112 



flow of the sap receives a check; " the materials/' to use the 

 words of a philosopher, the ornament of our age, " dissolved 

 in it by the heat are deposited upon the sides of the tubes, 

 now diminished in diameter; and in consequence of this 

 deposition, a store of nutritive matter is provided for the 

 first wants of the plant in eai'ly spring." This holds correct 

 in the Gane; the cold season being the period when it is 

 richest in the saccharine principle, and when it can be cut 

 to the greatest advantage. 



The plant-cane requires from fourteen to sixteen months 

 for its perfect maturation; the ratoon from ten to twelve. 

 The plant requires the extra time to establish its roots in the 

 ground. The plant-canes are generally reserved for the 

 conclusion of crop, the ratoons being cut a month or six 

 weeks earlier every succeeding year. Thus, the first ratoons 

 of a plant which has been cut towards the end of May, 

 ripen about the middle of April. The second ratoons 

 come in at the beginning of March, and so on: — the ra- 



toons according to their age coming in earlier every suc- 

 ceeding year. Hence planters commence crop with the 

 oldest ratoons. 



To meet this arrangement, the time of planting is suited. 

 The spring plant is put in early in the year, that it may ripen 

 towards the end of crop of the succeeding year. In many 

 dry districts, however, where the soil is light, from the dry 

 weather which usually prevails at this period of the year, 

 they find a difficulty in establishing their field. They are 

 therefore obliged to have recourse to a fall plant, taking ad- 

 vantage of the rains which occur during the autumn. 



The arrowing of the Cane is a sign of its attaining its fun 

 grovfc^th. It takes place at the end of autumn, continuing to 

 come out for several months. It is desirable that the Cane 

 should be cut as early after this as possible. Were it, on 

 the contrary, cut while the arrow was about to make its ap- 

 pearance, it would be found unfit for the purpose of sug3^' 

 making. I need scarcely add, that, as the Cane only flowers 

 at one period of the year, it is merely those fields which Bt 

 that period have made some approach to maturity, that coii^^ 



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