Strange no one looked into the origin of this song, which originated on the Texas State Prison Farms near the Brazos.
From the 1880s to 1899, private cane fields and farms with corn and other crops were worked largely by prisoners.
Between 1899-1915, the Texas Prison System acquired a huge holding on the Brazos, a part of it over 5000 acres acquired from the Imperial Sugar Company. The total holdings of farm land were about 81,000 acres in 1921, total lands over 100,000 acres.
Women prisoners (mentioned in some versions of the song) were domiciled on the Goree Farm.
The farms were profitable only in a few years of their operation.

In 1928, the cane fields on the Brazos failed because of disease, and were not re-planted to cane. To feed the mills on the farms, raw sugar was brought in. A federal tax on cane sugar effectively ended cane sugar farming in the area.

"Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos" was the song that told of this monumental crop failure.

From various articles in The Handbook of Texas.