210 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



and wide distances between the rows, are here justified. 

 The cane grows luxuriantly in such soils, and where there 

 is a deficiency of warm weather to mature it fully, as in 

 Louisiana, room is required to allow a free circulation of 

 air, and the full benefit of the sun, to ripen it before the ap- 

 proach of frosts. From seven to ten feet is near enough for 

 the rows, but these should contain from two to three con- 

 tinuous lines of good plant cane. Where the land is fertile, 

 wide rows, if well cultivated, will produce an equal quan- 

 tity as if planted closer, and there is much less expense and 

 labor in planting and tending the crop. 



Land that has been long in cultivation, may be planted 

 nearer ; but if sufficiently fertile, as it ought always to be, 

 it should never be nearer than six feet, and under certain 

 circumstances, may extend to jyne. It was formerly the 

 practice to plant a single line of seed cane, in rows from two 

 and a half to four feet apart ; but this system has been given 

 up, as it was found troublesome in cultivating, slower in 

 ripening, and it is believed materially and permanently to 

 have lessened the size of the cane first introduced. 



Some planters make their cane beds every sixteen feet, 

 planting in each, two rows at a distance of four feet, and 

 leaving a space between every alternate row of eleven feet. 



There is a great advantage in these wide spaces, as the 

 trash (tops, leaves, and all dead vegetable matter left on the 

 ground), and bagasse (megasse, [Fr.] the residuum of the 

 cane after expressing the juice), can all be buried between 

 the widest spaces, and remain undisturbed till decomposed, 

 without prejudice to the growing crop. On light or sandy 

 lands, these materials may be burned and the ashes applied 

 to the soil ; but in adhesive or clay lands, good husbandry 

 requires that all this should be buried, as the vegetable de- 

 cay (carbonaceous matter or humus), not only contains every 

 element for the reproduction of the future crop, but it effects 

 a mechanical division in the soil, of great value to its poro- 

 sity, friability and productiveness. Occasionally, the trash 

 is buried at the foot of the plant, in which situation the 

 earth is kept constantly upon it. Some place the cane at a 

 distance of ten or twelve feet, and plant corn between the 

 rows, which matures and withers before the cane reaches 

 its full size. Others sow the cow pea, while still occupied 

 .^with cane, to renovate the land ; but neither practice seems 

 to meet with general favor, as they interfere with the main 

 purpose of planting, which is to produce the greatest quan- 



