SUGAR-CANE CULTUIiK FOK SHUTP I'KOIHTTIO N . 



25 



in harvesting in the eastern Gulf States differ somewhat from those 

 in Louisiana and of cane-growing countries. Three different, tools are 

 used in stripping, topping, and cutting the cane, and the work is done 

 in three stages. First, the cane is stripped by the use of a flat stick 

 about 3 to 4 feet long or, better, with a tool consisting of two curved 

 and forking narrow blades of spring steel on the end of a stick, so 

 disposed that the operator can beat the leaves down from both sides 

 of the stalk with a single stroke (fig. 13, a). The second operation, 

 the topping, is done with an ordinary cane knife. Finally, the cane 

 is cut off at the ground with a heavy, short-handled hoe (fig. 14). 



Persistent efforts have been made by a number of very capable 

 inventors to design and build machines to harvest the cane, and 

 encouraging progress has been made. Stripping and topping the 



Fig. li 



-Harvesting sugar cane in Louisiana. 



cane satisfactorily without making the machine unwieldy offer the 

 great difficulty. Possibly we may hope for the solution of the 

 machine-harvesting problem when means for utilizing the tops are 

 worked out, e. g., siloing and feeding, so as to pay for their trans- 

 portation to the mill or to some central loading station. Then the 

 inventors could attack the problem of stripping and topping by 

 means of stationary machines without being so closely limited in 

 the weight or size of the machines. 



The loading of the cane is done by hand except en some of the 

 large sugar plantations, where loading machines are in use, operated 

 either by mules or, better, by gasoline power. (Fig. 15.) Suitable 

 grabs and hoists pick up the cane from the small heaps into which 

 the cutters have dropped it and swing it over, to be tripped off into 

 the wagon box. The wagons or carts may be provided with slings 



