SUGAR. 



139 



tlie cane is simple and easy when labour is at command. The brush- 

 wood and grass having been cut down and weeded, are piled into 

 rows, 6 to 8 feet apart, across the intended beds into which the 

 field is to be divided. These beds are formed by digging open 

 small drains, 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep, at intervals of every 30 

 or 36 feet, across the entire field, beginning within a few yards of 

 the canal, in the centre of the estate, and running to the side draining 

 trenches, into which they empty themselves. The soil from these 

 small drains having been carefully thrown upon the beds, so as to 

 raise and round them off in the middle, narrow banks or ridges of 

 earth are made across them, from drain to drain, parallel to and equi- 

 distant between the rows of grass and brushwood ; and in these 

 spaces, between the banks of earth and grass, the canes are planted 

 in line, each line being 3 or 4 feet apart, and each cane plant 

 9 or 10 inches from the next. The plants are procured by cutting off 

 the tops or upper joints of growing canes into lengths of 10 or 12 

 inches, which are thrust in a slanting direction into the well-stirred 

 ground, and in ten days or so the long grass-like leaves begin to spring 

 from the eyes at every joint. These young canes require to be kept 

 well weeded, and moulded about the roots from the ridges of earth or 

 decaying grass on either side of them, which had been previously pre- 

 pared for that purpose ; and this must be repeated as long as there is 

 room for the labourers to pass between the rows, which, according to 

 the season, will be until the plants have attained the age of six or 

 eight months, after which time the spreading of numerous leaves from 

 each stock will have covered the surface of the field with so dense a 

 jungle as in a great measure to prevent any further growth of weeds. 

 When about nine months old, the cane throws out its "arrow," 

 a long reed-like stem, surmounted with a tuft of waving downy 

 blossom. At this period the plant is poor and weak, and little more 

 than a mass of water ; it soon, however, recovers, and in twelve or 

 thirteen months from the time of planting is considered at maturity, 

 having then sometimes attained a length of 20 to 25 feet, but 

 more frequently of 10 or 12 feet, about as thick as the wrist, and 

 divided into joints like a bamboo. When ripe, the canes are cut 

 down to the very ground, in lengths of 3 or 4 feet, and thrown 

 into punts, which are towed along the canal by mules or oxen to the 

 wet dock at the door of the sugar mill. Immediately after cutting, 

 the large quantity of thrash or dry leaves is rolled clear of the cane 

 stumps, and heaped in rows, there to decay and form a rich manure 

 for the succeeding crop. In a few days the stumps throw out their 

 shoots, and the same routine of cultivation is repeated for twelve 

 months more, any vacant spaces where plants may have missed being 

 carefully supplied. The canes of the first year are called " plant 

 canes," those of the second and subsequent years being distinguished 

 as " ratoons" ; and these ratoons have been known to be produced 

 from the first plant for twenty years and upwards, the canes having 

 been annually cut down and the stumps allowed to shoot again. But 

 this continued reproduction from the same stocks, which is now com- 

 pulsory on the planter from the scarcity of labour, of course causes 

 the canes to degenerate, and to yield less abundantly. An acre of 



