138 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



Chap. 



Plant 

 canes and 

 rattoons. 



Different 

 kinds of 

 rattoons. 



Fallowing. 



cutting in about twelve to fourteen months from the time 

 of planting. This applies only to tropical countries. The 

 cultivation of canes from plants has hitherto been considered, 

 but on some sugar estates only a portion of the land is 

 occupied by these platit canes as they are called, the other 

 part being cultivated in rattoons^ which are simply canes 

 grown from the stoles or roots left in the ground after the 

 plant canes are cut. Rattoons are called first, second, third 

 and so on, according to the number of crops taken from 

 them. On very rich soil, the rattoons have been known 

 to produce crops for twenty years, the canes having been cut 

 annually, and the stoles allowed to throw up shoots again. 

 But this continuous cropping of the same soil exhausts the 

 land, and causes the canes to deteriorate so much in size and 

 quantity as to give unremunerative returns. It rarely hap- 

 pens, therefore, that rattoons are cultivated beyond the 

 third or fourth, or at most the fifth year, the land being 

 then allowed to fallow so as to prepare it later on for plant 

 canes. 



When the 

 canes are 

 cut. 



Mature 

 canes. 



How distin- 

 guished. 



Unripe 

 canes. 



Crops. — The crop-time in the West India Islands is 

 usually from January to May, but the cutting operations 

 must not be commenced till the canes are ripe. " The 

 maturity of the cane is indicated by the skin becoming dry, 

 smooth and brittle ; by the cane becoming heavy ; the pith 

 grey, approaching to brown ; and the juice sweet and 

 glutinous." On cutting a ripe cane across, the inner tissue 

 is dry, and it contains white particles ; in an unripe cane, on 

 the other hand, the interior is soft and moist from the 

 presence of unelaborated sap, and in this condition it is 

 unfit for cutting. If an unripe cane be bent it will break 

 off at the joint or node, as if cleanly cut with a knife. A 

 ripe cane, on the other hand, will not break off in this 

 manner as the tissues are more fibrous. The mature cane 

 varies much in length and breadth according to differences 

 of soil and climate, and also according to the variety of the 

 plant. 



