HISTORY OF SUGAR – DOMESTICATION TO THE 17th CENTURY

 

The sweetening carbohydrate that modern man calls sugar – sucrose – has a long history as a valuable worldwide commodity. Sugarcane is believed to have been first domesticated in New Guinea around 8000 B.C. and would spread throughout the Pacific islands until 2000 years later, when cultivation would begin in Indonesia and India. By 800 B.C. China would be introduced to the crop, a time when India began to consider the plant to have great commercial value. Three hundred years later, the Persians, Arabs and Greeks would encounter the plant that sweetened drinks and foods without the use of honey, but not until 500 A.D. do we find “unmistakable written evidence” of the production of molasses and crystallized sugar from the Hindu doctrine Buddhagosa (Mintz, 23). The western expansion of the Arabs during the 7th and 8th centuries marked the beginning of introduction of sugar to Europe and to the West; the invasions of Egypt and Spain not only brought sugar cane cultivation to Morocco and the Canary Islands but made sugar an available yet scarce and very valuable commodity in Western Europe. The Crusades only exacerbated the overwhelming demand and Europeans were hungry for land in climates that could sustain the sugarcane plant. First prized as a medicine and then a luxurious spice by Europeans during the Middle Ages, refined sugar would soon be valued as a sign of ultimate wealth and power. Sugar production of the New World would begin with the transplanting of sugar cane from the Canary Islands into Hispaniola by Christopher Columbus at the end of the 15th century. By 1509, sugar began to be produced widely in the West Indies for profit and the British, French, Portuguese and the Dutch began to cultivate sugar cane in other West Indian nations, Brazil, Mexico and Central America. According to Burke, by the 17th century, “sugar production in the subtropical and tropical Americas had become the world's largest and most lucrative industry” (Burke, e).

 

 

This website, created in order to complement a lecture made by Georgia Southern Professor Ray Burke at the 1997 Academic Alliances conference, details the histories of honey, sugarcane and beets in the diet of humans from the beginning of their use until the present. Very informative and interesting source although brief.

            THE BEE, THE REED, THE ROOT - The History of Sugar

 

Amazingly thorough and detailed history of sugar derived from the sugarcane. Mostly focused on cultivation in the New World from the 16th to 19th centuries. Rum is often mentioned.

            Sweetness and power : the place of sugar in modern history

 

 

SACCHARAM  – GRASS AND RUM

 

Sugarcane is a group of six species of grass native to southern Asia in the Poaceae family, four of which are cultivated. Around 32 million acres of sugarcane are currently planted worldwide with the most cultivation occurring in Brazil, India and China. The plants grow in groups of solid cane-like stalks with notched joints called nodes which house buds that may be planted for propagation. Since the plant carries no seed, a stalk with several nodes is planted and new stalks grow from the buds, much like the eyes of a potato. Canes ripe for harvest are generally eight to twenty feet tall and one to three centimeters thick. From the Southern Illinois University’s Ethnobotanical Leaflets – Sugar cane project:

 

            Sugar cane propagation is through stem cuttings of immature canes 8-12 months old. These are called "setts", "seed", "seed- cane" or "seed-pieces". The setts are best if taken from the upper third of the cane because the buds are younger and less likely to dry out. The setts can be planted at a 45 degree angle or laid horizontally in a furrow. It takes 12,500 - 20,000 setts to plant one hectare (Purseglove 1979). The setts are lightly covered with soil until they sprout (10-14 days) and then the sides of the furrow are turned inward (McIlroy 1963). Sugar cane is a perennial crop which usually produces crops for about 3-6 years before being replanted. The first crop is called the "plant crop" and takes 9-24 months to mature, depending on location (Purseglove 1979). Reaping is usually done by hand with a cutlass, although mechanical harvesters are being developed. The cane is cut close to the ground because the lower stem has the highest sugar content and it aids in ratooning, the emergence of new crops from the stems and trash (leaves and tops) left behind (McIlroy 1963). Ratoon crops take about one year to mature. As many as four or more ratoon crops may be produced before replanting is necessary, mostly due to the slow decline in yields (McIlroy 1963, Purseglove 1979).

 

Once cut, the sugar is extracted through a long process of grinding, soaking, heating and cooling which creates two products: refined sugar (sucrose) and molasses, a thick syrup. The crystallized white sugar that we use in our kitchens and at our dinner tables requires a synchronized effort by plantation workers in order for a quality product to be made – according to Mintz, “what we call ‘sugar’ is the end product of an ancient, complex and difficult process” (Mintz, 21).

 

In order to make rum, molasses is fermented, distilled and aged in oak casks.

 

  

 

FIGURE I: THE SUGARCANE STALK

FROM http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/SC034

 

 

 

Flowchart - Sugar Process

 

FIGURE II: SUGAR PRODUCTION

FROM http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/sugar/12087.html

 

For many Caribbean countries, sugar is the primary export and the primary source of revenue. For instance, the economies of Jamaica and Cuba depend almost solely on the cultivation of sugarcane. Before government-imposed cutbacks in 2002, sugarcane was grown on two-thirds of crop lands in Cuba.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS:

 

Cultivated sugarcane, with millions of acres planted worldwide, quickly depletes soil naturally. With new fertilizers and other chemical products being used, there is a dangerous potential for the sugar-dependent island nations to run out of fertile land. What are the solutions? FROM the University of Florida’s Rotational Crops for Sugarcane Grown on Mineral Soils:

            Many authors agree that soil organic matter is the key to soil fertility and productivity. In the tropics and subtropics, soil organic matter decays very rapidly. There are several forms of maintaining and/or increasing organic matter in soils:

                1. Addition of inorganic nutrients in amounts that are adequate for crop production, taking into consideration what will be removed by the crop from the field;

                2. Addition of organic materials as organic amendments: animal manures, composts, municipal and industrial biosolids, municipal solid waste, food-processing wastes.

                3. Addition of organic matter as green manure and/or cover crops.

                The establishment of cover crops (grasses or legumes) prior to planting sugarcane offers many potential agricultural and ecological benefits to the grower. Potential benefits from using cover crops include production of organic matter to enrich the soil, ground cover to reduce wind erosion (soil), weed control (less herbicide being used), reduced runoff, improved infiltration, soil moisture retention, improved soil tilth, nutrient enhancement, and food for wildlife. By improving soil organic matter, cover crops directly influence the soil water holding capacity by increasing water retention and lateral water movement within the soil.

                Rotation of susceptible agronomic crops with crops that are not hosts for nematodes or are resistant to certain nematodes has been a successful nematode management strategy in many instances (Watson, 1922; Reddy et al., 1986). The continuous use of a monoculture may encourage certain diseases, weeds, or insects; the continuity of the pest cycle may be interrupted by an alternative crop. Well-fertilized thick stands of a grass, such as corn, will produce more above ground residues than will a legume and tillage will favor a more rapid decomposition of organic matter produced (Tisdale and Nelson, 1975).

                Cover crops may increase soil organic carbon levels or reduce their rate of depletion. The selection of appropriate cover crops to increase soil organic carbon requires good knowledge of the quality and quantity of plant biomass produced and its rate of decomposition in soil (Kuo et al., 1997). Fallowing the field without plant residue returning to soils typically increases the rate of organic C depletion (Hargrove, 1986; Havlin, 1990).

                Planting cover crops after sugarcane harvest increases cropping intensity and residue return and reduces the length of time the soil is left fallow. Cover crops may also reduce soil erosion (Smith et al., 1987) and NO3-N leaching during high rainfall periods (McCraken et al., 1994). Cover crops in South Florida are normally planted in the spring and plowed down in the fall.

                                                                                                                                                                         

OTHER LINKS

 

            From Southern Illinois University site

            Ethnobotanical Leaflets – Sugar cane

            Ethnobotanical Leaflets – Sugarcane: Past and Present

 

            From University of Florida site:

            Sugarcane Botany: A Brief View

            Rotational Crops for Sugarcane Grown on Mineral Soils

            The History of U.S. Sugar Protection

 

            Safety and Health Fact Sheet: Hazardous Child Labour in Agriculture – Sugarcane from International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour

            Botany in the Service of Empire: The Barbados Cane-Breeding Program and the Revival of the Caribbean Sugar Industry, 1880s-          1930s

J. H. Galloway

Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 86, No. 4. (Dec., 1996), pp. 682-706.