NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. 
63 
rows of cane, and as this maize comes to perfection in 
about twelve or fourteen weeks, it does not in the least 
interfere with the growth of the young cane plants. But 
however well cleared the field may have been at the time 
of planting, in an incredible short time it is covered with 
a crop of weeds, which must he weeded off or they will 
retard the growth of the plants. This is done through- 
out the island by the hoe, with very few exceptions. In 
the valley of Diego Martin I have seen a horse-hoe 
or a scarifier at work, but this is a rare sight. On level 
lands it would be positive gain to introduce ploughs and 
scarifiers, but on hilly, hummocky, imdulating land, it 
would be impossible to use these implements. Hoeing, 
then, is the custom of the country. 
A gang of men or women, or both, will go out early in 
the morning, and about eleven o’clock will have finished 
their task, a task being about five hundred square feet of 
weediug. The labourer reaches home about twelve 
o’clock, when it is very hot, the sun being almost 
vertical, gladly escaping from its heat. His work is done 
for that day as far as his employer is concerned (the 
word master is not used, as it savours of slavery), and 
the rest of the day is spent either in idleness or in 
working in his own garden-patch. 
Several weedings must be given the young canes, as 
many as four, and sometimes five, if you woidd have 
them thick and healthy, and as some plants may fail, 
these are supplied. Plants are generally put in during 
the last two months and the first of the year. Towards 
the close of September the cane begins to arrow. By 
October the whole cane district is in full bloom. The 
country looks very beautiful, the cream-coloured, feathery 
blossom contrasting prettily with the bright green of the 
cane-leaves. It is the nearest approach w'e have to snow 
in appearance, and no better description of the appear- 
ance of snow on the ground could be given a West 
Indian than to say it was like the canes when in arrow. 
In about five weeks the plume falls off, and the naked 
