Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1855-06-23

Sugar.

| Sugar. so extensively used in every country o
the hahitable globe, and forming, as it does, one
our chief staples, supplies its commercial demand
mainly from the itlice of the cane, which contains
it in greater quantity and purity than any othe
plant and offers greater facilities for its extraction
Although sugar. identical in its character, exists IL
the mamie the cocoa-nut, and the beet-root and il
economically obtained to considerable extent, We
it is not often sufficiently pure to admit of read,
separation from the foreign matter combined witt
it, at least, by means the producers usually have
at hand.
The early history of cane-sugar like that OF man!
other necessaries of life, is involved in great obscu
ritv. 1t appears to have been impeltecty known
to the Greeks and Romans, as Theophrastus, VINO
lived 800 years before Christ describes it as sor
of honey extracted from canes of reed and Strabo
who states on the authority Of Nearchus, the com
mander OF the fleet in the expedition OF Alexander
the Great, says that "reeds in India yield honey
without bees"
Although India and Cochin China are the coun
tries usually cited as the native homes of the sugar
cane, where this plant grows wild, nevertheless
Roxburgh in his Flora Indica," declares that it,
indigenous habitat in the East Indies is unknown
| 1t occurs in wild state many of the South Sea
Islands, especially in Tahiti, but in no part of the
American continent notwithstanding contrary state
ments have been made. 1t is true, species OF cane
is found in Central America, apparently ndigenuou:
which is rich in sacchalne juice, and Is very readily
crushed by rollers; but it is not known with Ger
tainty when it was discovered, nor whether or moi
it is the result of selfsown seeds Of some variety
the Eastern cane The cultivated sugar-cane
let it be understood very rarely produces seeds, al
though it sometimes occurs even in our Southern
States.
The culture and manufacture of sugar it is statec
were introduced into Europe from the East by the
Saracens after their conquest in the ninth cen
fury; and it is known that the Arabs caused the
extension of the cultivation of this plant to Rhodes
Crete, and Scily-nay, even to Calabria, and Spain
1t is also stated by the Venetian and Amalfar
historians that their countrymen imported sugar
from Sicily in the twelfth century, at cheaper rate
than they could obtain it from Egypt where it was
then extensively made. The first sugar. plantations
established in Spain were at Valencia, but they
were soon after extended to Grenada and Murcia
Prince Henry the navigator, carried sugar-cane
from Sicily to Madeira. Towards the end of the
fifteenth and the commencement of the sixteenth
centuries, it was conveyed to the Canary Islands
where plantations were formed, especially on Com.
era and Grand Canary. From Gomera it was in.
troduced into the West Indies by Columbus in his
second voyage to America in l493 and soon after
became ditflsed over Mexico, Guiana, and Brazil
1t was cultivated to considerable extent in St. Do
mingo in 1906, where it succeeded better than in
any of the other islands In 1913 there were %
plantations in that colony established by the Span
iards, where an abundance Of sugar was made, which
for long period, formed she principal part of the
European supplies. Barbados, the oldest English
settlement in the West Indies, began to export
sugar in 1896 and in 1876 the trade of that island
required four hundred vessels, averaging $50 tons
burden.
The common s,lcar-cane is very sensitive to cold
and is, therefore, restricted in its cultivation to re-
gons either situated within or bordering on the
tropics where there is little or no frost In inter
tropical America it occurs at the height of 1000
feet above the sea; and in particular places under
favorable circumstances, over 5000, especially
on the elevated plateaux of Mexico. In Nepal, in
Asia, it extends up the Himalayas 1900 feet. 1t
thrives best in mean annual temperature of TO
to $40 Fahrenheit but it succeeds even at GO to
$50.
In the existing distribution of sugar-cane a
field crop, in the United States, it is found far
North as 800 East of the Rocky Mountains al
though, from its fexibity or disposition to acclim-
atize ITSELF it is highly probable that it is gradually
becoming more hardly, and eventually will endure
exposure and yield profitable return much further
North, along the borders of the Mississippi and its
than it has hitherto produced. Utmost
parts of Louisiana the yields three crops from
one planting. The first season it is denominated
"plant-cane," and each of the subsequent growths
=" rattoons." But sometimes, as on the prairies Of
Attakapas and Opeousas and the higher Northern
range of its culture, requires to be replanted every
year Within the tropics, as on the Island of Cuba
and elsewhere the rattoons frequently continues to
yield abundanty for twelve, fifteen, and even twenty
four years from the same roots.