Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1917-05-12
SUGAR CANE FOR sIRUP.
detailed Discussion of Problems AFFECT
ing This Industry in New Gov
eminent Publication.

Tho cuItufe of sugar cane for strip FRO
dction is essentially small farm INDUS
try Limited areas only are devoted to
If on each farm, but nevertheless cane
sjrup is an important article Of food
and q source Of considerable income TO
tbe farmers of the Gulf States. That
tbe Yields could be considerably increas
ed. however, is pointed out in Depart
ment Bulletin 486, a new publication OF
United States Department Of Agrieul'
ture.
The cost of producing sirup on two
south Georgia farms under the condi'
lions which prevailed in 1914 indicated
that at that time the price of sugar-cane
siruD in bulk must be over twenty-three
cents a gallon to allow the producer a
profit. However, production costs have
increased slightly since that date. In
recent years the price Of sirup IN the
general market has fluctuated widely
In the fall Of 1914 il was abnormaliy
low; a year later it advanced sharply
TO 40 cents per gallon and more, and
recent advances in the price of sugar
have been followed by higher prices fol
sirup.
The margin between cost of produc
ton and the market price can be sup
plemented, the bulletin points out, by &
better utilization of the by-products OF
these there there are three: Cd The
leaves and tops, (2) the bagasse (pom
ace or NASH, and (3) the skimmings
With the practice prevailing at present
very little use is made of amy Of the
three.
When fresh, the tops Of the cane
weigh approximately from 3 to t tons
an acre. If left exposed, this material
experiments, however, have shown that
soon becomes worthless for feed. Recent
the tops may be sliced successfully and
that in nutritive value silage of this
character is not greatly inferior to sill.
age from whole corn. Moreover, in
most of the cane strip sections there is
a shortage Of available roughage for
winter feeding, thus giving a value to
such silage above that represented by
its nutritive constituents, and the ad-
ditional manure resulting from feeding
these tops is an important considera-
tion. The systems of farming in vogue
in the sugar districts tend to deplete
the soil of its humus so that the value
Of manure in these regions is unusually
high. For these reasons it seems that
the soiling of sugar cane tops will more
than repay the farmer for the labor of
filing the silo. In this connection the
bulletin already mentioned points out
that it is essential to tramp the tops
very thoroughly in the silo.
The bagasse-cane from which the
Juice has been extracted-also has some
feeding value while fresh, but 1t is far
lower than that Of tops. In the oper
air 1t ferments very quickly. Whether
or not it can be made into silage with
profit Is a subject for further tests. II
small mills, such as those ordinarily
used by the strip producer, the juice il
extracted too incompletely for the ba
gasse to be used as fuel, and in many
cases farmers simply cart it off to some
waste land where it will be out of the
way. A more profitable disposal Of the
material is to use it as litter to mi,
with the barnyard manure. When rot
ted for about year in this form it may
be applied to sweet potato land or SOM,