24 
HISTORY OF THE [book v. 
The cane holes or trench being now completed, 
whether by the plough or by the hoe, and the cut- 
tings selected for planting, which are commonly 
the tops of the canes that have been ground for 
sugar, (each cutting containing five or six gems), 
two of them are sufficient for a cane hole of the 
dimensions described.* These being placed longi- 
It is reckoned a tolerable day’s work for forty negroes to hole an acre 
in the course of a day. In Jamaica, some gentlemen, to ease their 
own slaves, have this laborious part of the planting business perform¬ 
ed by job work. The usual price for holing and planting is from 
eight to ten pounds currency per acre. The cost of falling and clear¬ 
ing heavy wood land is common \y as much more. 
* Tt is a maxim with some people to plant thin on poor lands, and 
thick in rich; but it is a maxim founded in error. They suppose that 
the richer the soil is, the greater number of plants it will maintain; 
which is true enough; but they forget that the plant itself will, in 
such soils, put forth shoots in abundance; most of which, if the lands 
are not over planted, will come to perfection ; whereas from thick 
planting in rich mould the shoots choke and destroy each other. On 
the other hand, in soils where the canes will not stock (viz. put out 
fresh shoots), the overseer must supply the greater number of plants 
in the first instance, cr the produce will be little or nothing. To 
what has been said in the text concerning the method of holing, it 
may not be improper to add the following particularsA square 
acre contains 43,560 feet; therefore, to know the exact number of 
holes which an acre will admit, the rule is, to multiply the length of 
each hole by the breadth, as thus: Suppose you line four feet one 
way, and three feet the other, then four multiplied by three, makes 
twelve square feet, and 43,560 divided by 12, gives 3630 holes. 
These are large holes, and if the land is dry and stiff, an able negro 
will not be able to dig more than sixty such m his day’s work. It 
will require, therefore, in such land, just 60 negroes to hole an acre in 
