SUGAR HARVEST. 177 



protect a plantation and destroy tliem, is to set a numerous 

 watch, well armed with fowling-pieces, and furnished with dogs. 



The rat, which the extension of commerce has gradually 

 spread over the world, is still more destructive to the sugar- 

 cane, and great pains are taken to keep it in check by poison 

 or by its arch-enemy the cat. 



The sugar-cane is also subject to the blast — a disease which 

 no foresight can obviate, and for which human wisdom has 

 hitherto in vain attempted to find a remedy. When this 

 happens, the fine broad green blades become sickly, dry, and 

 withered ; soon after they appear stained in spots, and if these 

 are carefully examined, they will be found to contain countless- 

 eggs of an insect like a bug, which are soon quickened, and 

 cover the plants with vermin ; the juice of the canes thus 

 affected becomes sour, and no future shoot issues from the 

 joints. The ravages of the ants concur with those of the bugs 

 in ruining the prospects of many a sugar-field, and often a long 

 continued drought or the fury of the tornado will destroy the 

 hopes of the planter. 



The land crabs are also very injurious to the sugar-fields, 

 some of the species being particularly fond of the cane, the 

 juice of which they suck and chiefly subsist on. They are of 

 course narrowly watched, and no opportunity of catching them 

 is lost sight of; but such is their activity in running, that they 

 are almost always enabled to escape. They seldom go far from 

 their burrows in day-time ; and their watchfulness is such that 

 they regain them in a moment, and disappear as soon £is a man 

 or dog comes near enough to be seen. 



Harvest-time in the sugar- plantations is no less a season of 

 gladness than in the corn-fields of England. So palatable, 

 wholesome, and nourishing is the fresh juice of the cane, 

 that every animal drinking freely of it derives health and 

 vigour from its use. The meagre and sickly among the 

 negroes exhibit a surprising alteration in a few weeks after the 

 mill is set in action. The labouring oxen, horses, and mules, 

 though almost constantly at work during this season, yet being 

 indulged with plenty of the green tops and some of the scum- 

 mings from the boiling-house, improve more than at any other 

 period of the year. Even the pigs and poultry fatten on the 

 refuse, and enjoy their share of the banquet. The wliolesome 



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