CANE SUGAR. 



cintas or beds of five rows. The fields are all on the slope, and water is seldom 

 pumped back, but is allowed to flow on the fields at a lower level. Where 

 water is scarce the fields are arranged as in Fig W ; oa are dividing ridges 

 made with a hoe, and cause the water to run in a zigzag fashion over the field. 

 At planting, fields are irrigated every five to eight days, and after establish- 

 ment monthly, water being cut off three months before harvest. The water 

 supplied is not abundant, seldom more than equivalent to a rainfall of 20 inches 

 per annum ; but copious dews and heavy mists are frequent, and the perfect 

 control of water permits crops being grown with less water than if the canes 

 were supplied with a natural rainfall falling intermittently in varying 

 quantities. 



Mauritius. In Mauritius, in parts where the rainfall is extremely 

 scanty, a few estates are entirely dependent upon irrigation. A sketch of the 

 system usually adopted to water fields is given in Fig. 21 ; aa is the main 

 canal, sometimes built of stone, and sometimes formed in the ground ; bb are 

 channels formed in the fields down which the supply from aa is turned ; ec are 

 the cane rows along which the water is deflected by temporarily damming the 

 channel II. After one strip of the field has been irrigated, say, the one on the 

 right (Fig. %1\ the water from aa is turned into the second channel J#, and a 

 second strip watered, and so on. 



FIG. 21. 



The length of the strips in Mauritius is usually about 60 feet, and the 

 water flows only one way. From observations made by the writer an irrigation 

 of young cane took 3-86 inches of water per acre calculated over the whole 

 acreage. This large amount was in great part due to the system of planting in 

 holes ; these holes are about six inches deep by four inches wide and nine 

 inches long, and each one has to be filled with water and to overflow before 

 the current can pass on to the next hole along the row. The cost of irrigation 

 is for labour alone about one rupee per acre ; the water used is always, obtained 

 by gravitation from higher levels. 



"West Indies. The West Indian crops are mainly dependent on rain- 

 fall ; latterly, however, in Cuba, Porto Rico, and Jamaica irrigation schemes of 

 no inconsiderable magnitude have been incepted or are in actual operation. 



94 



