122 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



but they have a jointed structure that allows the 

 rains to pass down very readily. They have no 

 subsoil, but extend downward unaltered to the bed 

 rock, which consists of a cavernous coralline lime- 

 stone with many underground channels through 

 which the water is quickly carried away, thus afford- 

 ing perfect underdrainage. These soils are admir- 

 able during the rainy season, but suffer somewhat 

 during the dry season. In Cuba these seasons are 

 usually quite well marked, the summer being wet 

 and the winter dry. Second are the heavy black 

 soils overlying a white, calcareous, chalklike sub- 

 soil. These lands are usually undulating or even 

 hilly, so that surface drainage is good and no ditch- 

 ing is required except in occasional low places. 

 Third are the heavy, black, level soils underlaid by a 

 retentive clay subsoil. These are very productive 

 when properly handled, but would all be improved by 

 additional ditching. The cane lands in the other 

 West India islands and in Mexico and Central 

 America are of various kinds, but so far as their 

 cultural requirements are concerned they are compar- 

 able to some one or the other of the ones mentioned 

 above. 



Methods of Cultivation; Louisiana. — The methods 

 of cultivation on the best Louisiana plantations may 

 be briefly summarized as follows. It must be remem- 

 bered that here the two chief aims are to get rid of 

 surplus water and to secure the early maturity of 

 the crop. A three-year rotation is usually practiced, 

 two years in cane and one year in corn and cowpeas. 

 After the second crop of cane is harvested the land 



