46 MANUAL FOR SUGAR GROWERS. 



4J x 5 feet or 5 x 5 feet being convenient and profit- 

 able distances). Some discussion has taken place 

 recently as to the advisability of so planting that the 

 plants, instead of occupying the corners of a square, 

 shall stand at the angles of an equilateral triangle : 



The diagrams will make this statement clear. By 

 the latter method it is evident that for a given mini- 

 mum distance between the plants the maximum 

 number of plants per acre can be grown. To carry 

 this into practice, the planting will require to be ar- 

 ranged as follows : if the distance between the plants, 

 measured from right to left in the above diagram, 

 be taken as 1, then the distance between the rows 

 measured from top to bottom in the diagram must 

 be 0.866 ; or if a uniform distance of five feet is re- 

 quired between each plant, then the plants must 

 be five feet apart in the rows, and the rows four feet 

 four inches apart, with the plants arranged in an al- 

 ternate manner with those in the preceding row. 

 When planting trees and the like, where the dis- 

 tances apart are considerable, this method is worth 

 carrying out, but for cane cultivation it does not ap- 

 pear to the author to possess much merit. Regu- 

 larity in planting greatly assists many of the sub- 

 sequent operations of cane culture, such as weeding, 

 manuring, etc., and is a great aid in detecting miss- 

 ing or weakly growing plants and admitting of 

 healthy ones being substituted. The ground being 

 marked out, a laborer, armed with an iron bar or 



