SUGAR-PLANTATIONS. 



137 



to answer all the necessary purposes. The first 

 of the canes are ready to be cut for the mill in 

 September of the following year, and the crop 

 is finished usually in January or February. In 

 the British sugar-islands the canes are planted 

 from August to November, and are " ripe for 

 the mill in the beginning of the second year." 

 Thus this plant in Brazil requires from thirteen 

 to fifteen months to attain its proper state for 

 the mill ; and in the Columbian islands it re- 

 mains standing sixteen or seventeen months. # 



I did not discover, nor hear it mentioned, 

 that the cane is liable to destruction from the 

 blast, which is spoken of by Mr. Edwards, as 

 doing much injury to the plantations in the 

 British colonies. The cane is subject certainly 

 to several pests, but they are of a nature which 

 may be remedied. The rats destroy great 

 quantities t, and the fox is no less fond of it ; 



* Labat lays great stress upon the ripeness of the canes. 

 " 11 J~aut done observer avant que de couper les Cannes, quel 

 est leur degre de perfection et de maturite plutdt que leur 

 dge," Sj-c. — Nouveau Voyage, &c. torn. iii. p. 353. 



But when a plantation has a large crop, it is absolutely 

 impossible to attend so particularly to the ripeness as he in- 

 culcates ; some of the cane must be ground unripe, and other 

 parts of the held cannot be cut until after the proper time. 



f The French friar complains of the rats, and says that 

 there was in his time a chasseur de rats upon every estate. 

 He says that he made his chasseur bring the rats that were 

 caught to him ; and he desired to have the whole rat, for if 

 the heads or tails only came, the bodies were eaten by the 



