They really know how to raise "cane" in Florida--sugar cane, that is! It's a major crop in this part of Florida. As we drove from Clewiston to Homestead, we passed cane fields for miles.
There are two processing plants near Clewiston where we camped. Unfortu- nately, we happened to camp downwind from one of them! Anyone who lived near one of the sugar processing plants in North Dakota would have recognized the odor.
Sugar cane is grown in four states: Hawaii, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. The U. S. produces 27 million tons annually. By comparison, world leader in sugar cane production, Brazil, produces 650 million tons each year. Sugar cane is grown in 110 countries. One planting of sugar cane can produce two to ten harvests with decreasing yields.
Cane is harvested during the dry season. The harvesting machine is shown in Picture 2. It cuts the cane into pieces and drops it in the trailer. Leaves and other light material is left in the field. Cane generally matures in 12 months, but the range is from 6 months to 24 months. Pictures 1 and 2 show a mature field; picture 4 shows a young stand. Where cane is harvested by hand (machete), the field is first burned to get rid of leaves and poisonous snakes. As you can see from the pictures, Florida cane is not harvested by hand.
A fibrous byproduct of cane processing, called bagasse, is burned by the plant to generate power. It is said to be environmentally friendly because it produces essentially only CO2.
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