SUGAR CANE 129 



method immense crops of cane were produced for 

 many successive years without the necessity of re- 

 planting. After the cane was harvested the trash 

 was allowed to lie on the ground as a mulch and this 

 was a powerful aid in keeping down weeds and grasses. 

 Such as did appear were chopped out occasionally by 

 the hoe. Such fields continued to yield annual crops 

 of cane without replanting for fifteen or twenty or on 

 very rich lands even for thirty or forty years. There 

 are still forest lands in eastern Cuba where this same 

 system is being followed with the greatest success. 

 In the older sugar districts, however, the forests have 

 long since disappeared and the lands have been plowed 

 and replanted many times. Continued cropping with- 

 out the use of restorative measures has had its inevi- 

 table result. Crops have gradually grown smaller 

 and fields have required replanting at constantly 

 shorter intervals till finally they have been abandoned 

 or used for pasturage. Every old sugar mill is sur- 

 rounded by thousands of acres of such half-abandoned 

 lands that only require the application of reasonable 

 agricultural methods to again become profitably pro- 

 ductive. In the gradual change from the old condi- 

 tion to that which exists at the present time various 

 methods of cultivation have been proposed and more or 

 less extensively followed. None have proved entirely 

 satisfactory and the planters strongly feel the need 

 for improvement. The plan in most general use is as 

 follows : The ground is plowed and cross plowed 

 with large turning plows drawn by three or four yoke 

 of oxen. One man is required to hold the plow, an- 

 other to drive the oxen, and usually a boy to lead the 



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