130 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



front yoke. Such an outfit plows but one third to one 

 half an acre a day, which makes the work very expen- 

 sive. Usually harrowing is not attempted. Plant- 

 ing furrows are opened with the double moldboard 

 plow and two short pieces of cane are dropped side by 

 side at intervals of about three feet. Tlie cane is 

 covered with hoes. Planting is done either in the 

 fall or spring, but fall planting is considered most 

 profitable. During the first season cultivation is given 

 with small plows or with Planet cultivators and with 

 the hoe. After cutting the first crop the field is 

 treated like new land. The trash remains as a mulch, 

 but as the fields are now thoroughly infested with 

 rank-growing grasses this is not sufficient to keep the 

 land clear. No plowing is attempted on account of 

 the trash, but the ground is all hoed over about three 

 times in the course of the season. This is a heavy 

 expense and still it does not prevent the grass from se- 

 riously injuring the cane. The land in these old fields, 

 too, becomes very hard and compact and after a few 

 years the cane roots suffer from want of aeration. It 

 is no wonder, therefore, that these old land fields re- 

 quire replanting so much quicker than new land 

 where the soil is left loose and open by innumerable 

 decaying tree roots. This sj-stem gives fairly good 

 results for the first crop or so-called plant cane, though 

 it could be improved by the better preparation of the 

 land, the introduction of a leguminous crop before 

 planting, and the intelligent use of commercial ferti- 

 lizers. It fails badly with the successive crops of 

 stubble cane and thus sacrifices the chief benefit to be 

 derived from Cuba's unusually favorable soil and 



