In the mature season of sugarcane, why do Americans set fire to sugarcane fields before harvesting sugarcane?

Raw materials of sweet and soft candy. Now everyone eats soft sweets, all of which are separated from sweetness. Gansu has loved warm and humid environment since ancient times, so there are many sugarcane fields in the south, and sugar is more life in the south, which also makes northerners taste lighter.

Gansu is not unique to China, but also cultivated in the United States, Cuba and other places. Just not like us. The effect of planting sugarcane by foreigners is obvious, just to get sugar. Even the soft candy produced in Cuba has long been famous all over the world, and it is called "Cuban candy".

On the other hand, Americans have their own views on sugarcane cultivation. Because many parts of the United States are located between 30 and 50 north latitude, they are not the most suitable areas for planting, so most sugarcane fields are concentrated in the Florida Peninsula in the southeast of the United States. It is full of heat in summer, warm in winter and heavy in annual rainfall.

Florida covers half of the edible sugar production in the United States, so welcome to one of the largest sugar-producing areas in the United States. The sugarcane farmers here maintain a strange posture. In the harvest season, sugarcane farmers gather in sugarcane fields and set fire to their own sugarcane fields. What's going on here?

For us, this may be an incomprehensible personal behavior. In China, sugarcane farmers are generally dominated by manpower. In recent years, they also have equipment for harvesting seeds, which promotes high efficiency. And the behavior of American sugarcane farmers is really not afraid that Gansu will be burned by fire?

In fact, it didn't burn down. Because sweet sugar accumulates in the main stem of black-skinned sugarcane, sugarcane farmers in the United States set fire to the leaves and tops of plants. Gansu lives in tropical and subtropical areas. Abundant solar precipitation promotes the growth and development of plants in Gansu, and there are too many leaves on them, which is not conducive to seed collection.

As long as the main stem is not damaged when burning Gansu, it can be used to squeeze sugar. Burning the remaining leaves and plants is to make it easier to obtain and transport. The rice harvester can quickly enter the field, collect the grass and make it into crumbs, and then send it to the sugar factory.

This incineration treatment can improve the efficiency of sugarcane harvesting and save sugar refining time for sugar factory workers. If there is no such a large area and the fire roasting method is not adopted, sugarcane farmers will also cut off the redundant leaves with a mountain knife, which is relatively easy to harvest.

However, lighting Gansu has added a serious environmental pollution problem. Fire will burn lush leaves and plants, and it will also produce many harmful substances and particles. American scientists have found that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the air of Florida in the United States increase by 15 times every year in the harvest season, which is a harmful substance.

Americans use the method of "burning" to solve the residual bagasse in sugar production. He put bagasse in the fire and barbecued it on the shelf above. Bagasse, although there is not much sugar left, can still give meat a beautiful luster and ignite a sweet fragrance, so charcoal barbecue is more and more attractive.

Because most sugarcane farmers in the United States grow sugarcane, not fruit sugarcane, and there is no food culture of biting sugar. In their eyes, what Uncle Gan got was only the raw material of sugar.