FOOD RESOURCE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM Gramineae, SUGAR CANE
Hedrick, U.P. editor. 1919. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants. Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II. Albany, J.B Lyon Company, State Printers. [References Available]
is a plant of the tropics. From the elaborate investigation of Ritter, it appears that this species was originally a native of Bengal and of the Indo-Chinese countries, as well as of Borneo, Java, Bali, Celebes and other islands of the Malay Archipelago. There is no evidence that it is now found anywhere in a wild state. The first historical allusion to sugar seems to be by Theophrastus (others say by Strabo), who lived 321 B.C. He speaks of a sort of honey procured from canes or reeds. Varro, 68 B.C. mentions the exceeding sweetness of the Indian reed, but says the jjuice is derived from the root of the plant. Lucan says of the Indians near the Ganges "they drink the sweet juices of the tender reed." Dioscorides says there is a sort of concreted honey which is called sugar and is found upon canes iin India and Arabia Felix and it is as hard as salt and is brittle under the teeth. Pliny adds to this description by saying it comes in fragments as large as a filbert and is used only in medicine. Paulus aegineta quotes Archigenes as saying, "The Indian salt is like common salt in color and consistency but resembles honey in taste." sugar is mentioned, however, in the Institutes of Menu, and the Sama Veda.
The Venetians imported sugar cane from india by the Red Sea, prior to 1148, and it is supposed to have been introduced into the islands of Sicily, Crete, Rhodes and Cypress by the Saracens, as an abundance of sugar was made in thoseislands previous to the discovery of West Indies. Cane was cultivated afterwards in Spain, in Valentia, Granada and Murcia by the Moors, and sugar is still made in these provinces. Other authorities believe that, in the ninth century, the Arabians obtained sugar from the sugar cane which at that time was cultivated in Susiana. Sugar was brought from Alexandria to Venice in the year 996. In 1087, 10,000 pounds of sugar are said to have been used at the wedding of the Caliph Mostadi Bemvillah. In 1420, Don henri transported sugar cane from Sicily to Madeira, whence it was carried to the Canary Isles in 1503. Thence it was introduced into Brazil in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Columbus carried sugar canes from Spain to the West Indies before 1494, for at this time he says "the small quantity that we have planted has succeeded very well. Sugar cane was carried to Santo Domingo about 1520. In 1610, the Dutch began to make sugar in the Island of St. Thomas, and, from the cane introduced in 1660, sugar was made in Jamaica in 1664. Sugar cane reached Guadeloupe about 1644 and Martinique about 1650. It was carried to Bourbon at the formation of the colony. In 1646, the Barbados began to export sugar. Plants appear to have been carried to Cuba by Velasquez about 1518 and to Mexico by Cortez about 1524, and, before 1530, we find mention of sugar mills on the estates of Cortez. The plant seems to have been cultivated on the banks of the Mississippi for the first time about 1751, and the first sugar mill was erected in 1758. In 1770, sugar had become one of the staple products of the colony about New Orleans. The first variety cultivated was the Creole. The Ribbon cane, originally from Java was introduced about 1820 to 1825. The Otaheite cane, brought to the West Indies by Bougainville and Bligh, was introduced far later
According to Hallam, Gesner, who died in 1564, was the first botanist who mentions sugar cane. Sugar cane, according to varisou observers, never bears seed in the West Indies, Malaga, India, Cochin China, or the Malay Archipelago, but Lunan speaks of the seed in jamaica as being oblong, pointed and ripening in the valve of the flower.
the use of sugar is well known. In south America a cane-wine called guarapois in common use, prepared from the juice of the stalk allowed to run into fermentation. The natives of Easter Island, who suffer great distress from want of fresh water, drink the juice. In southern China, the stalks, cut into six- or ten-inch lengths, raw and boiled, are continually hawked around the streets for eating. The elephant cane of Cochin China is grown for the stalks, which are chewed. The epidermis of the stalk is so brittle, that, instead of crushing in the mills, the stalks break into small fragments. In central Africa, a red-stalked variety is the most frequent and the negroes make no further use of it than eating the cane, and the Uganda may often be seen passing, chewing the end of a long cane that trails behind them. This cane also appears in the markets of Paraguay, where it is eaten. This species is, undoubtedly, says Unger, a plant peculiar to China, and has been cultivated there independently and perhaps still earlier than the Indian sugar cane. This is also the sugr cane of the Malays, according to Ainslie. De Candolle says it was introduced into the gardens of Calcutta in 1796.
