The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-19
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

| Riding along the roads these beau-
 tiful fall days like to watch the curl ling smoke from the cane mills and whiff from them carries me back to my boyhood days when 1t was my de- light to go to cane grinding and fill
 up on cane juice.
 For Is years every fall I have been going up and down Alabama and one of the first things I do is to get me a. good old fashioned barlow" strong and keen enough to cut 9 joint of cane off with one twist of the wrist. I not only enjoy eating the cane, but I think 1t lot more fun to peel 1t and slice it up than to whittle even good pine stick. The time taken in get ting it ready to eat only whettens the appetite and keeps one from overeat- ing.
 was down in Ozark few years back and barrels of green and red cane were sitting out in front of near fly every grocery store. It so happened that no one was eating any. Along came a drummer from the north and bought a stalk. Evidently not wish ing to appear unaccustomed to eating cane he was cutting 1t in rounds and trying to chew 1t without peeling 1t. Making bad job of it. he threw the stalk down on the ground, saying, T don't see how anyone can enjoy eat ing such tough stuff. It may be all right for hogs, but not for people" Sugar cane, which is the best known of sugar producing plants, was intro- duced into America by the Spaniards in their earliest voyages. It is cousin of the Indian corn and closely resem- bles it. Sorghum from which some of our molasses is made, is another cousin. It is also described as a tall. stout, perennial grass of tropical and sub- tropical regions. Recently I saw some of the tallest and stoutest Johnson grass growing that I had ever seen, and pulling some of the stems out l | put them in my mouth and they were almost as sweet as cane.
 Those of us who lived in south Ala bama are of course familiar with sugar cane. but even south Alabamians are not accustomed to seeing cane grown as it is in the fields of Louisiana for the great sugar refineries sugar cane requires for it's best growth a tropical or warm, temperate climate. It | is truly an interesting sight to go through the great Louisiana cane belt and see 1t at it's best I'll never for get trips on trains which made their way along tracks on each side of which were literally miles of growing cane.
 have not yet been in south Ala bama this season to see the farmers making ribbon cane syrup, but already | I have seen many farmers in north 1 and central parts of the state busy making sorghum, and have already llaid in a supply of it, for despite the fact that I am from Barbour county | like sorghum, however, not quite so well as ribbon cane syrup. When Dr. 1 Shelbourne, the president of Howard college, went from East Lake a few Va, his wife thinking 1t would be plea sant surprise and treat to some of her friends, sent back to Alabama for I a keg of ribbon cane syrup and put lit up in bottles and sent them around among Dr. Selbourne's flock as Christ mas gifts. She was greatly chagrined l to find that the Tennesseans preferred sorghum syrup to ribbon cane She was 1 just the other way and had been boast I ing how much better 1t was. After all, taste Is queer thing.
 l Sorghum is aSmighty poor substitute
 for cane for chewing purposes, yet on
 cold and frosty nights when out possum
 hunting and hungry, I have greatly
 enjoyed finding sorghum patch. There
 are some who prefer the ribbon to the green cane for eating purposes on ac- 1 count or It's SWcclHcSs, WHilc Lidiiy Fl | fer the green because 1t isn't near so tough as the red. I am. however. about cane like some fellows used to be about whisky before the state went
 bone dry. Some is better than others, but it is all good when fellow is dy-
 ling for drink
 | I said that Louisiana produces the
 greatest part of the sugar crops of the
 United States, but of late Texas has
 been greatly increasing her supply.
 and then 8 great deal of cane sugar comes to the United States from our
 Iisland dependencies to be refined.
 Sugar raising Is the chief industry
 both in Cuba and in the Hawaiian
 1 Islands, and is of great importance in
 the Philippines
 Cuba holds first rank in the produce | ton of sugar though 1t finds close
 rival in Java, in the East Indies. Not
 only Cuba and Java but the other East
 and West India islands raise sugar in
 large quantities.
 Much of the molasses produced in
 the West Indies Is used in the manu-
 lfacture of rum This industry has been
 carried to such an extent in Jamaica, that Jamaica rum is noted the world
 over Tn the amendment fight we heard