3 * 
HISTORY OF THE [book v. 
What has hitherto been said, however, relates 
solely to the method of preparing lands for plant- 
canes. Those who trust chiefly to ratoons , find it as 
necessaary to give their cane-fields attention and 
assistance from the time the canes are cut, as it 
was before they were planted. It is the advice 
of colonel Martin, so soon as the canes are carried 
to the mill, to cut off by a sharp hoe, all the heads 
of the cane-stools, three inches below the surface of 
the soil , and then fill up the hole with fine mould; 
by which means, he thinks, that all the sprouts 
rising from below, will derive more nutriment, 
and grow more equally and vigorously than other¬ 
wise. X know not that this advice is adopted in 
any of the sugar islands. It is the practice, how¬ 
ever, in many parts of Jamaica, to spread baskets 
full of dung: round the stools, so soon after the 
canes have been cut as circumstances will admit, 
and the ground has been refreshed by rains: In 
dry and scorching weather it would be labour lost. 
The young sprouts are, at the same time, cleared 
of weeds; and the dung which is spread round 
them being covered with cane-trash that its vir¬ 
tues may not be exhaled by the sun, is found at 
cane-hole ; so that by knowing the number of holes in an acre of land, 
and the number of square feet in a dung-heap, the manure may be pro¬ 
portioned to the ground. Nothing is more easy than to ascertain the 
number of square feet in a dung-heap. Multiply the length by the 
breadth, and the produce by the height. Titus, 30 feet the length, mul¬ 
tiplied by 30 feet the breadth, is 900 feet, which being again multipli¬ 
ed by four feet the height, gives 3600 feet, the full contents. This ex¬ 
planation is added for the use of the plain practical planter, who perhaps 
has had no great opportunity of studying arithmetical calculation. 
