24 SUGAR 



simply what you and I would call " thinning out "; 

 this work is all done by hand, and many children are 

 to be seen among the labourers who go round the 

 fields on their knees at demarriage season. 



It is particularly necessary for the little plants to 

 be kept clear of weeds, so hoeing keeps the farm- 

 hands very busy. And, as a rule, the crops are given 

 a feed of artificial manure. But the beetroot fields 

 have only to be tended a very short time, in comparison 

 with the long succession of months during which sugar- 

 cane fields have to be looked after ; about four months 

 after the seeds are planted, the crop is ready for har- 

 vest. The roots are levered out with a spade, or with 

 a queer-looking kind of fork, which has ball ends to the 

 prongs — the ordinary, sharp ends might easily pierce 

 the roots and make them " bleed." 



The sowing and harvest seasons vary in different 

 countries, according to the general date limits of the 

 frost season. The seeds are put in as early as possible 

 after Jack Frost can reasonably be expected to have 

 taken his annual leave ; but the young plants must 

 not be exposed to any risk of a late, flying visit from 

 him. The harvest must be gathered in before he is 

 expected back, for the roots could not be dug up when 

 the ground is in his clutches. But as the sugar-beet 

 growing districts are all confined within narrow limits 

 of latitude, there is very little difference in the dates 

 which mark the beginning and the ending of the 

 crops' existence. Generally speaking. May is the 

 planting month, and harvest-time comes between the 

 end of September and the middle of November. How 

 different with the cane crops, which are located 

 throughout the world, between wide margins of lati- 



