SUGAR-CANE 



SUGAR-CANE 



607 



an easy matter. On the other hand, when cane is 

 not ratooned, the seed question is of the greatest 

 importance. 



Subsequent care.— For the first few months after 

 planting, the cane is actively cultivated. The com- 



Fie. 833. An old cane shed; placing cane on a carrier by 

 hand in the old method. Louisiana. 



monest tool is a one-horse cultivator. This is 

 followed by boys with hand -hoes. Cross-cultiva- 

 ting with machines is not much practiced, and, in 

 consequence, the work of the horse -machines is 

 completed by hand. The horse cultivators are 

 mostly of the tooth pattern, but recently disk- 

 cultivators have come into vogue and promise 

 to prove very useful in certain cases. In one ma- 

 chine these consist of two disks run on either side 

 of a light beam, like that of a single-furrow plow. 

 In regions where the original timber was heavy 

 it often happens that for some years the crop has to 

 be cultivated by hand throughout. This is also 

 the case on certain rocky lands that neverthe- 

 less yield good crops of cane. The object of the \ 

 culture is to keep out weeds and to encourage ; 

 the growth of the cane. The methods vary ac- i 

 cording as the crop is grown without or with 

 irrigation. In the latter case it is necessary to 

 keep the rows of cane at the bottom of a furrow 

 so as to accommodate the irrigation water. The 

 land usually becomes " covered in " by the cane 

 at the end of four to six months, and machine 

 cultivation then ceases. 



Harvesting and handling. 



Cane is harvested by hand. Machine cutters 

 have been invented and tried, but so far no 

 machine has been a great success. It is hardly 

 unsafe to predict that a cane-harvester will yet 

 be invented. The cane-knife and the machete 

 are the tools with which cane is cut. Where 

 ratooning is frequent, the ratoon-cane is some- 

 times pulled in order to secure as much stalk 

 as possible. The gain, however, is not great, as 

 good cutters leave very little of the stalk in the 

 ground. Immediately after the cane is cut it is 

 started for the mill and, as a rule, is ground within 

 twenty-four hours, as, owing to fermentation, the 

 sucrose content diminishes at the rate of about one 

 per cent per day. 



Hand labor is necessary in loading the cane on 

 to the carriers that take it to the mill. The cut 

 ters lay the stalks in rows after topping them. 

 The roughness of the fields is such that a large load 

 cannot economically be transported over them, and 

 hence small loads are taken short distances to the 

 carriers which are arranged on definite transporta- 

 tion lines that radiate from the mill as perfectly as 

 the conformation of the plantation admits. These 

 intermediate carriers vary all the way from laborers' 

 shoulders, through small two-mule sleds to carts 

 and wagons of small capacity. The permanent ways 

 are roads, canals, wire cables or flumes. The roads 

 may be for teams of horses, mules, oxen, or steam 

 traction-engines, or they may be railroads for loco- 

 motive engines hauling lines of trucks, varying in 

 capacity up to twenty tons. The commonest arrange- 

 ment is the latter, and much ingenuity has been 

 exercised in the invention of engines, trucks and 

 portable rails adapted to this purpose. When the 

 cane lands are along river-banks the various creeks 

 emptying into the river are utilized to carry punts, 

 and artificial canals for the punts are sometimes 

 provided. The latter are as a rule adapted also to 

 furnish additional drainage. The punts and tugs 

 present no peculiar features. The mill carriers 

 come to the waterside and the cane is dumped on 

 to the carriers with the aid of machinery, or more 

 often without. On certain plantations having steep 

 grades, gravity cable-cars are in operation, the 

 loaded cars at the top of the incline drawing up the 

 empties, thus afilording an economical power. 

 Plantations of this character are sometimes sup- 

 plied with overhead cable-systems for carrying 

 light, single-wheel trolleys capable of taking several 

 hundredweight of cane. The cane is hauled to the 



Fig. 834. Wilson-Webster cane loader. A recent metliod. 



upper trolley-station, attached to the trolley in 

 bundles of requisite size, and sent by gravity to the 

 mill with great speed. The trolley wheels are 

 packed back up the hills on the backs of mules. 

 Where water ;s abundant, the cane is sent down to 



