rusually used, and tlie work performed more satisfactory, there being 

 no compression of the soil at the bottom of the plough, caused by the 

 shear and landside of the turn-plough. 



After the land is flushed, it should be bedded with two-horse ploughs 

 into high rows, five to seven feet wide and the middles carefully ploughed 

 out. The quarter-drains should also be cleaned. It is thus ready far 

 planting late in September or early in October, the time at which fall 

 planting is done. When ready to plant, the rows are open with a 

 double mould board plough and two or more running stalks are deposited 

 in this open-furrow and covered by a disc cultivator, plough, or by hoes. 

 Fall planted cane is always covered deeper than that planted in the 

 spring, in order to protect it against the cold of our winters. The 

 open furrow in which the cane is deposited should be above the level 

 of the middles between the rows, and the latter should be at least six 

 inches above the bottoms of the quarter drains. Thus planted and 

 maintained during the winter, there will be no trouble from either 

 excessive cold or moisture. (^) 



(7) The method of working here recommended is one which may be advantage- 

 ouslyfollowed in Jamaica; the intervention of a leguminous crop to be turned in 

 as a green dressing is wise provision, as is fully explained ; in these islands not only 

 will the cow pea serve this purpose, though perhaps it will prove as useful as any 

 other, but the Gungo, No Eye Pea, or Pigeon Pea {Cajanus indicus J and Woolly 

 Pyroe (Phaseolus Mungo J and Bengal bean (Dolichos Lablah J are also employed 

 to advantage, indeed it may be safely asserted that the success with which the 

 cultivation of sugar was carried on, until recent years, in the Colony of St. Kitts 

 was largely due to the wise manner in which the Gungo Pea or Pigeon Pea was 

 employed for green dressing. 



The element of plant food which is most completely removed from the soil 

 by the cultivation and manufacture of sugar is nitrogen, which is also 

 the most expensive ingredient of artificial manures or fertilisers, this 

 element is largely restored by a judicious system of green dressing with 

 leguminous crops. The practice is by no means a new one, it was known and 

 followed by the Romans, and Virgil refers to it in his Georgics. Of late years a 

 great impetus has been given to the practice of green dressing by means of legu- 

 minous crops owing to the discovery of the manner in which they assimilate 

 atmospheric nitrogen and thus accumulate it in the soil for the use of subse- 

 quent crops. Not only do green dressings add to the store of nitrogen in the 

 soil, but they improve the physical condition and texture of the soil in a marvel- 

 lous manner, aiding the draining of stiflf clays, and increasing the water holding 

 power of light, sandy soils. In addition to this the use of a green dressing does 

 much to assist in keeping down grass and troublesome weeds. There are very few 

 soils that will not be materially improved by the use of green dressing. 



The planting of a corn crop a little before the cow peas or other plant used 

 for green dressing, as suggested by Dr. Stubbs, is an obvious advantage ; by this 

 means corn for the use of the stock is obtained while the trailing stems of the le- 

 guminous plants finding some support, tend to form a denser thicker mass thus in- 

 creasing the amount of vegetable matter to be ultimately ploughed in. 



This use of green dressing commends itself not only to those who cultivate sugar 

 cane, but will prove of the greatest use in the cultivation of Bananas, Cocoa, 

 Coffee, Limes, Oranges, while in growing ginger, it will probably prove an adjunct 

 of the first importance as maintaining the necessary fertility of the soil and at the 

 same time adding to the store of humus and nitrogen. 



The use of a fertiliser containing Potash and Phosphates (without nitrogen) 

 will often result in a great increase in the growth of the leguminous crop and it 

 would seem desirable to add those ingredients of the artificial m.mure to the 

 leguminous crop rather than to raise the green dressing and then apply the Potasii 

 and Phosphates to the plant canes. — F. W. 



