THE HUSBANDRY OF THE CANE. 



doing this in such a way that, when lifting the earth he places it round the cane 

 row, taking care that everything is even, and the work when finished has the look, 

 as if the shovelman in Demerara had been digging a drill, a foot deep by a foot 

 broad, with the difference however that instead of having thrown the earth on the 

 so-called trash bank, he has spread it all over and about the canes, covering every- 

 thing lightly from cane-row to drill. When so finished this will give you a cane 

 row or bank, as it is called here, with a kind of rough drill, of a foot by a foot, on 

 each side of it. As to the drills no particular neatness or paving is required as 

 long as they are well in the middle and have the required depth and breadth. 



" Nothing more is now done to the fields until the canes, after a couple of 

 months, have grown a little more, and so to say have from four to six joints, when 

 the same performance is gone over again, only with the difference that the labourers) 

 when taking- out another foot of earth from the same old drill, pack it on and 

 between the cane stools, and press it down and against them with their feet, so 

 that in time the canes have something to support them, and are able to grow 

 upright. 



"The appearance of this last work or bank, when properly finished must be 

 something similar to an umbrella or the hut of a Zulu, and the more earth that has 

 been put around and between the ttools the better it is ; also the distance from the 

 top of the earth packed around the cane stool to the bottom of the drill must be 

 not less than three and three-quarter feet." 



Trashing. By this term is meant the removal of the dry and dead 

 leaves at intervals during the growth of the cane. The benefits or otherwise 

 of this practice are a matter of much dispute. The rationale of the process is : 



1. The removal of the dead leaves exposes the cane to light and air and 

 hastens its maturity. 



2. The dead leaves afford harbouring places for injurious insects. 



3. Water lodging in the space between the leaf sheaf and the cane pro- 

 motes the development of the eyes and the aerial roots to the detriment of the 

 cane. 



4. The dry lea res being placed on the ground act as a mulch and help to 

 retain soil moisture. 



On the other hand it is claimed that the ripening effect is small, that the 

 labourers in passing between the canes do much damage, that many leaves that 

 can still carry on their functions are pulled off along with those actually dead, 

 and that when these are pulled off some damage is done to the cane, preparing 

 the way for fungus attacks. The matter has been put to experimental test ; 

 Boname 7 , who writes strongly in favour of the process of removing the dead 

 leaves, found the following results: 



1 . Only completely dry leaves removed. 



2. Canes trashed a llanc, i.e., a certain number of green leaves removed. 

 (This would be called bleeding the cane in the West Indies.) 



3. No trashing. 



i 2 



Degree Beaume .. .. 8'10 .. 7'dO 7'70 



Sugar per cent 13'40 .. 11-60 .. 12-20 



Glucose 1-30 .. 1'56 .. 1'29 



121 



