As a rule, sugar cane consists of about eighty-eight per cent of juice and twelve per cent of fiber, the juice content varying from time to time, both as regards quality and amount. The quantity of the juice pressed from the cane determines the efficiency of the extraction, while quality is the main factor when the result of subsequent manufacture is under analysis. It is difficult to arrive at a fair average of the composition of the juice of the cane, as it varies in different countries, on different plantations in the same country, and at different periods in any one year. The following is an approximation: Water 80.8 per cent Sugar 16.4 ” Invert sugar 1.98 ” Organic non-sugar .54 ” Ash (mineral matter) .28 ” THE GROWING OF SUGAR CANE Sugar cane grows almost exclusively in the tropical belt, extending from twenty-two degrees north to twenty-two degrees south latitude, where the three essentials for its successful culture, viz., fertile soil, hot sunshine and plenty of moisture, are present. It flourishes in the islands of the Pacific ocean, particularly in the Hawaiian group, in Cuba, Mexico, Central America, the islands of the East and West Indies, Australia, China, India, along the shores of the China sea and the Indian ocean, and in certain parts of Africa and South America. In the low latitudes of the temperate zone it is grown with only fair success. Owing to peculiar climatic conditions, sugar cane has been raised in southern Spain for generations, notwithstanding the fact that the provinces in which the sugar cane is grown lie, roughly speaking, between thirty-six degrees and thirty-eight degrees north latitude. The Gulf Stream is no doubt largely responsible for this phenomenon. The quantity of sugar produced in Spain, however, is small, the crop of 1914-15 amounting to less than 8000 tons. Sugar cane thrives best in a moist, warm climate, with moderate intervals of dry, hot weather, and plenty of water for irrigation. It requires marly soil, free from saline ingredients. As a rule, it is raised on the lowlands, where the temperature is highest and where it is easy to bring water for irrigation. In Hawaii it takes eighteen months to ripen, and “tasseling” occurs about thirty days before it is ready to be cut. In Louisiana and Texas, because of the short seasons, cane is harvested in from nine to ten months from the time of sprouting, and, consequently, before it has attained maturity. In Cuba it is cut in twelve months, whether it is ripe or not. [Illustration: ROOTS OF SUGAR CANE] [Illustration: JUNGLE-LIKE VEGETATION OF CANE FIELD] As the scientific culture and manufacture of sugar is probably further advanced in the Hawaiian islands than in any other part of the world, a description of the industry as carried on there will serve to illustrate the intensive cultivation and scientific methods of the present day.