126 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



potash has the contrary effect of prolonging the 

 period of vigorous growth. 



Most unfortunately for the sugar-cane industry 

 the harvesting as yet has to be done by hand. This 

 requires a much larger force of laborers than the culti- 

 vation, and at the present time constitutes the most 

 difficult problem that confronts the cane grower. 

 A successful mechanical harvester is a great desider- 

 atum. The great weight of the crop to be handled 

 and the f.^.ct that it is usually badly tangled by 

 storms are serious obstacles to be overcome, but the 

 worst difficulty is that judgment has to be used as 

 to the height at which to top the cane in order not to 

 waste it on the one hand by cutting too low or by 

 cutting too high to include immature tops which 

 carry impurities that prevent the crystallization of 

 the sugar. Whether these difficulties can ever be 

 successfully solved remains for the future to decide. 

 A successful machine for cutting cane alread}^ exists 

 and it is sometimes employed in windrowing, but 

 ordinarily it is not found to have much advantage 

 over hand cutting. There are now several fairly suc- 

 cessful devices for loading cane into carts or wagons, 

 after it is thrown in piles by the cutters and others 

 for transferrino" it from carts to railroad cars and 

 from the cars to the conveyor at the mill. It is 

 thus seen that cutting and stripping are practically 

 the only hand work remaining in the Louisiana cane 

 fields. 



Methods of Cultivation: Hawaiian Islands. — Cli- 

 matic and soil conditions are exceedingly variable in 

 different parts of the Hawaiian Islands, and cultural 



