56 MOZAMBIQUE 1: 



undoubted want, and one to which manufacturers 

 are, it is believed, devoting attention, is a hoe 

 capable of taking three rows of sugar-cane at a 

 time and worked by steam. One of the chief 

 obstacles in working such an implement is the 

 difficulty that would be encountered of moving 

 the wire cable, by which the hoe would be drawn, 

 over the cane ratoons when the hoe was turned 

 round at the headlands. I do not, myself, see 

 at present any way out of this difficulty, as lift- 

 ing the wire cable over the rows by hand labour 

 distributed up and down the furrows would be 

 both expensive and, I think, inefficient, causing 

 injury to the ratoons. 



Between thirty and forty varieties of cane are 

 grown on these estates, the ubiquitous Yuba 

 being found on all of them. It grows like a 

 weed, and ratoons for a much longer period than 

 any other. Some Yuba fields on the Zambezi 

 have given twelve ratoons and are still being 

 cropped. It is adapted to free and open soils, 

 and to land that cannot be irrigated; but on 

 heavy alluvium the more luscious canes give 

 heavier crops and are preferred. Yuba saved the 

 sugar industry of Natal, and with this experi- 

 ence behind them the Yuba school of planters 

 believe it will prove the most profitable all-round 

 cane for Mozambique if cultivated properly. On 



