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first plan of combined cultivator and plough is partly right and partly 

 wrong ; the second one wholly wrong. 



Experiments in different methods of cultivation conducted at the 

 Sugar Experiment Station through several years have shown that the 

 exclusive use of cultivators has annually increased the yield of cane 

 over ten tons per acre, and the sugar product 700 pounds. The follow- 

 ing is an outline of the method pursued, from the preparation of land 

 to the lay-by of the cane. Ttie land is broken "flush" with a large 

 plough (now use the Disc Plough), pulverised with a harrow, and 

 bedded with two- horse ploughs. The rows are opened with a double 

 mould board plough, cane planted and covered, and the middles broken 

 out with the double mould board plough. The quarter-drains are 

 opened six inches below the middles of the rows, and ditches cleaned. 

 ■At the proper time the cane is ofE-barred with two-horse ploughs, 

 scraped with hoes, and when large enough is fertilised by scattering the 

 mixture across the open furrows and narrow ridge of cane. The dirt 

 is returned as soon as fertiliser is applied, the middles broken out deep 

 and cltan, and the turn ploughs sent to the barn to remain until the 

 next season. The disc cultivator with the three small discs on each 

 side, is used for throwing dire to the cane at the first working, and the 

 middle, or diamond cultivator for breaking out the middles. In the 

 Second and third cultivations, two middle discs replace the three used 

 in the first and are set at such an angle as to throw the desired amount 

 of dirt to the cane, and is followed each time by the middle cultivator, 

 thus completing the work with the two implements. At lay-by, the 

 large, or lay-by," discs are used, followed by the middle cultivator, 

 with its two front shovels removed. By proper adjustment of the two 

 instruments, ridges of any desired height can be made and the cane 

 properly laid by. 



Some contend that insufficient dirt is thrown to the cane for the 

 preservation of the stubble. In reply, the station would point to a 

 most excelleot stand of three year-old stubble now growing on its 

 grounds, which has been thus treated from planting, four years 

 ago. (K) 



Tke rationale of this method will be apparent by a discussion of the 

 principles underlying general cultivation of crops ; and our soils and 

 crops should not be exceptions. 



If the work of preparation has been performed as described in a 

 previous chapter, subsequent planting and cultivation are easy processes. 

 If badly done, then subsequent cultivation is not, properly speaking, 

 cultivation at all, but efforts in the direction of securing that tilth 

 which a good preparation would have insured. An excellent prepara- 

 tion always secures tilth, and after cultivation should oe simply a 

 maintenance of this tilth. 



Some of our readers may desire a definition of tilth. In reply, we would 



(1.) With the cheap labour of the West Indies, tkere has been but little 

 tendency to resort to weeding and tilling by menns of implements. The methods 

 of planting are better adapted to the use of the hoe than of draught implements. 

 More attention might be given profitably to the use of implements. — F.W., 



