AFTER-—CULTURE, 43 
5. The growth of weeds, however, may be effectually 
prevented by the superior advantages for early cultivation 
afforded in this mode of planting, since, by following the 
ridge, the surface may be stirred by the plow to kill weeds 
before the cane is up, if necessary. 
The time spent in forming the ridge is not greater than 
in marking out two rows with the plow, according to the 
common plan, and the additional labor is insignificant in 
comparison with that which it subsequently saves. 
The after-culture of the cane should conform in its gen- 
eral features to the system thus adopted at the outset, and 
to the relations of the plant to external influences during 
. the different periods of its development. The course de- 
scribed below may, in most cases, be adopted with ad- 
vantage. 
At as early a period after planting the seed as the con- 
dition of the soil will permit, a horse-hoe or cultivator, with 
the blades shortened on the side next the ridge, should be 
passed between the rows, stirring shallowly the soil of the 
ridge, as close to the crest as possible without disturbing 
it, or preferably perhaps a shovel-plow may be run very 
lightly along the side of the ridge, cutting from its base, 
without penetrating so deeply as to disturb the earth in con- 
tact with the rootlets, thus breaking the crust on the sides of 
the ridge and exposing the soil near the roots to the warm 
rays of the sun. <A few days afterward a corn-plow 
should be passed through, this time opening a broad and 
deep furrow at a greater distance from the ridge than the 
first that was made when the ridge was formed, throwing 
toward the cane not only the earth that had been displaced 
by the last plowing, but also a fresh slice from the undis- 
turbed space between the rows. A thorough hoeing or 
raking of the soil on the ridge, to destroy any weeds 
springing up among the cane, and to loosen the surface, 
é 
