane is planted at the top of the bank and must survive a cold winter period.
FERTILIZERS AND MANURES, THEIR APPLICATION AND EFFECT
It contains most of the phosphoric acid and some of the nitrogen in the sugar cane. The dynamic qualities of the soil are particularly evident in relation to the availability of potassium chloride.
WEEDS AND THEIR CONTROL The Menace of Weeds
