PREPARING- THE LAND. 



133 



the cane is by holing it with hoes. The negroes 

 stand in a row, and each man strikes his hoe 

 into the ground immediately before him, and 

 forms a trench of five or six inches in depth ; 

 he then falls back, the whole row doing the 

 same, and they continue this operation from 

 one side of the cleared land to the other, or 

 from the top of a hill to the bottom. The earth 

 which is thrown out of the trench remains on 

 the lower side of it. In the British colonies 

 this work is done in a manner nearly similar, 

 but more systematically. * The lands in Brazil 

 are not measured, and every thing is done by 

 the eye. The quantity of cane which a piece 

 of land will require for planting is estimated by 

 so many cart loads ; and nothing can be more 

 vague than this mode of computation, for the 

 load which a cart can carry depends upon the 

 condition of the oxen, upon the nature of the 

 road, and upon the length of the cane. Such 

 is the awkward make of these vehicles, that 

 much nicety is necessary in packing them, and 

 if two canes will about fit into a cart length- 

 ways, much more will be conveyed than if the 



* Besides the usual mode of holing, Mr. Edwards mentions 

 the following method : " The planter instead of stocking up 

 his ratoons, and holing and planting the land anew, suifers 

 the stoles to continue in the ground, and contents himself, as 

 his cane-fields become thin and impoverished, by supplying 

 the vacant spaces with fresh plants." — History of the West 

 Indies, vol. ii. p. 207. 



K 3 



