498 SOUTHEBN FIELD CROPS 



For plants like sugar-cane, in which a high quality of 

 product is important, it is usually regarded as better to 

 employ sulfate of potash than muriate of potash or kainit. 

 However, this point needs further investigation. 



481. Summary regarding fertilization of cane. — On 

 soil not previously enriched, sugar-cane requires a fertilizer 

 rich in nitrogen. Potash is needed on the sandier lands, 

 but apparently not on the rich alluvial soils of Louisiana. 

 Phosphoric acid should generally be supplied, but acid 

 phosphate need not constitute so large a proportion of the 

 fertiUzer for cane as for cotton. 



Cultural Methods 



482. Propagating material. — Sugar-cane is propagated 

 by planting the stripped stalk, from the buds or eyes of 

 which grow suckers. In the sugar-belt the stubble of cane 

 lives through the winter, so that there cane is usually 

 grown two or three years in succession from a single plant- 

 ing. In the tropics one planting serves for many years. 



In the greater part of the American sirup-belt, the stub- 

 ble is so often killed that a good stand from this source 

 is not expected. Yet at least as far north as Montgomery, 

 Alabama, a small portion of the stubble lives through 

 the winter, and this amount can be increased by plowing 

 two furrows over the" stubble before kilhng frosts occur 

 in the fall. In this region the plants grown from stubble 

 cane are usually small and short-jointed. Hence, stubble 

 cane here is usually not ground, but used as seed material 

 for the next crop. 



483. Preparation of the land in Louisiana. — A crop 

 of cowpeas grown with corn is plowed under with four-, 



