PROPER SEASON FOR PLANTING- CANES, 



49 



been planted sufficiently apart from each other. I have 

 seen ratoons equal to good plant canes, grown upon land 

 which was previously supposed to be incapable of ratoon- 

 ing; and during the present year, some of the finest and 

 healthiest looking canes, on a particular estate with which 

 I am acquainted, were ratoons, growing in rows seven feet 

 apart, and this after a season of severe and protracted 

 drought. 



The proper season for planting varies in different 

 Colonies and localities, but the fault of late planting 

 appears to be rather general. It is better not to plant 

 the bulk of a crop at once, but at intervals, commenc- 

 ing very early, and extending it over a period of about 

 five months, planting a portion every month. This 

 will regulate the season for reaping, and will enable 

 manufacturing operations to be commenced at a proper 

 period, and finished before the rainy season sets in and 

 causes a fresh and injurious growth to commence in the 

 canes. 



I could say much on the necessity of pawing strict 

 attention to all the more detailed operations in the con- 

 ducting of an estate, as cutting canes, carting, &c. &c., 

 but I do not intend this as a treatise on management, 

 so much as an elucidation of such a system of culti- 

 vation as is within the reach of every proprietor of a 

 sugar estate, a system which, I believe, will at once 

 reduce the cost of production, increase the supply of 



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