CHAPTEK III. 



Sugar-cane. Preparation of Land, Planting, Manuring, Weed- 

 ing. Cutting Cane. Methods of Dealing with the Trash. 

 Moulding. 



HAYING briefly sketched the general principles 

 on which a scientific system of agriculture 

 should be based, it is now necessary to confine at- 

 tention more particularly to the methods of cultiva- 

 tion employed in the case of the sugar-cane. 



For several months the planter has been carefully 

 ploughing and preparing the land to be planted, and 

 in November or December the actual planting of the 

 cane usually commences and is carried on for seve- 

 ral months, so that there may be a succession of 

 fields, one ripening after the other, in such a manner 

 as to render the proper reaping and manufacture 

 practicable. 



On land of a fairly stiff character and lying some- 

 what flat, so as not to be subject to loss of surface 

 mould by the rush of water during the heavy rain- 

 storms of the tropics, it is usual to prepare the land 

 in furrows and banks, an operation known as " hole- 

 ing ; " the furrows are generally four and a half feet 

 or five feet from centre to centre, a distance of six 

 feet being sometimes adopted; the banks vary in 

 height, ranging from one to one and a half feet above 



