PART III.— CULTIVATION OF CROPS. 
A SUGAR-PLANTATION. 
1. It was in one of the early months of the year 
when I saw the men cutting down the ripe canes 
on Mr. Hood’s estate in Trelawny, a parish of 
Jamaica in which sugar-plantations are common. 
Indeed, half of the acres under sugar cultivation 
are in the three parishes of Trelawny, Westmore- 
land, and Clarendon. 
2 . The canes were heavy; their dry, brittle skins, 
gray pith, and sweet, sticky juice, showing that 
they were ripe. They were plant-canes, which I 
had seen put into the ground in short slips more 
than a year ago. Their owner will leave the stools 
for a few years to ratoon, getting, I hope, a good 
yield of cane each year; and though he will not 
expect so large a quantity of sugar from the ratoons 
as from the plant-canes, it will be of finer quality. 
3. Mr. Hood had taken great trouble with his 
crop. He first chose a low-lying piece of rich 
clayey land that was not too stiff to prevent the 
water draining freely through it. It was near the 
sea, but he knew that the canes would not be the 
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