cultivating Sugar Canes. 239 
ground fourteen or fifteen joints or rows of roots, diftant 
from each other only a line, and fometimes lefs; the 
joints, therefore, of the canes, of a dry or ill cultivated 
foil, are as many in number as thofe of a moift and fruit- 
ful foil ; but the two differ in this : the greater part of 
the former are fhort, fmall, and in the ground ; whereas 
the greater part of the laft are thick, long, and above 
ground. 
It is therefore the excellence or the defedl either of 
the feafon, or the cultivation, which keeps back and baf- 
tardizes the one fort, which haftens and makes the other 
thicker: chufe, therefore, that feafon for planting in 
which the greateft poflible fucceffion of rain (hall force 
out of the grounds thofe joints which, in a drier feafon, 
would only have formed a quantity of roots within it, 
the 
quinze noeuds ou plans de racines diftants les uns des autres d’une ligne feule- 
ment et quelque fois moins : les noeuds des Cannes d’un terrein fee ou mal cul~ 
tive font done egaux en quantite a ceux des Cannes d’un terrein humide ou fertile,, 
mais ils different en ce que la plus grande partie des uns font courts, petits, et 
dans la terre ; le plus grand nombre des autres font gros longs et hors de terre. 
C’eft done la bonte ou le defaut de la culture ou de la faifon qui retient et 
abatardit les uns, precipite et groffit les autres ; choififfez done pour planter la 
faifon ou la plus grande continuite de pluye poflible, forcera le plutot a fe deve- 
lopper hors de terre, les noeuds qui d< ns une faifon plus feche formeroient 
uniquement en terre, une quantite confiderable de racines dont l’inutilite efl 
vifibBe; 
