THE SUGAR CANE. 



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make the finest sugar. Tliey are much larger 

 than those of our islands, the joints of some 

 measuring eight or nine inches long, and six in 

 circumference. Their colour and that of their 

 leaves also differs from ours. They are ripe 

 enough to grind at the age of ten months. They 

 appear to stand the dry weather better than ours, 

 and are not liable to be attacked by that destruc- 

 tive insect called the borer. The Batavian canes 

 are a deep purple on the outside; they grow short- 

 jointed, and small in circumference, but branch 

 exceedingly, and vegetate so quick, that they 

 spring up from the plant in one-third of the time 

 which those of our island do." 



When Europeans first visited America, the 

 sugar cane was found growing in the low lands 

 near the mouth of the Mississippi. Father 

 Hennepin says, "From thirty leagues below 

 Maroa down to the sea, the banks of the Missis- 

 sippi are full of canes ;" and Francis Ximenes 

 mentions the sugar cane as growing spontane- 

 ously near the Rio de la Plata. John de Laet 

 also mentions it as indigenous in the island of 

 St Vincent. 



Jamaica was discovered by Columbus in his 

 second voyage in 1494, and a settlement was 

 made there by the Spaniards in 1509. In 1656 

 it was taken possession of by the English, and 

 the sugar cane first planted there for the pxirpose 

 of sugar making in 1660. Sir Thomas Modi- 

 ford, who afterwards became governor of the 

 island, introduced the art of sugar cultivation, 

 and the necessary canes from the island of Bar- 

 badoes. In this latter place the production of 

 sugar had been sedulously carried on chiefly un- 

 der his auspices for many years previous. Ligon, 

 in his history of Barbadoes, thus writes on the 

 subject : " At the time we landed on this island, 

 which was in the beginning of September 1647, 

 we were informed partly by those planters we 

 found there, and partly by our own observations, 

 that the great work of sugar making was but 

 newly practised by the inlaabitants there. Some 

 of the most industrious men having gotten plants 

 from Femambrock, a place in Brazil, and made 

 trial of them at the Barbadoes ; and finding 

 them to grow, they planted more and more as 

 they grew and multiplied on the place, till they 

 had such a considerable number as they were 

 worth the while to set up a very small ingenio, 

 and so make trial what sugar could be made on 

 that soil. But the secrets of the work being not 

 well understood, the sugars they made were very 

 inconsiderable and little worth for two or three 

 years. But they finding their errors by their 

 daily practice, began a little to mend, and by 

 new directions from Brazil, sometimes by stran- 

 gers, and now and then by their own people, 

 who were content sometimes to make a voyage 

 thither to improve their knowledge in a thing 

 they so much desired. Being now much better 



able to make their queries of the secrets of that 

 mystery, by how much their often failings had 

 put them often to stops and non-plusses in the 

 work ; and so returning with more plants and 

 better knowledge, they went in upon fresh 

 hopes, but still short of what they should be 

 more skilful in ; for at our first arrival we found 

 them ignorant in those main points that much 

 conduced to the work, viz., the manner of plant- 

 ing, the time of gathering, and the right placing 

 their coppers in their furnaces, as also the true 

 way of covering their rollers with plates or bars 

 of irgn. At the time of our an-ival there, we 

 found many sugar works set up and at work, 

 but yet the sugars they made were but bare 

 Muscovadoes, and few of them merchantable 

 commodities, so moist and full of molasses, and so 

 ill cured or dry, they were hardly worth bringing 

 home to England. But about the time I left 

 the island, which was in 1650, they were much 

 bettered, for then they had skill to know when 

 the canes were ripe, which was not till they were 

 fifteen months old, while before they gathered 

 them at twelve, which was a main disadvantage 

 to the making good sugar, for the liquor want- 

 ing of the sweetness it ought to have, caused the 

 sugars to be lean and unfit to keep. Besides 

 they had grown greater proficients both in boil- 

 ing and curing them, and had learnt the know- 

 ledge of making the white, such as you call lump 

 sugar here in England, but not so excellent as 

 those they make in Brazil ; nor is there any like- 

 lihood they can ever make such, the land there 

 being better, and lying in a continent, must 

 needs have constanter and steadier weather, and 

 the air much drier and purer, than it can be in 

 so small an island as that of Barbadoes. 



The rearing of canes, and the manufacture of 

 sugar has now become the chief employments in 

 the West India islands, and immense quantities 

 of this article are annually exported from 

 them. The culture of the cane, therefore, has 

 now become an object of anxious solicitude. 

 We have already said that the cane is propagated 

 by cuttings alone. The top joints are always 

 selected for this purpose, because they are less 

 rich in saccharine matter than the lower parts of 

 the cane, while the vegetating powers are equally 

 strong. The cane-plant is possessed of the poAvcr 

 of tillering, in a manner similar to that shown 

 by wheat, although not to an equal extent. 



In preparing a field for planting with the cut- 

 tings of cane, the ground is marked out in rows 

 tlrree or four feet apart, and in these lines holes 

 are dug from eight to twelve inches deep, and 

 with an interval of two feet between the holes. 

 Where the ground is level, larger spaces are left 

 at certain intervals for the facility of carting; 

 but there are many situations at the sides of 

 steep hills where no cart can be taken, and in 

 such cases these spaces are not required. The 



