SUGAR CANE 131 



climate, that of the production of many crops without 

 the expense of replanting. Some planters advocate 

 giving more space, and plant in hills six feet apart 

 each way, as is usually done on the new lands. They 

 then cultivate both ways the first season. Cane 

 suckers or tillers so much during this long growing 

 season that this plan secures a full crop on strong 

 lands, but it has little or no advantage so far as the 

 subsequent crops are concerned. In fact since a less 

 portion of the land is occupied by cane there is a 

 larger surface to be cleared by the hoe. Dr. Zayas, 

 a well-known Havana physician, has for some years 

 advocated a much wider planting, usually eight by 

 twelve feet, and the continued use of cultivators 

 drawn by animals.' His writings contain many half 

 truths, but his system has not proved a commercial 

 success. 



The system recently advocated by the Cuban ex- 

 periment station, while it has not yet stood the test 

 of long-continued use, promises to solve satisfactorily 

 the question of the continued production of profitable 

 stubble crops. It is as follows : Plow the land in- 

 tended for fall cane in the winter or spring. Plant 

 to velvet beans in April or May. Plow these under 

 with a disk plow in August and September. Harrow 

 two or three times Avith the disk harrow. In October 

 open deep planting furrows with the sulky double 

 moldboard ploAV, spacing them about seven feet 

 apart. Scatter tankage and potash or some similar 

 complete fertilizer carrying about equal parts of 

 nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash in the bottom of 

 the furrow at the rate of five hundred pounds per acre. 



