CANE SUGAR. 



In the following May the crop is cut down and used to plant adjacent fields 

 or sold for seed to other cultivators, a portion being reserved to go again 

 through the above cycle. 



The writer has been informed that a similar system obtains in Java ; in 

 this case he believes that the seed cane is planted in small baskets packed close 

 under shelters of the crudest description ; these cuttings are carried to the 

 fields and planted as soon as the seasonal rains have begun to fall. 



Cultivation. By cultivation is here meant the working of the soil 

 and the keeping down of grass and weeds during the period between the 

 planting of the cane (or spring of the ratoons) and the harvest of the crop. In 

 districts dependent on manual labour the operations include weeding and mould- 

 ing and forking. 



British Guiana. In British Guiana and in other places dependent on 

 manual labour a typical routine is as follows : Shortly after a crop of cane 

 has been taken off, the soil in between the rows of cane is turned over with 

 agricultural forks; this process is known as 'forking banks;' in about a 

 month the weeds and grass that have sprung up are cut down with the cutlass, 

 the machete or the hoe, a process which will have to be repeated every one or 

 two months until the canes are of such a height as to keep down the growth of 

 weeds. Simultaneously with the weeding earth is hoed over the cane row, the 

 process being known as moulding ; in some parts, especially in Eastern Asia, 

 this moulding is carried to an extreme pitch, the cane rows being earthed up 

 to a great extent. In some places, as in Cuba under the old regime, the 

 keeping down of the weeds formed the only cultivation that the cane received. 



Louisiana.* Stubbs 4 thus describes the routine followed at Audubon Park 

 in Louisiana : " The land is broken flush with a large plough, pulverized with 

 a harrow, and bedded with two-horse ploughs. The rows are opened with a 

 double mould-board plough, cane planted and covered, and middles broken out 

 with the double mould-board plough. The quarter drains are opened six 

 inches between the middle of the rows and the ditches are cleaned. At the 

 proper time the cane is off-barred with the two-horse ploughs, scraped with 

 hoes, and when large enough is fertilized by scattering the mixture across the 

 open furrows and narrow ridge of cane. The dirt is returned as soon as 

 fertilizer is applied, the middles broken out deep and clean, and the turn 

 ploughs sent to the barn to remain until the next season. The disc cultivator, 

 with the three small discs on either side, is used for throwing dirt to the cane 

 at the first working, and the middle or diamond cultivator for breaking out the 



* To those familiar with hand husbandry only, this description requires some amplifica- 

 tion. In the Hawaiian Islands off-barring is termed slicing the. ratoon row, and this term conveys 

 a better impression of the process ; the instrument used is a disc plough of the type shown in 

 Fig. SO ; it is drawn alongside the ratoon row cutting through the old roots, throwing the dirt 

 away from the row and leaving an open furrow alongside the cane ; after the furrow has been 

 exposed for two or three days the dirt is thrown back to the row by the aid of disc implements. 



It should be noticed that animal power cultivation does not altogether dispense with 

 manual labour ; in all cases the weeds and grass in the row itself have to be cut down by hand 

 tools. 



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