92 HISTORY OF THE [book m . 
the field trash, (or the dried leaves and tops of the canes), in 
order to prevent the ants from making their escape to new 
quarters. The best way of doing this, I apprehend, will 
be to gather the field trash together in considerable heaps, 
and to throw the stools as soon as dug out of the ground 
into them, and immediately apply fire. By this means 
multitudes must be destroyed; for the field trash, when 
dry, burns with great rapidity. The land should then be 
ploughed, or hoe-ploughed, twice (but at least once) in the 
wettest season of the year, in order to admit the rains, be¬ 
fore it is hoed for planting the cane; by these means these 
insects, I apprehend, will be so much reduced in number, 
as at least to secure a good plant cane. 
But it is the custom in most of the West India islands to 
permit the canes to ratoon; that is, after the canes have once 
been cut down for the purpose of making sugar, they are 
suffered to grow up again without replanting ; and this ge¬ 
nerally for three or four years, but sometimes for ten, fif¬ 
teen, or twenty. In this mode of culture the stools become 
larger every year, so as to grow out of the ground to a con¬ 
siderable height, and by that means afford more and more 
shelter to the ants’ nests; therefore for two or three succes¬ 
sive crops the canes should be replanted yearly, sp as not only 
to afford as little cover as possible for the ants’ nests, but 
continually to disturb such ants as may have escaped, in the 
business of propagating their species. 
That considerable expense and labour will attend pat¬ 
ting this method into execution there is no doubt. An ex¬ 
pensive cure, however, is better than none; but from the 
genera! principles of agriculture, I am of opinion, that the 
planter will be amply repaid for his trouble by the good¬ 
ness of his crops, in consequence of the superior tilth the 
land will receive in the proposed method. 
