A photo gallery is available for this page. A close-up of sugarcane stalks south of Lake Okeechobee, just outside of South Bay along US 27. It is one of the primary crops in the Everglades Agricultural Area. Before being mechanically harvested, sugarcane fields are burned to remove dead leaves. Harvested cane is then brought to a sugarcane mill where juices are extracted from the stalks, mixed with lime and evaporated off until raw crystals form.
Raw crystals become granulated sugar and liquid sugar at sugar refineries.
Drainage ditches like the one pictured directly to the right collect excess water during the summer rainy season. During the winter dry season, water flow is directed into the ditches and irrigation results from the seepage of water throughout the porous crop soils. This view brings us on top of Lake Okeechobee's Herbert Hoover Dike along State Road 715, about 2 miles south of Palm Beach County Glades Airport. Agricultural fields are on one side of the dike and Lake Okeechobee's Rim Canal is on the other side. Sugarcane fields can be seen on one side of the dike.