60 THE CHINESE SUGAR-CANE. 



however, an object of minor importance to the 

 Southern planter as yet. As a manure, the 

 begass is evidently a most valuable article, for 

 its large amount of phosphoric acid, added to the 

 decomposing vegetable and the other mineral 

 matters which it contains, while the remaining 

 portions of saccharine juice readily induce a fer- 

 mentation which ends in putrefaction, and leaves 

 the mass in a fit state for the nourishment of 

 plants. The large quantities of mineral matter, 

 and particularly the phosphoric acid, which* the 

 cane in its growth must remove from the soil, 

 necessarily imply that it wiU be an exhausting 

 crop, since these materials certainly cannot be 

 furnished by the atmosphere. This evil may, in 

 great part, be removed by carefully returning 

 to the soil again the refuse in form of manure. 

 If other fertilizers be needed to repair the. waste, 

 Mexican phosphatic guanos, which are now 

 offered at low prices, would doubtless be advan- 

 tageous. 



'' In the experiments by me, during the winter 

 of 1855, and also at the farm of Mr. Peters, in 

 September last, I was forcibly struck with the 

 better quality of the juice grown in our section 

 of country, as compared with that experi- 

 mented upon by Mons. Vilmorin, whose paper 



