602 



Slemarfe Present 



Ibe bonndHries of one cstnle, almost all 

 the different soils of the country ; while 

 others contain only two or three kinds. 

 The soils adapted to tlie sugar-cano are 

 the various rich loams and moulds, and 

 rlay with a superstratum of mould. 

 The former are turned up with llie hoe, 

 about four inches below the surface of 

 the earth, and formed into ridges, called 

 cane holes — in the spaces between which 

 (four feet in breadtli) tlie canes are 

 planted. The clay soil is usually turned 

 up with the plough, when it is suffered 

 six or more weeks to pulverise, and then 

 formed into cane- holes; after which it 

 is fit for planting. The softer soils may 

 be planted immediately after being turn- 

 ed up; and this is rather an advantage 

 than otherwise to such soils. This ho- 

 ling, as it is called, or digging of the 

 laud, is the most toilsome work on a 

 plantation. 



The manure generally made use of, 

 is that taken from the cattle-pens, after 

 being properly prepared into a compost 

 by the admixture of ashes, earth, &c. 

 For the clay soils, ashes, marl, and 

 sometimes lime, are used. 



Three lengths of the top part of the 

 cane, each iiaving three, four, or more 

 germs, are laid in each hole, with the 

 germs placed sideways, and covered 

 •with a thin layer of earth. The lower 

 and middle parts of the cnnc, when full- 

 grown, do not produce shoots, so that 

 iiotliiug is lost ; the top of the cane, 

 Mhich alone is fit for planting, being 

 unfit for sugar. Good land, well manu- 

 red, will produce four or five crojjs, 

 when -it is replanted. Very fertile land 

 lias been known to produce fifty or more 

 crops, before the introduction of the 

 Bourbon cane — that is, continued for 

 fifty years to reproduce from the original 

 stock ; the field being occasionally ma- 

 nured, and supplied with fresh stocks or 

 roots where any have decayed, soon after 

 the field is reaped. 



The returns of the land are various, 

 according to the soil, seasons, manuring, 

 and, on exhausted lands, the standing 

 of the cane. A plant from a good soil, 

 well manured, will yield four tons of 

 sugar ; while what is called a third rat- 

 toon, on an exhausted soil, will not pro- 

 duce half a ton. The magnitude of tlie 

 crops of sugar estates depends so much 

 on the seasons, tliat a plantation which, 

 with favourable seiisons, produces five 

 hundred hogsiieads, may not, if these 

 should fail, yield one hundred. 



In six or seven weeks after their beiug 

 planted, the yoang cane plants liave shot 



State of Jamaica, 



up to about the height of a foot, when 

 they are weeded. They receive three 

 or four subsequent weedings or cleanings, 

 and, as the cane advances in height, the 

 dry leaves arc removed from it. Canes 

 planted in November are fit for the mill 

 in fourteen or fifteeti months ; if planted 

 in May, they arc usually cut the suc- 

 ceeding May. Canes re-produced from 

 the stock require less time to come to 

 maturity ; and the labour of cleaning 

 them is by no means so great as that of 

 cleaning the plant canes, the ground 

 having much fewer weeds, from being 

 covered with the cxuvia; of the cane. 



The harvest commences at difl'erent 

 periods in ditfcrent districts, the planters 

 being mainly regulated in this by the 

 seasons, or periods of rainy and dry 

 w eather. December, January, and Feb- 

 ruary, are the usual times. The canes, 

 when cut dow n, are tied up into bundles, 

 and conveyed by carts and mules to the 

 mill ; where they are passed through iron 

 cylinders, which press out the juice: 

 this is conveyed to the boiling-housp, 

 where it is converted into sugar. The 

 molasses is taken to the distillinghouse, 

 and, along with the scum from the ves- 

 sels in which the sugar is boiled, made 

 into rum. The stem of the cane, after 

 being exjircssed, is dried, and used as 

 fuel for boiling the sugar. The opera- 

 tions in the mill and the boiling-house go 

 on both night and day, the negroes being 

 formed into what are called spells, or 

 divisions (two or three, according to 

 their number), which relieve each other 

 in the nocturnal part of the duty. The 

 gelting-in of the crops lasts from three 

 to four months. In the meantime, the 

 sugar, when what is called cured, is sent 

 in hogsheads, &c. to the wharfs, in wag- 

 gons drawn t)y ten or twelve oxen. 



A sugar plantation producing two 

 hundred hogsheads of sugar had usually 

 about two hundred slaves, a hundred 

 oxen, and fifty mules; but there is no 

 fixing of any precise number of each as 

 generally applicable. ^^ hat are called 

 laborious estates, that is, having mucli 

 clay land, and planting much, require a 

 greater proportion" of able slaves than 

 others, unless the land is put t'/t (planted) 

 by jobbers. The more distant an estate 

 is from the shipping place, the more 

 oxen of course are required to convey 

 down the produce ; and a property that 

 has a water or a wind-mill does not 

 require half the number of mules that 

 it would with a cattle-mill only. In- 

 deed, a plantation w itii a good water- 

 mill, and easy-lying fields Ironi which 



the 



