Grows wild here in in Mississippi. We would cut the cane, season it and buy a perch jecker (float,line,hook and and shot, packaged together) for a quarter. Scrounge up live bait, worms, grasshoppers, catalpa worms, crickets, and go fishing. We always had spares seasoning in the garage or barn. I worked as a principal on the Choctaw Indian Reservation. The Choctaws are reknowned for their baskets made of river cane. They would cut it with a butcher knife, trim it, and then split it. They would wet it to keep it pliable and dye it. I asked if they used natural dyes. They told me no, not since they discovered Rit Dye. The community at Conehatta (where I was principal)had the oldest and the best basket makers. They even made double weave baskets. Think of a tube sock within a tube sock.Extremely difficult.Some times at the end of the month they would come around for fast cash. I wound up with a great collection of baskets of various patterns, shapes and sizes. I enjoyed my four years there.
