Sugar Cane

Sugar cane can be found on grass or dirt blocks adjacent to water on at least one side. Each cane plant grows to a maximum height of three blocks, although the player can add additional canes manually and taller canes can be created with the terrain. Sugar cane is rarely found in desert and tundra biomes because of the scarcity of water in the former and 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 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. However, sugar cane cannot be used to create airlocks because 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.

Farming


Sugar cane must be planted on a grass/dirt block adjacent to water (blocks above or diagonal to water will not allow sugar cane to be placed on them). 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 fully automate farming of Sugar Canes. A piston (or a block attached to a Sticky Piston) placed to extend into the middle will cause the upper segments of the canes to become items when 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.

Trivia

 * The sugar cane block 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 grows more rapidly in well-lit areas than in areas with less lighting.
 * Sugar Cane can grow underground but that occurrence is uncommon.
 * Dry or dead sugar cane is visible in a screenshot of an underground ravine released by Notch on his Google+.