SAC 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



SAC 



507 



of late years. The time for planting C ; mes is always in the 

 rainy season, and the sooner they are planted after the rains 

 have begun to fall, the more time they will have to get 

 strength, before the dry weather sets in ; for when they have 

 put out good roots, and are well established in the ground, 

 they will not be so liable to suffer by the drought, as those 

 which have but newly taken root. The season being come 

 for planting, the ground should be marked out by a line, 

 that the rows of Canes may be straight and at equal dis- 

 tances ; but first, it will be proper to divide the piece into 

 lands of sixty or seventy feet broad, leaving intervals between 

 each, of about fifteen feet: these intervals, when th Canes 

 are cut, are of great use for roads, in which the carriages 

 may pass, to carry off the Canes to the mill; for where there 

 is not such provision made, the carriages are obliged to pass 

 over the heads of the Canes, to their great injury; besides, 

 by these intervals the sun and air will have freer passage 

 between the Canes, whereby they will be better ripened, and 

 their juice will be fuller of salts. The middle of these inter- 

 vals may be planted with Yams, or other esculent plants, 

 which may be taken off before the Canes are cut, that the 

 passages may be clear; but a path should be left on the 

 sides of each land, for the more convenient riding or walking 

 of the overseer of the plantation, to view and observe how the 

 labour is performed. The common method of planting Canes 

 is, to make a trench with a hoe, which is performed by hand; 

 into this one person drops the number of cuttings intended 

 for planting, at the distance the hills are designed; these are 

 by other negroes placed in their proper position, then the 

 earth is drawn about the hills with a hoe; all this is performed 

 by hand : but if the right use of ploughs were well known in 

 these countries, the work might be much better performed, 

 and for less than half the expense; if instead of making a 

 trench with a hoe, a deep furrow were made, with a plough, 

 and the cuttings properly laid therein, the ground would be 

 deeper stirred, and there would be more depth for placing 

 the Canes. If the ground is to be afterwards kept clean with 

 the horse-hoe, the rows of Canes should be planted five feet 

 asunder, that there may be room for the horse and plough to 

 pass between them, and the distance of the hills from each 

 other, should be two feet and a half, and but one Cane 

 thoukl be permitted to remain in each hill After the Canes 

 are planted, and have made some shoots, the sooner the 

 horse-plough is used, the better will the Canes thrive, and 

 the ground will be easier kept clean from weeds; for if these 

 are torn up when they are young, they will presently die ; 

 whereas, when they are suffered to grow lara;e before they 

 are disturbed, they are with great difficulty destroyed. The 

 distance which is usually allowed in planting Canes, is from 

 three to four feet, row from row, and the hills are about two 

 feet asunder in the rows ; in each of these hills they plant 

 from four to seven or eight cuttings, which is a very great 

 fault, and is the cause of their blight, so much complained of 

 during late years; for if all these grow, which is often the 

 case, they rob each other of their nourishment; and if a dry 

 season happen before they have acquired strength, they are 

 rery soon stinted in their growth, and are then attacked by 

 insects, which spread and multiply so greatly, as to cover a 

 whole plantation in a little time; when this happens, the 

 Canes are seldom good after, so that it will be the better way 

 to root them entirely up, when they are so greatly injured, 

 for they very rarely recover this disorder; because though' 

 the insects are not the cause of the disease, they nevertheless 

 confirm it, and cause it to spread. Hence, instead of plant- 

 ing so many, if there were but one good cutting planted in 

 fh hill, or, to prevent miscarriage, two at most; and, if 

 VOL. ii. 108. 



botli succeeded, the weakest being drawn out soon after 

 they had taken root, it would be four.d of great service to 

 prevent these blights; and although the number of Canes 

 will not be near so great from the same space of ground, yet 

 the quantity of sugar will be full as much, and will require 

 little more than a fourth part of the fuel usually required for 

 boiling. As the growth of the Canes is promoted according 

 to the cleanness of the ground, so there cannot be too much 

 care taken to keep the Canes perfectly clear of weeds; and 

 the beginning of this work soon will render it less trouble- 

 some, and it may be performed at a less expense than when 

 it has been neglected for some time. When the plough i 

 used, the earth, in the intervals, should be thrown up to tin- 

 rows of Canes, first on the one side of the row, being careful 

 not to disturb the roots of the Canes, as also not to bury 

 their new shoots ; and, in the second operation, the earth 

 should be turned over to the other side of the rows, with the 

 same cnre as before. By this turning and stirring of the 

 land, it will be renderc-d looser, and the earthing of the 

 plants will greatly strengthen them; so that from each hill 

 there will be as many shoots produced as can be well 

 nourished, and the sun and air will have free ingress among 

 the rows, which will be of the greatest service to the Canes. 

 When the Canes are from seven to ten feet high, and of a 

 proportionate size, the skin smooth, dry, and brittle; if they 

 are heavy, their pith griy, or inclinable to brown, the juice 

 sweet and glutino-us; they are esteemed to be in perfection. 

 The time for cutting the Canes, is usually after they have 

 grown six months: but there should not be a fixed period for 

 this, for, in some seasons, and in different soils, there will be 

 more than a month's difference in their maturity; and those 

 who have made the experiment of cutting their Canes befors 

 they were ripe, and letting others stand till after they were ripe, 

 have found the sugar made from the latter was much finer 

 than that of the former, though the quantity was not quite 

 so great. It has also been remarked, that those Canes which 

 are cut towards the end of the dry seasons, before the rains 

 begin to fall, have produced better sugar than those which 

 are cut in the rainy seasons, when they are more replete with 

 watery juice, and (here has been much less expense of fuel to 

 boil it, which is a material article rn large plantations; there- 

 fore, the better the Canes are nourished in their growth, and 

 the more sun and air is permitted to pass between the rows, 

 the less -xp<!iise will be incurred in boiling and preparing 

 the sugar. The great pests of the Sugar Cane, are the Cane- 

 ants and the Blast, supposed to be occasioned by minute 

 insects. Rats are also very destructive to it; as is also that 

 most pcinicious weed, the Knot Grass. It is thought by 

 some, that rich oily manures, or a thick dressing of marl, is 

 the best cure for the ants. But such are the ravages of these 

 insects, that many Sugar plantations have been totally aban- 

 doned ; and the best course which can be pursued in that 

 case, is, where the situation is not too wet nor cold, to adopt 

 the culture of Cotton. Blasts that come without the ants, 

 may in the beginning be stopped by burning the parts 

 affected; by washing the young plants with salt-water or 

 weak lime-water; and a good season, that is, heavy showers, 

 will sometimes put a stop to it. When it returns, the Canes 

 should be planted thinner, to give them a free circulation of 

 air: the quincunx mode of planting may in this case be 

 adopted with advantage. And if the leaves affected are 

 stripped off, and the diseased stems cut down and burnt to 

 windward, and the roots covered with good fresh mould ; 

 this, with salt or lime water, may prove a cure for the greasy 

 fly and yellow fly, as well as for those destructive worm* 

 called the borer and the grub. 

 6 N 



