SOUTHERN CULTIVATOK. 
367 
well worthy of the attention and study of the farmers and 
planters of the South. 
If the opinions I shall express, should seem to some too 
wild and extravagant, I trust they will receive them as 
the honest and candid sentiments of one who has carefully 
examined the subject, and be led to investigate and ex- 
periment for themselves. Should I thus be enabled to 
arouse the attention of Southern fanners to the importance 
cf this plant, my object will have been accomplished, and 
my labor well expended. 
The Chinese Sugar Cane seems to adapt itself to all the 
vicissitudes of our varied climate and soil, with a facility 
unsurpassed by corn or wheat. In Cherokee Georgia, it 
flourishes in a high degree of perfection upon soils high 
and low, rich and comparatively poor, producing heavy 
crops of stalk, leaf and seed. The experiments of Mr. 
Peters (which are already published in many of our agri- 
cultural papers) present an example of most successful 
culture. I have found it to grow with me, in all respects, 
as vigorously as corn, with precisely similar treatment. 
In Allegany county, Maryland, a correspondent writes 
for the May number of the American Farmer-. “I think it 
v/eil adapted even to our mountainous country, and pro- 
j 
feet, given in the row, dropping one or two seed in a place. 
Let the ground be well cultivated, as for corn, and the 
shoots or suckers which spring up from the root, be all 
permitted to grow. A small portion of the crop should 
be reserved lor seed, and permitted to stand until fully ma- 
tured :uid dry. Ii would be well to limit the canes in the 
seed patch to one. By all permit no Broom- Corn, 
Dournh-Cnrv, or other, plants of the same fam.ily to grow 
near your Cane. It readily intermixes with these varie- 
ties, and effectually ruins your seed for the production of 
syrup. For the same reason, great care should be observ- 
ed in procuring reliable seed, as well as in keeping 
them so. 
After the first season, when a full supply of seed shall 
have been secured, a better-paying syrup crop maybe 
grown, by closer planting. The space between the rows 
may well be narrowed down to three feet, and the seed 
put in, say two or three every six inches. When well 
up, the stoutest and healthiest plants should alone be al- 
lowed to stand. The cane, when very young, presents so 
much the appearance of grass, that an advantage may 
perhaps be gained, by dropping some other seed with the 
cane that the latter may be more readily distinguished. 
mises to be more valuable than any other article we can | 
grow for provender. I believe it will produced or 8 tons of j 
dried provender to the acre." The present writer has met ' 
many intelligent and enterprising farmers of Pennsylvania, | 
Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and New York, in at- I 
tendance at the late National Fair at Philadelphia. Manv ' 
of them had witnessed its growth in their respective States j 
with entire success. One gentleman of New Jersey had j 
grown a half acre of the cane this season. It has been j 
successfully grown in Illinois also, and one gallon of tbe 
juice is said to have yielded, by boiling, u cpiart of syrup , 
of good equality. There is every reason to conclude that I 
the cane may be easily and successfully grown in all parts I 
of our country. j 
CULTURE. I 
While the seed remains in the hands of the few, and ^ 
commands a price too high to permit a waste, it should be | 
planted for one season with good distance, that the seed 1 
crop as well as the cane may attain their highest state of : 
development, I would recommend that the ro’ws should ^ 
be three or even four feet apart, and a distance of, say ‘wo , 
This, of course, should be drawn out with the superfluen’ 
cane pi uits. When of sufficient size, the plants should be 
suckered down to one cane for each root. In other re- 
spects, the successful grower of corn will not be at a loss 
in the cultivation of this plant. I have found a suitable 
time for planting to be immediately after the corn crop, 
although excellent results have been obtained by planting 
as late as the 15th of May, in Cherokee Georgia, It will 
doubtless be desirable to make several successive plant- 
ings that they may mature gradually, and so give more 
time for harvesting the crop. The land, in my opinion, 
should be prepared in all respects as for corn. 
HAKVESTrN'G. 
When the stalk shall have attained its full size, and the 
seed have passed from the dough stage to a harder texture, 
the cane may be considered sufficiently mature. Or if the 
crop be large, and a deficiency of hands be apprehended, 
the cane may be cut earlier, and the cuttings continued 
from time to time as needed for the press The fodder 
should he pulled as for torn ; another set of hands cutting 
off I to 2 feet of tbe .top with the seed, while others cut 
