cane chew n chiefly Gulf States
1 A stalk of sugarcane after it has been crushed to extract the juice.
1904 Shreveport Times (LA) 27 June 6/3 TX, The gentleman who put his [white potato] seed in a hole in the ground and covered it up with cane chews overdid the thing. 1926 (1968) Hurston in Fire 42 FL [Black], There’s plenty men dat takes a wife lak dey do a joint uh sugar-cane. It’s round, juicy an’ sweet when dey gits it. But dey squeeze an’ grind, squeeze an’ grind an’ wring tell dey wring every drop uh pleasure dat’s in ’em out. When dey’s satisfied dat dey is wrung dry, dey treats ’em jes lak dey do a cane-chew. Dey thows ’em away. 1930 Pensacola Jrl. (FL) 12 Feb 4/2, Dahlberg uses the by-product that we commonly know as “cane chews”—the stalks after the juice has been crushed in the mill—to manufacture wall board. 1946 Union Appeal (MS) 21 Feb [6]/1, To Maintain Terraces: . . Do not use cane chews or brush to stop a break. Use soil. 1966 Thigpen Boy Rural MS 10 ceMS (as of c1900), When the mill got full of cane and while it was grinding I would often go out with a long cane chew and use it on the mules to speed them up. 1967 DARE File neLA, Cane chews—Dry pulp after juice is squeezed from [sugar] cane. 1985 Newton Rec. (MS) 9 Oct sec B 5/2, Addy . . said he planted his watermelons in the pile of cane chews behind his cane mill. 1991 Pensacola News–Journal (FL) 12 Oct sec D 3/1, Bolen and Kate Tisdale Byrd, 62, . . both remember turning sticky somersaults off sugar cane chews—piles of squeezed cane left over from their fathers’ syrup mills. 2002 Morgan Mt. Born 77 cwNC, The crushed cane stalks, now dubbed “cane chaws,” are forced to exit between two of the rollers to the port side of the mill.
2 See cane chewing n.