113 



was found that cane would stand a complete inundation for forty-eight 

 hours, with the water at a temperature of 72 degrees, while the 

 maximum temperature recorded in the station's weather bureau was 90 

 degrees F. No fears should be entertained of injuring the cane by too 

 much water, for a reasonable time, say two days, in applying it, provided 

 that when it is drained off, it is well and quickly done, in other words, 

 the land is well drained. 



Water can easily be drawn from the adjacent river, or bayou, by 

 nearly every sugar planter in the State. The erection of a boiler, pump 

 and syphon will be needed to lift it over the levees. Nowhere, possibly, 

 can a systematic irrigation plant be established and mtiintaiaed at a less 

 cost than in Louisiana, and our very variable seasons demand it as an 

 adjunct to every plantation that aims to make maximum crops every 

 year. 



Sugar Soils. 



From what has been already sait^, those soils which contain the largest 

 fertility, and have a large water- holding capacity, are best adapted to 

 large crops of cane. Eequiring so much moisture, the cane, like all the 

 grass family, does Dest upon clayey or heavy loam soils unless artifi- 

 cially aided by irrigation. Even then the soils must be sufficiently re- 

 tentive to prevent a too rapid downward percolation of supplied water, 

 or else the profits will be exceeded by the costs of too many irrigations 

 and the washing away of the soluble plant food. 



Included in " fertility" is a large amount of humus or vegetable mat- 

 ter which is the controlling factor in determining the amount of fine 

 earth and moisture in a soil. Tropical soils, subject to heavy rainfalls, 

 are almost universally adapted to the growth of sugar cane, since tlie 

 heavy rains induce a luxuriant growth of vegetation upon such soils,, 

 and this vegetation, in its transition into humus, furnishes simulta- 

 neously organic acids which decompose the soil particles into very fine 

 earth. Hence such soils, in the course of time, become rich in organic 

 matter and very finely divided earth, the latter supplying the mineral 

 and the former the nitrogenous food, and both (but particularly 

 the humus) retaining that excessive moisture so essential for healthy 

 cane growing. (^) Perhaps the heaviest acre crops of sugar in the 

 world are taken from the soils of the Hawaiian Islands. There are four 

 large islands in this group, whereon sugar is grown in large quantities. 

 Hawaii is a wet island, the cane crop depending wholly upon the natural 

 rainfall. The other three use regular irrigation in the growing of cane. 

 Dr. Walter Maxwell, Director of the Experiment Station at Honolulu, 

 in a recent publication, gives a summary table, shewing the mean of the 

 results in the examination of the soils of the four islands, which are 

 based upon nearly one hundred analyses, which is here given : 



(2) At the same time it must not be forgotten that the high temperatures of the 

 tropics lead to rapid decay of organic matter, so that, unless a sufficient amount of 

 vegetable matter be returned to the soil, there is danger of the humus being re- 

 ducea to so small an amount that the soil becomes unproductive or worn out ; 

 obviously this risk is greater in tropical than in temperate climates, but at the 

 same time, the difficulty is more easily overcome owing to the fact that crops to be 

 ploughed in as green dressings can be grown almost all the year round. F. W 



