"Bring 'Em Down"

Prior to the 1940's, small, steam-powered "dummies" were used to transport the Louisiana sugar crop from field to mill. Cane was cut by hand, then loaded into mule-drawn carts and taken to a central loading area and transferred to rail cars for delivery to the mill. The flexibility and efficiency of truck transport replaced these little trains, some of which are in use today in various theme parks around the country.

Sugar cane was brought to the West Indies soon after the discovery of the New World and introduced to Louisiana in 1751 by Jesuits who brought it to their plantation outside of New Orleans. Raised for syrup and a rum-like drink called tafia, cane became a commercial crop when Etienne de Bore' developed the crystallization process to refine sugar in 1795. Sugar hit its height in the 1850's with the advent of the steamship, allowing sugar to be transported great distances. Most of the crop was refined in Philadelphia and Maine. At the peak of prosperity, there were some 1,500 plantations in operation. The great number of the grand plantation houses of Louisiana were built then.

Cane in Lousiana has a 250-day growing season. Harvested cane sprouts a second crop (called "first stubble") that matures in the following growing season, and a third ("second stubble") and so on, until yields decline so much that usually after the third year fields are plowed under and replanted.

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