cultivating Sugar Canes. 231 
f 
from the three lets of roots of which I have fpoken. 
This, if true, is a ftrong argument againft the pretended 
antiquity of the ftools, which are laid to be ten, fifteen, 
and even twenty years old. It is alfo a very powerful ar- 
gument in favour of my principle of the inutility of 
replanting when the flump is not raifed above the 
ground, fince grant my fufpicion to be grounded, and it 
follows, that the oldeft of the roots of a ftool , the canes of 
which are cut every year , cannot be above two years old. 
9thly, In order then to clear up fo important a point, 
I ordered a ftool of canes, which had been planted about 
four years before, had been regularly cut every year, 
and for the laft time about fix months before, to be 
ftubbed up. The rattoons were very fine ; there were 
upwards of eighty of them, fmall and great (hardly a 
fixth part of this number ufually fucceeds) ; the group, 
notwith- 
roit bien contraire a la vetufle pretendue des fouchcs qu’on dit etre de 10, 15 
et 20 ans: et feroit un grand argument en faveur de mon principe de l’inutilite 
de replanter, lorfque la Touche n’eft pas elevee au deffus de la terre; puifque dans 
le cas ou mon foup^on feroit jufte, la plus meille de toutes les racines d'une fouche 
dont on coupe les Cannes tous les ans , n aurolt pas au dela de deux annees . 
9 0 , Pour eclaircir un point auffi important j’ay fait deraciner une fouche cle 
Cannes plantees depuis quatre ans, coupee reguiierement chaque annee, et pour 
la derniere fois depuis fix mois : les rejettons etoient fort beaux, il y en avoifc' 
|>lus de go tant grands que petits (il en reulFit rarement la fixieme partie) la 
totifiE 
