CHAPTER VIII 



THE HUSBANDRY OF THE CANE 





THE cane is grown under so many diverse conditions that no general sketch 



of its husbandry is possible. An attempt is made in this chapter to give 



some short notice of the implements employed 



and the routine of operation in the more im- 



portant districts. Broadly speaking, the dis- 



tricts where the cane forms a staple fall into 



two classes : those where the cultivation is 



chiefly manual, and those where animal or 



power-operated implements are used. The 



former methods are mainly employed in the 



presence of a cheap supply of labour of 



Asiatic or African origin, but the physical 



conditions of the district have also a large 



influence. 



The manual implements used in the 

 cultivation of the cane are the hoe, the fork, 

 the shovel, and the cutlass. The cutlass, 

 two forms of which are shown in Fig. 23, 

 is used in the British West Indies as a 

 weeding tool. In other districts this work 

 is done with the hoe, two forms of which are 

 shown in Fig. 24 ; the short-handled hoe is 

 used in Mauritius, and the long-handled form 

 in Demerara. Besides being used to cut 

 down weeds, it is employed to hoe earth 

 over the rows of cane and to make the cane 

 furrow, while in Mauritius it is also employed 

 in making the holes in which the cane is 

 planted. The native Javanese hoe or patjol 

 is a short-handled tool with long and 

 narrow blade, intermediate between a pick and a hoe. The fork, Fig. 25, 

 is employed in Demerara in the cultivation of the cane when forking banks, 

 i.e., turning over with the fork the soil between the rows of cane. The shovel, 

 Fig. 26, is used in Demerara in preparing the seed bed, and in digging drains. 



With few exceptions the same implements that are employed in the hus- 

 bandry of other plants find use with the cane ; these include steam, gang 

 ploughs, turn or mould-board, shovel, and disc ploughs, harrows, tongue 

 and disc cultivators. In this connection it is of interest to note that so long 

 ago as 1848 Wray in the " Practical Sugar Planter " advocated the use of 

 steam ploughs and of cultivators ; he illustrated a turn plough opeiated by 



117 



FIG. 



