Sugar Cane

Sugar cane can be found on grass, dirt and as of 1.8 Pre-release sand as long as they are adjacent to water on at least one side. Each cane plant grows to a maximum height of three blocks, although sugar cane can also be found with a height of 4, generated by the world. The player can add additional canes manually and taller canes can be created with the terrain. Sugar cane is rarely found in the tundra biome due to ice replacing nearly all water next to land in the latter.

Uses
Sugar cane is the only source of sugar and paper. Sugar is a critical component of cake, and paper is required to craft books and maps.

Properties
Like cacti, sugar cane does not require the land to be tilled beforehand, removing a lower portion of the plant causes all the sections above it to drop resources, and bone meal does not cause it to grow instantly.

Sugar cane will support other blocks placed on top of it but not the player and block the flow of lava and water - when either liquid hits a block of sugar cane from above, it spreads out as if hitting a solid block. Sugar cane can also be placed in the middle of an existing flow (on a block adjacent to water). Sugar cane will keep water out of the space it occupies while allowing the player to walk or swim through it. Underwater, sugar cane, like slabs, displace the water, leaving an air pocket. Sugar cane can be used to create airlocks. However, when building one, keep in mind that the placement of another block next to or on top of the first will instantly destroy both and cause them to drop two sugar cane resources. As of 1.8, sugar cane can grow on sand.

Farming


Sugar cane must be planted on a grass, dirt or sand block directly adjacent to water (can't be placed on blocks above or diagonal to water). The adjacent water block can be covered with another block, be it opaque or transparent, and sugar cane will still be able to be placed and grow next to it. It can also be planted next to flowing water. Sugar cane, like saplings, wheat, and cacti, will only grow if the chunk they are on is loaded into memory, so the player should not venture too far from the field. Mature sugar cane can be harvested by hitting the middle instead of the bottom block to save the player the effort of re-planting.

With the use of Pistons it becomes possible to automate a harvest of Sugar Canes: a piston (or a block attached to a Sticky Piston) is placed to extend into the middle of a cane, which will cause the upper segments of the cane to become items when the piston is triggered. This makes it possible to collect them using standard waterway collection methods (though, canes may still fall on the original dirt block), or by simply running over the canes.

If the water source is removed, sugar cane will not break until it tries to grow, disintegrating into 2 sugar cane resources. Compared to traditional farming, this is an inefficient method because the water supply has to be replaced and the sugar cane re-planted repeatedly. Alternatively, redstone wire can be used to collect sugar cane resources (see this farming tutorial).

History
Reeds (the first incarnation of sugar cane) were added in the Alpha v1.0.11 patch and informally referred to as bamboo and papyrus by players. Since reeds could be washed away with water currents or instantly destroyed by removing the water adjacent to them, automated reed farms could be made in previous versions of Minecraft.

Notch retconned reeds into sugar cane in Beta 1.2 because the recipe for cake introduced at the same time needed a source of sugar. As of Beta 1.6, projectile interaction with sugar cane was changed. Arrows were no longer blocked by sugar cane walls. In the leaked version of 1.8, sugar cane seems to be much more abundant and easily available. There is also a glitch, where sugar cane is often growing on sand near water (instead of next to water), however, the player can't place them there after farmed.

Trivia

 * The sugar cane block when edited is called "Sugar cane", but without a capital C at cane, unlike the item.
 * Sugar cane can be planted on a tile covered in snow even if there is no water adjacent to it, but it will break when it grows.
 * Neither the sugar cane nor the block they stand on can be lit on fire with a flint and steel, although attempting this still lowers the durability of the tool.
 * However, sugar cane can be planted on a block that has been lit on fire.
 * Ghasts cannot see through sugar cane, making it a safe block to make walls out of. A ghast's fireball will not pass through sugar cane, but it will collide with the sugar cane as if it is a normal block. Note that sugar cane cannot be planted in the Nether without an inventory editor because there is no water, and any transported in a bucket will evaporate instantly.
 * Sugar Cane can grow underground but that occurrence is very uncommon.
 * In the coding, Sugar Cane is still referenced as "reeds", both edited block and item.
 * Skeletons can not shoot you through sugarcane.
 * In Beta 1.8, sugar cane can be placed on sand, as long as it is adjacent to water. This allows sugar cane to appear next to an oasis in deserts in 1.8.
 * In Beta 1.8 creative, giving yourself Sugar Cane yields the block, not the item itself. However, you can still place it.