sengers thither, and bringing thence other commodities, whereby seamen are bred and custom increased, 
our commodities vended, and many thousands employed therein, and in refining our sugar at home, which 
we formerly had from other countries.” 
In 1670 our sugar colonies drew the means of support from what were then our North American colo- 
nies, particularly New York, Pennsylvania, and the Jerseys ; and the first time that sugar was made subject to 
taxation at home, was in 1685. Like other merchandize, it was previously subject to a five per cent. poundage 
In 1739, the importation of sugar from the West India Islands was so great, that there was a relaxation 
of our colonial policy towards tjxem ; and they were permitted to carry their sugar to any part south of Cape 
Finisterre, without being obliged to land them first in Great Britain. From this time sugar has continued 
to increase, and it is needless to pursue its history further ; it was then a great article of trade, and, as an 
ingredient, the consumption has been continually increasing. 
Leigh Hunt, in his commentaries on breakfhst in the London Journal, says, “ You may make a land- 
scape, if you will, out of your breakfast table, better than Mr. Kirk’s picture. Here where the bread stands, 
is its father, the field of corn, glowing in the sun, cut by the tawny reapers, and presenting a path for lovers. 
The village church (where they are to be married) is on a leafy slope, on one side, and on the other is a 
woody hill, with fountains. There, far over the water, (for this basin of water, with island lumps of butter 
in it, shall be a sea) are our friends the Chinese, picking the leaves of their tea trees, — a beautiful plant ; or 
the Arabs plucking the berries of the coffee tree, a still more beautiful one, with a profusion of white blos- 
soms and an odour like jessamine. For the sugar (instead of a bitterer thought, not so harmonious to our 
purpose; but not to be forgotten at due times) you may think of Waller’s Sacharissa,* so named from the 
Latin word (Saccharum) a poor compliment to the lady ; but the lady shall sweeten the sugar, instead of the 
sugar doing honour to the lady ; and she was a very knowing as well as beautiful woman, and saw farther 
into love and sweetness than the sophisticate court poet ; she would not have him, notwithstanding his 
sugary verses, but married a higher nature. 
She married a sincere, affectionate, and courageous man, Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who was 
killed four years afterwards, in a cause for which he thought himself bound to quit the arms of the woman 
he loved. Her second husband was of the Smythe family. In her old age, meeting Waller at a card 
table, Lady Sunderland asked him, in good humoured and not ungrateful recollection of his fine verses, when 
he would write any more such upon her ; to which the “ polite ” poet, either from spite or want of address, 
had the poverty of spirit to reply, e Oh madam ! when your ladyship is as young again.’ ” 
The sugar cane is always propagated from cuttings. When sown in the colonies of America, the seeds 
have never been known to vegetate ; and although there must doubtless be some country where the course 
of nature could be followed in this respect, we are not acquainted with any place in which the cultivators 
resort to the sowing of seed, in order to the propagation of the plant. The top joints are always taken for 
planting, because they are less rich in saccharine juice than the lower parts of the cane, while their power 
of vegetation is equally strong. The cane plant is possessed of the power of tillering, in a manner similar 
to that shown by wheat, although not to an equal extent. In preparing a field for planting with the cuttings 
of cane, the ground is marked out in rows three or four feet apart, and in these lines holes are dug from 
eight to twelve inches deep, and with an interval of two feet between the holes. Where the ground is level, 
larger spaces are left at certain intervals, for the facility of carting ; but there are many situations at the sides 
of steep hills where no cart can be taken, and in such cases these spaces are not required. The ripe canes 
are then conveyed to the mill in bundles on the backs of mules, or are passed down to the bottom of the 
hill through wooden spouts. 
The hoeing of a cane field is a most laborious operation when performed, as it must be, under the rays 
of a tropical sun. 
Formerly this task was always effected by hand labour, but of late years, where the nature of the ground 
will admit of the employment of a plough, that instrument has been substituted, to the mutual advantage 
of the planter and his labourers. The planting of canes does not require to be renewed armjually ; in such 
a case the utmost number of labourers now employed on a sugar plantation would be wholly inadequate to 
its performance. The most general plan is for a certain portion of the land in cultivation to be planted 
annually and in succession, the roots and stoles of the canes of the former year being left through the re- 
maining parts of the plantation. From these, fresh canes, which are called rattoons, spring up, and are 
nearly as large the first year as plant canes. Rattoon canes have a tendency to deteriorate — at least in size — 
every year they are continued, for which reason the progressive renewal of the plants is adopted. This plan 
may, however, be continued with very good effect for several years, provided the roots are furnished every 
year with a liberal supply of manure, that the ground about them is well loosened, and that all weeds are 
Sacharissa was Lady Dorothy Sidney, of the great and truly noble family of the Sidneys. 
