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Sugar harvest


Oooo the cane harvest is starting.  Narrow gauge railway lines for cane trains criss-cross the county everywhere around here. I read that there is 4000 kilometres of them!

Most cane is harvested green these days and chopped into short lengths by the harvesting machine.  Apparently cane has to get to the mill quite quickly after harvest and the trains facilitate quick delivery, though some is delivered by truck or the trucks carry the cane to the train and dump their load into the train carriages.

What I am wondering -- if we travelled up here a few  months later would the landscape be bare?

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 11, 2013 at 9:41 PM

    Love how you captured this scene.

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    1. Joan ElizabethAugust 13, 2013 at 7:56 PM

      Thanks JM. You might notice the foreground is blurred. It was a quick shot out of the window of the car as we were moving along, not much time to frame or think.

      I was hoping to get a photo of one of the little trains but I didn't see many of them and this was a better shot anyway.

      Delete
  2. paulAugust 12, 2013 at 8:20 AM

    I don't know the answer, but you got a fine picture. What an interesting journey!

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    1. Joan ElizabethAugust 13, 2013 at 7:54 PM

      I think I got to understand the answer as I moved further along. As the cane was being harvested they were tilling the soil for the next crop ... there was more or less a patchwork of tall cain fields and tilled fields. In some places the replanting had been done and there was already a shimmer of green. So I guess in time the field of green is not so tall but isn't all bare at the same time.

      Delete
  3. UnknownAugust 12, 2013 at 8:33 AM

    The terrain is very flat with no elevation on the horizon. It looks like Kansas and the Oklahoma panhandle. In a month it will look like the surface of the moon with stubble rather than craters.

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    Replies
    1. Joan ElizabethAugust 13, 2013 at 7:51 PM

      Bill, I noticed nearly all of the cane fields were on very flat land. But this image is deceptive there was usually a mountain range running behind the fields. I am fairly sure i have a shot of that a little further along in the sequence.

      Delete
  4. diane bAugust 13, 2013 at 8:47 PM

    Yes in a few months it all will be stubble.

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  5. head in the sun August 16, 2013 at 7:00 PM

    This photo reminds me of a Jeffrey Smart painting.

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    Replies
    1. Joan ElizabethAugust 16, 2013 at 9:56 PM

      Hey I like that. It is a nice image because it is "functional" rather than "beautiful" and in the end has a beauty of its own.

      Delete
  6. Red Nomad OZAugust 19, 2013 at 9:17 PM

    It's amazing how quickly it re-sprouts!! It was a sad day for Pilchard when the cane fires died out ... although you still get them from time to time!

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    Replies
    1. Joan ElizabethAugust 20, 2013 at 6:27 PM

      I have never seen a cane fire. It must be quite stunning to see. I'm also wondering if it has a sugar smell as well.

      Delete

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