SUGAR AND SUGAR MAKING. 81 
ing to the field, asked me what I thought of it. I exam- 
ined it more critically, and although the joints were 
pretty close, I came to the conclusion that it was cane of 
the third or fourth year, and very good at that. I said 
so to my friend, who commenced laughing, and told me 
to guess its age, assuring me that it was more than three 
years planted. I guessed seven, ten, fifteen, and even 
twenty years, with no better success. It turned out that 
this field had been planted by the father of my friend, 
before he himself was born, and had yielded a good crop 
every year since. My friend, at the time, was over 
thirty years old. 
In Louisiana, canes are planted generally in rows, six 
feet apart between the rows. In Cuba, four feet is the 
distance allowed between each row. A furrow, or series 
of holes, is made, four or five inches deep, and two joints 
of cane put in side by side, so that in case one joint fails 
to germinate, the other may supply its place. The earth 
is loosely drawn over the seed, and, with the exception 
of occasional weeding till the plants are strong enough 
to take care of themselves, little more is required either 
for young plants or rattoons. Latterly the Louisiana 
method of planting six feet apart has been introduced on 
some estates with good resulis; and there can be little 
doubt but that, if the same energy and intelligence pre- 
vailed in Cuba as are to be found in Louisiana, this 
wonderfully fertile island might be made to produce 
sufficient sugar to supply the whole world, so rich and 
recuperative is its soil, and so admirable its climate. 
This is owing, no doubt, to its situation in the middle of 
that ocean current of warm water called the Gulf Stream. 
Here frost never comes, and the thermometer is seldom 
