SUGAR CANE 133 



rigged the same implement makes a good middle cul- 

 tivator. Cultivation should be repeated throughout 

 the winter as often as is needed to keep down all weeds 

 and maintain a dust mulch. Before spring the 

 growth of the cane will be so great that the row can 

 no longer be straddled and the middles only can be 

 cultivated. In April or the first of May sow cowpeas 

 broadcast in the middles, cover them with the culti- 

 vator, and the work is finished. Up to this point 

 the plan does not differ materially from the ordinary 

 system except that the use of the riding corn cultivator 

 which works so close to the row makes it possible to 

 almost completely dispense with the expensive hoe. 

 It is only the few weeds and bunches of grass that 

 come up directly in the row among the cane that 

 have to be cut with the hoe or better still be pulled 

 by hand. The line of cultivation thus outlined will 

 leave the land practically level. This is right for 

 the red lands since they have natural underdrainage, 

 but in the wetter black lands it should be modified 

 by using disk cultivators which ridge up the row as 

 in Louisiana. 



As soon as the cane is cut, take an ordinary horse 

 hayrake and drive so as to cross the cane rows, rak- 

 ing the trash from one middle and dumping it in the 

 next one. This quickly and cheaply clears half the 

 ground so that it can be plowed and cultivated, and it 

 provides a double mulch of trash for the other half 

 which makes it so thick and heavy that practically 

 no grass or weeds can come through, and these mid- 

 dles will require no further attention for the season. 

 Now plow the cleared middles with a two-horse 



