Cultivation of the Sugar-cane [pp. 229-237]

CULTIVATION OF THE SUGAR-CANE.
it by the cane, which is its chemical food, to be got from nothing
else in a like degree. Should there not be sufficient land, as many
say, to throw out, how much better is it to take that land, and after
a very few years have your place yielding two hogsheads per acre,
instead of seven or eight hundred, as is quite common among many
that are called old plantations. An old plantation is merely the name
for a place that should by the time that it has been established be
made a perfect manure bed; I have seen on these places scarcely
any yield, and the bagasse which by piling on one side to rot (now
thrown in the river), could, when it has rotted, in a very few years itself renew tile place by covering the cane with it, as is done now on
all the lands around some sugar houses, too near and convenient for
hauling to be thrown out; this manure is slightly covered with dirt,
and will give a good yield for two years on the oldest lands. Renewed lands will not last as long as new ground cane, and had better, if possible, be kept free from corn, setting aside some new land
farthest off for that purpose to be kept so. Stable manure though is
better than bagasse, but does not last so long; lime is good upon fat
lands, but salt is very deleterious.
Ill thus far speaking of trash, I only mean to say, that when improperly worked it is worse than useless, and when properly worked,
useful only to a degree, but (loes not do away with the absolute necessity of renewing by peas, and not working too long. The experimeat has been tried on an adjacent plantation. and it has certainly deteriorated, and a very few years wvorked without renewing will run it
down. When the former owner and excellent manager of it, my particular friend, regularly put it in peas, it was almost too rich, and his
crops were very great. I plow in all my own trash, but never leave
it beyond the second plowing, as I am an advocate for plowing all
the middles out at the second plowing, covering up the trash at the
foot of the cane early in the year; I this year found it assisted much
in the latter work of the season. Cane should never, except in perfectly new land, be obstructed in growth by grass, or weeds; and it
is impossible, unless you do plow out your middles early, to be without them.
There is much difference on the subject of wide and narrow planting among the planters-almost as much difference as exists among
physicians on fever. Cane requires two things always-first for its
growth, and then for its ripening-sun, and air. In the narrow rows
it cannot have the full benefit of these, and if there is doubt, we had
better give it the trial; I am myself more and more an advocate for
giving the cane width, both for the former reasons, and to allow the
double horse plows to work all the season, after.the first breaking up
of the larger plows, going deeper, and being also much easier for
the horses. I planted, five years ago, eighteen acres of cane, fifteen
at five feet, three at nine; I was then incredulous about this distance;
the first gave me two good crops, and then the third year was small,
almost nothing; I then threw it out, one year in peas, and this year
planted it at nine feet, bedding in the peas, as I had done the other.
The three acres I bedded, planted three canes side by side, it yielded
about twelve hundred pounds the,first year, became much thicker the
next, with very large cane, yielding fifteen hundred pounds; this is
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