49 



close during the rainy season and is one of the causes for such poor 

 results with ratoons. This can be overcome only by breaking the 

 ground around the roots, which is impossible with ordinary plows. 

 The stubble digger is a special implement for doing this work and is 

 commonly used in all the leading sugar countries. It is also a form 

 of wheeled cultivator with two or three sets of picker wheels carrying 

 curved steel points. It is run just behind the stubble shaver so that 

 the pickers pass over the freshly cut stubble and the teeth are driven 

 full length into the ground among the rootstocks. The teeth have a 

 peculiar curve which gives them a spading motion and thoroughly 

 breaks up the ground around the cane roots. The irrigation, fertiliza- 

 tion and cultivation of the ratoon crop is otherwise the same as for 

 plant cane. 



When ratoons are neglected and left on the top of the old cane 

 rows only those eyes near the surface of the ground germinate. If 

 barred off and shaved dovna. so that the new shoots are in the bottom 

 of a furrow just as the points were when planted, they get a better 

 water supply during the dry season, are easier to cultivate, and produce 

 a much better crop of cane. On account of the heavy cost for re- 

 planting the cane ever}' year considerable expense in caring for the 

 ratoons is justifiable. Even a smaller crop is acceptable provided the 

 difference between its value and that of the plant cane crop is not. 

 more than the difference in the cost of production. 



HARVESTING AND TRANSPORTATION. 



The harvest season.— The long growing period of cane and a tend- 

 ency to ripen slowly permits some delay in beginning and the ex-, 

 tension of the time for harvesting the crop over a much longer period, 

 than would be possible with those like rice and tobacco. Unless unusual 

 winds, rains or dry weather prevail or the cane arrows some time before it 

 can be harvested, no serious damage will occur in such climates as that 

 of the Philippines for four to eight weeks after the customary time 

 of harvest. With a good tropical climate having no well-defined seasons . 

 the time of maturity may be controled to a large extent by extending-, 

 the planting over the same period desired for the harvest so that the, 

 different parts of the crop ripen in regular succession. The labor should 

 be in readiness, ample and efficient transportation available, and the 

 mill in thorough working order. The harvest season is very exacting 

 on account of the necessity, for taking off the crop, marketing the 

 sugar, caring for the stubble, and putting out. the new crop of plant 

 cane all at the same time. Scarcity of labor^ break-downs of the mill, 

 animal diseases, and bad weather are among the causes for dejay in 

 harvesting the crop, and , all possible precautions shouW. be taken to 

 avoid them. 



104939-^—4 



