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134. 



PLANTING. 



canes are longer and they double over each 

 other. 



The plough is sometimes used in low lands, 

 upon which draining has not been found neces- 

 sary ; but such is the clumsy construction of the 

 machine of which they make use, that six oxen 

 are yoked to it.* Upon high lands the stumps 

 of the trees almost preclude the possibility of 

 thus relieving the labourers. 



The trenches being prepared, the cuttings 

 are laid longitudinally in the bottom of them, 

 and are covered with the greatest part of the 

 mould which had been taken out of the trench. 

 The shoots begin to rise above the surface of the 

 ground in the course of twelve or fourteen days. 

 The canes undergo three cleanings from the 

 weeds and the sprouts proceeding from the 

 stumps of the trees ; and when the land is poor, 

 and produces a greater quantity of the former 

 and contains fewer of the latter, the canes re- 

 quire to be cleaned a fourth time. The cuttings 

 are usually from twelve to eighteen inches in 

 Ipptrth, but it is iudged that the shorter they 

 are the better. If they are short, and one 

 piece of cane rots, the space which remains va- 

 cant, is not so large as when the cuttings are long, 

 and they by any accident fail. The canes which 



* A plough drawn by two oxen, constructed after a model 

 which was brought from Cayenne, has been introduced in 

 one or two instances. 



