SUGAR-CANE CULTURE FOR SIRUP PRODUCTION. 
23 
obliquely placed, straight, flat cutting bar or two horizontal disks, to 
cut through the ridge left at the time of barring off and to cut off the 
partly decayed upper ends of the old rootstocks. Suitable plates on 
the implement brush the loosened soil into the furrow at the sides 
and thus leave the tops of the shaved stubbles exposed. This removes 
from the rows all the weeds and most of the weed seeds and thus aids 
greatly in keeping the row clean during the early growth of the crop. 
Later, and before the crop has made much progress in growth, it is 
advisable to loosen the soil with a special implement, the stubble 
digger. (Fig. 10.) 
Neither stubble shavers nor stubble diggers have been adopted to 
any notable extent in the sirup sections east of Louisiana. As to the 
implements for further cultivation, practice in the sirup sections 
differs widely from that of the large plantations of Louisiana and 
from that with other crops in the 
Northern and Western States. After 
the preparation of the land, nearly 
all the work is done with 1-mule 
implements, using a 1, 2, or 3 point 
single cultivator in the early cul- 
tivation (fig. 7, d and e to j) and 
sweeps for the later shallow cultiva- 
tion. To one accustomed to the 2- 
horse or larger implements used in 
other sections of the country (fig. 
11), this farming with 1-mule im- 
plements seems like very inefficient 
utilization of farm labor. It has a 
partial justification, however, in the facts that the farms and fields 
are mostly small; that there are many short rows, especially where 
they are laid off along contour lines on the hill slopes ; that no head- 
lands for turning around are provided; and, finally, that the wages 
of laborer and mule are nearly equal. 
When we consider, however, that not uncommonly the operations 
of marking the rows, opening the furrows, distributing fertilizer, and 
covering the cane require altogether eight trips of laborer and single 
mule along each row, there seems undoubtedly room for improvement 
in efficiency. Practically the same disproportion of trips per row to 
the work accomplished exists in the later cultivation in these sections. 
Cultivation generally ceases and the crop is "laid by" about the 
middle of July or first of August. By this time the crop shades the 
ground and the rows have spread out until it is impracticable to get 
through with the single-mule implements. 
Fig. 10. — A type of stubble digger used 
for sugar-cane tillage in Louisiana. 
