ENEMIES OF THE SUGAR-CANE 187 



fully, for they consider a roasted monkey as a great delicacy, 

 'i'he ubiquitous rat, which the extension of commerce has gra- 

 dually 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 the vermin ; the juice of the canes thus 

 affected becomes sour, and no future shoot issues from the 

 joints. The ravages of the ants, which I shall have occasion to 

 mention more amply in another chapter, 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 frequently 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, or rather dart- 

 ing in any direction, or with any part of their bodies foremost, 

 that they are almost always enabled to escape. It is seldom, 

 however, that they go far from their burrows in day-time ; 

 and their watchfulness is such that they regain them in a 

 moment, and disappear as soon as a man or dog comes near 

 enough to be seen. 



The labour in the hot sugar-fields is most irksome, and it may 

 well be imagined that it is no trifling exertion to hoe the hard 

 ground under the rays of a tropical sun, or to cut the thick 

 canes and transport them to the mill. Yet this hard work is not 

 without its pleasures, and harvest-time in the sugar-plantation 

 is no less a season of gladness than in the corn-fields of 

 England or the vineyards of France. 



So palatable, wholesome, and nourishing is the juice of the 

 cane, that every animal drinking freely of it, derives health 

 and vigour from its use. The meagre and sickly among the 



