When we speak of most important, this plant takes the crown for the plant kingdom, and I would have had it earlier except for the fact that every card of sugar cane I found was based on slavery. It`s quite an indictment for the industry, and the worst thing is that things have not changed much since, for it is still heavily involved with human trafficking, forced labour, low wages, long hours under baking sun, and hazardous conditions. However, if you buy your sugar in a packet with a Fairtrade mark, you are certain not to be contributing to this sorry state of affairs.
Anyway I mentioned my plight and Mr. Evans came up with this card, which shows the cane without the controversy. So now I can tell you that sugar cane is the most farmed arable crop in the world, even more than rice, and corn. And it has another use too, as a vital ingredient of bioethanol, which is, ever more, powering vehicles instead of petrol.
Our sugar cane is Saccharum officinarum, which was first grown in the region we today call Papua New Guinea, but which today is the most productive and most intensely cultivated type of all.
These cards were issued between 1929 and 1934 and there were ninety six cards in all, in sets of twelve. The series list was
- Series I - Earth, Air and Sky
- Series II - Man`s Closest Friends and Most Inveterate Enemies
- Series III - Trees and Other Plants Useful to Man
- Series IV - Some Common Wild Flowers
- Series V - Among Our Feathered Friends
- Series VI - Native Wild Animals
- Series VII - Life in and Around the Water
- Series VIII - Insects, Helpful and Harmful
The cards that make up our series, Series III, are as follows :
- The Essential Parts of Trees and Other Plants
- Wheat
- Rice
- The Potato
- The Sugar-Cane
- The Grape
- The Apple
- The Orange
- The Cotton Plant
- The Oak
- The Pine
- The Rubber Tree