SUGAR CANE. 
59 
world where it has been found, we shall proceed to 
the manner in which it is cultivated for commercial 
purposes, and shall conclude with the process of 
making sugar, as it is practised at present in the 
West Indies. 
The sugar cane is propagated by the top shoots, 
which are cut from the old canes ; and the following 
is the method of planting as described by Mr. Ed- 
wards. The quantity of land intended to be plant- 
ed, being cleared of weeds and other incumbrances, 
is divided into several plats of certain dimensions, 
commonly from fifteen to twenty acres each ; the 
spaces between each plat or division are left wide 
enough for roads, for the conveniency of carting, 
and are called intervals . Each plat is then sub- 
divided, by means of a line and wooden pegs, into 
small squares of about three feet and a half. The 
Negroes are then placed in a row in the first line, 
one Negro to a square, and directed to dig out with 
their hoes the several squares, commonly to the 
depth of five or six inches, the mould which is 
dug up being formed into a bank at the lower side; 
the excavation or cane hole seldom exceeds fifteen 
inches in width at the bottom, and two feet and a 
half at the top. The Negroes then fall back to the 
next line, and proceed as before. Thus the several 
squares between each line are formed into a trench 
of much the same dimensions with that which is 
made by the plough. An able Negro will dig from 
sixty to eighty of these holes for his day’s work of 
