216 



during May and June. Others pay but little attention to the encourage- 

 ment of suckers, feeling assured that this natural process will go unaided 

 and begin at once the work of fertilisation and cultivation. If the cane 

 has not been fertilised at planting, the first application should now be 

 made before the furrows are returned to the cane and the middles 

 bursted out." In applying the fertiliser, which is usually placed on 

 both sides of the row in the open furrow made by the two-horse plough, 

 great care should be exercised to see that it is well distributed across 

 the narrow ridge of cane and throughout the open furrows. The pro- 

 per distribution of fertilisers at this stage of the growth of cane may 

 well be styled broadcasting in the drills," and the latter should not be 

 too deep, else some of the fertiliser may never become available. At 

 this stage in the cultivation of the crop, many planters use the subsoil 

 plough before returning the dirt to the cane. On either side of the 

 narrow ridge on which the young canes stand, in the open furrow made 

 by the two- horse plough, the subsoil plough is drawn by four mules, to 

 the depth of six to ten inches. 



The advantages of this subsoiling are not always clearly apparent. 

 Before the invention of good pulverising turn ploughs, subsoiling was 

 quite fashionable. To-day it is used in but few localities. Upon our 

 alluvial soils, where drainage is of such prime importance, and in our 

 climate of heavy summer rainfalls, subsoiling must be practised with 

 judgment and skill, else injury to soil and crops may result. It is safer 

 and perhaps better, to precede the cane crop with deep tap -rooted legu- 

 minous plants, and let them do the subsoiling. After the fertilisers 

 have been applied and the subsoiling (where practised) performed, the 

 soil is returned to the cane, and the middles broken out with a large 

 double mould board plough, and quarter drains opened, Emphasis is 

 laid upon the importance of cleaning quarter drains immediately after 

 each cultivation, since a heavy rainfall, flooding even temporarily the 

 field at this period of the growth of the cane, may inflict an injury upon 

 the soil which may last through the season and materially lower the 

 yield of the cane. Not only the tilth, for which all the previous operations 

 of ploughing, etc , have been conducted for the purpose of establishing, 

 will be destroyed, but the bacteria upon, whose activity the plant relies 

 for food, will be literally drowned by the million and time will be 

 required for their restoration. Many cultivations will also be necessary 

 before the conditions known as "tilth" will be re-established 



Having returned the soil to the cane and split out the middles, the 

 process of cultivation begins. It has not been very long since the 

 two-horse and four-hors« ploughs were the only implements used in 

 cultivating cane in this State. Within the last ten or fifteen years the 

 cultivator has been introduced, and to day may be found on nearly 

 every plantation. Many varieties are used, covering the double shovel, 

 solid, and sectional disc patents. Since the cane rows are usually six 

 to seven ftet wide, these cultivators cannot reach more than three to 

 four feet around the cane. Hence, the middles of the rows are worked 

 with the two-horse and four-horse turn ploughs, or with the double 

 mould board plough. A few planters still prefer the turn ploughs for 

 all the operations of cultivation, and use them continuou>ly for " off 

 barring and throwing back the dirt," until the cane is laid by. The 



