SUGAR CANE 121 



crop is equally essential. The best climate for cane 

 is one where the rainy season lasts uninterruptedly 

 for six or eight months and is then followed by a 

 well-marked dry season for the remainder of the 

 year. Continuous rainy weather gives no chance 

 for the ripening and harvesting of the cane. 



Soils. — Moist, heavy, rich soils are considered the 

 best for cane, and its commerical cultivation is usu- 

 ally confined to lands of this character. Surface 

 drainage is, however, essential, and low-lying lands 

 with a retentive subsoil must be thoroughly ditched. 

 As a matter of fact cane will grow splendidly on 

 light sandy soils if moisture conditions are right, but 

 such soils are very soon exhausted and require heavy 

 applications of fertilizers. The poor, sandy pine 

 woodlands of southern Mississippi, Alabama, and 

 Georgia yield enormous crops by cane when " cow- 

 penned " or otherwise heavily enriclied. It is, how- 

 ever, only grown in these regions on a small scale 

 for syrup making. In Louisiana and Texas com- 

 mercial cane planting is mostly confined to the rich 

 alluvial river lands. Here drainage is a prime ne- 

 cessity and much expensive ditching has to be done. 

 Special methods of cultivation, too, have been devised 

 to meet these soil conditions. In Hawaii the soils 

 are mostly lighter in character and are largely of 

 volcanic origin. Most of the larger estates are 

 located in regions of insufficient rainfall, where it is 

 necessary to employ irrigation. This, of course, pro- 

 foundly affects methods of cultivation. In Cuba 

 three distinct types of cane soils may be recognized. 

 First, the red lands; these are heavy, tenacious soils. 



