SUGAR-CANE CULTURE FOR SIRUP PRODUCTION. 



29 



of plant cane on good Georgia or Florida farms. The average yields, 

 as shown by the census reports, are much below these, showing that 

 many farms and factories are not producing yields up to the normal 

 for good, well-managed farms. 



STORING CANE FOR PLANTING. 



In localities subject to winter frosts, if the new plantings of cane 

 are not made in the fall, planting the cane directly from the field 

 as it is harvested, some means must be employed for storing the cane 

 until time to plant it, which is usually in the spring. Two somewhat 

 different modes of storing are in common use, viz, windrowing and 

 banking. Practice also varies, some preferring to dig up the cane 

 and store it with the rootstocks left on, while others, to save labor, 



Fig. 16. — Putting sugar cane in windrows in Louisiana. 



are content to cut the cane about even with the surface of the ground, 

 thus sacrificing the short rootstock, which bears a large number of 

 eyes. 



Windrowing is generally practiced on the large sugar plantations, 

 like those in Louisiana, where large quantities of cane are to be 

 stored in a relatively short time. (Fig. 16.) The ridge cultivation 

 results in deep furrows being formed in the middles between rows 

 during cultivation. The cane from two or three rows, cut off at the 

 ground and without removing the foliage, is laid into one of the 

 middles, overlapping in such a manner that the tops always cover 

 the stalks previously laid down. The windrow thus formed is cov- 

 ered with soil by the use of large plows, throwing about two furrows 

 from each side over it. If the soil is cloddy or wet, a disk cultivator 

 is sometimes driven over the windrows to smooth out the soil that 



