MODE OF STRIPPING CANE. ee 
use of time, by doing a needful part of the work in ad- 
vance of the period of cutting, when time could not so 
conveniently be spared. This operation seems to be at- 
tended by no decided influence upon the juice of the stalk, 
although higher crystallizing powers have been claimed by 
some for the juice of canes so treated, which are supposed 
to be due to the more free exposure to the sun and air thus 
afforded. 
‘The practice of stripping cane by hand in the field is so 
slow and troublesome as to be impracticable on large plan- 
tations, and the labor is still greater after the canes have 
been cut and piled. Yet this mode has the advantage of 
securing the preservation of all the fodder in the best con- 
dition. But by far the most rapid way is to strike off the 
blades of the standing cane with a kind of wooden sword, 
double-edged, about three and a half feet long, and in shape 
like a long scutching knife, used by flax dressers. With this 
implement a man can readily blade three-fourths of an acre of 
thickly set cane inaday. A large proportion of the leaves 
may subsequently be raked together in heaps, and saved, 
but almost all that fall in the row are left, as they cannot be 
caught by the rake either among the standing cane or the 
stubs. Cattle turned into the fields after the cane has been 
removed, will eat greedily all that remains, and in some 
cases it may be more economical to leave all the blades on 
the ground to be consumed in this way. The rapidity with 
which cane can be stripped in the way last described, ren- 
ders inexcusable the slovenly and wasteful practice of 
passing it unbladed through the mill. 
The two upper joints, with the leaves attached to them, 
should generally be removed along with the head when the 
stems are topped, and in the operation of stripping, the two 
upper leaves should not be stricken off. The best topping 
instrument is a carpenter’s broad-axe, the heads being cut 
