Much of the sugar cane on Martinique is cut with machines, though some of the terrain isn't accessible to machines.
Hand cutting gives the grower better control of the cut at the bottom and top of the stalks. Cane cutter at Neisson, notice the protective clothes, gloves and leather boots.
After being harvested, sugar cane grows from the roots left in the ground. After five to seven years the cane is dug up and replanted. Each year the cane grows more densely until the yield decreases and it is replanted.
Cane cut by hand, notice how clean the stalks are.
The dense fiber of the sugar cane stalk holds the juice until it is crushed. Fresh cut cane.
Before the cane can be crushed it is shredded by the machine in the middle of this picture shredding fresh cane.
The dense fiber of the sugar cane stalk holds the juice until it is crushed. Crushing fresh cane.
Steam engines power most of the cane crushers on Martinique.
Crushed cane called 'bagasse' is used to power the boiler.
Larger distilleries can generate their own electricity though older distilleries didn't use any electricity in the distillery.
Work commenced at daylight and finished at dusk. Steam engine from 1932
Steam engines power most of the cane crushers on Martinique.
Steam engine at La Favorite