CULTIVATION OF THE SUGAR, CANE. 



of the stem is a perfect plant, and will grow readily, and 

 certainly. 



Having thus glanced at the anatomy and nature of the 

 cane, and the simple composition of sugar, I shall endeavour 

 to point out the wide difference which exists between its 

 cultivation and that of any other kind of farming, and how 

 much more simple and satisfactory the operations of the 

 Planter would become, was this circumstance fully under- 

 stood and acted on. 



Every cultivated plant deprives the earth in which it is 

 grown, of some portion of its constituent parts, which 

 must be restored, or the soil will become exhausted, and 

 no longer able to produce the plant for want of materials 

 to build up its structure. This is a fact known to all 

 farmers, and has been strikingly exemplified in the cultiva- 

 tion of tobacco ; large tracts of land in America, formerly 

 of exceeding fertility, having been rendered sterile, by 

 being incessantly cropped with that plant. The skilful 

 farmer, by a judicious rotation of crops, which differ in their 

 composition, taking care to restore in due order the sub- 

 stances carried off by them, and by exposure of the soil 

 to atmospheric influences by repeated ploughing, giving 

 time and facility for fresh portions of the required sub- 

 stances to disintegrate and become available for the sus- 

 tenance of plants, is enabled not only to keep his land in 

 continued fertility, but to increase its natural capabilities, 

 and to render the tillage of it easier and more economical. 



A knowledge of these circumstances, and a skilful 



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