SUGAR-CANE CLIMATE, TILLAGE 413 



with the plant-food materials and that have a high water- 

 holding capacity. In the cane-growing regions of the 

 United States, soils of this character are most abundant 

 in Louisiana. While sugar-cane is a heavy consumer 

 of moisture, it must have an open, well-drained soil with 

 the water-table below the feeding area of the roots. If 

 the soil is not naturally well-drained, artificial drainage 

 should be provided. Soils naturally acid are unsuited to 

 sugar-cane. Such soils should receive an application of 

 lime before being planted to this crop. 



In the coastal pine-belt of the United States, most of 

 the soils planted to sugar-cane are of a sandy nature. 

 These soils usually require rather heavy applications of 

 manures or fertilizers if profitable crops are to be pro- 

 duced. In Florida the better grades of high pine land pro- 

 duce from 15 to 25 tons of cane. The rolling pine lands 

 are well adapted to sugar-cane without further drainage. 

 The flat-woods' soils, the flat hammock lands and re- 

 claimed marsh lands generally require artificial drainage. 



The yield of cane on the sandy soils of the pine-belt is 

 less than on the alluvial soils of Louisiana, but the juice 

 is richer in total sugars, which is a partial compensation 

 for the smaller yields. 



513. Rotations. The highest yields of sugar-cane 

 are produced where the cane is planted on land which has 

 the year previously been planted to cowpeas, velvet 

 beans, or such crops as will add to the supply of organic 

 matter and nitrogen in the soil. The heavy growth of 

 stalks and the practice of burning the leaves rapidly ex- 

 hausts the soil nitrogen and sugar-cane should never follow 

 itself on the same land, except where it is desirable to grow 

 one or more crops of " stubble" cane. A rotation quite 

 generally practiced by the best sugar-cane planters in 



