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Planter vincing the owners, by instinctive argument, that shade ship. is almost as necessary to the well-being of the brute creatures as food. Yet, notwithstanding that demonstration from the unerring course of nature, throughout all our islands (except in a very few instances), these poor creatures are exposed to the scorching sun-beams without mercy. Such inhuman neglect is not always so much the effect of inattention as of a mistaken notion that sheds are impedimental to the making of much dung; but a flat shed, covered with cane-trash, may be so made as to let rain pass through it without admission of sun-beams. This will do for cattle; but mules, which are spirited creatures, and work themselves by draught into a foaming heat, should be put into a warm stable, until quite cool for turning them loose to pasture when so hot, is probably the cause of their destruction by the glanders.

If the care of providing shade for brute creatures is so much the duty and interest of their owners, how much more is it agreeable to the laws of humanity to provide shade for human creatures travelling upon the high-roads in this hot climate? Nothing surely of so mach beauty costs so little expence as planting cocoanut or spreading timber trees in avenues along the highways, if each proprietor of the lands adjoining hath any taste of elegance, or feeling for other men: but both those kinds of trees will yield also great profit to the proprietor, by furnishing him with timber, when perhaps not otherwise to be had; or with a delicious milk, fitted by nature to cool the effervescence of the blood in this hot region; and also to improve the spirits made from sugar to the delicacy and softness of arrack. Cocoa-nut and cabbage trees are both very beautiful and shady, bearing round beads of great expansion, upon natural trunks or pillars of elegant proportion, and of such a height as to furnish a large shade, with a free circulation of air equally refreshing to man and beast.

The common objection of injury to canes by the roots of such trees growing on their borders, may be easily removed by digging a small trench between the canes and trees, which may intercept their roots, and oblige them to seek sustenance in the common road. Let it also be considered, besides the benefits above suggested, that the planter will thus beautify his estate to the resemblance of a most sumptuous garden. And probably that very beauty might not only render the islands more healthful to the inhabitants, by preserving them from fevers kindled by the burning sun-beams, but also much more fruitful, by making the weather more seasonable for as, by cutting down all its wood, a hot country becomes more subject to excessive droughts; so, by replanting it in the manner above described, this inconvenience would probably be prevented.

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Let then the planter be kind not only to his fellowcreatures, but merciful to his beasts; giving them plenty and variety of wholesome food, clear water, cool shade, and a clean bed, bleeding them after a long course of

hard labour, currying their hides from filth and ticks (A); Planter affording them salt and other physic when necessary; p protecting them from the flaying rope-lashes of a cruel driver (who needs no other instrument than a goad); proportioning their labour to their strength; and by every art rendering their work as easy as possible. The general management of planters is not, perhaps, more defective in any other respect than in this: for, by pairing the cattle unequally, and by the drivers ill conduct in writhing to the right and left, the poor creatures are fatigued by much needless labour. A horse ought therefore to be harnessed before them as a leader. This docile creature, by being led in a straight line, will soon learn to be an unerring guide, and the cattle will follow in the same direction with united strength, and consequently with more effect and less fatigue to each individual.

The Portuguese of Madeira, by their poverty and scantiness of pasture, breed the smallest kind of cattle; and yet one yoke of them will draw a much greater weight than a pair of our largest oxen, solely by an equal exertion of their joint strength. That equality or evenness of draught is preserved by boring gimblet holes through their horns, within two inches of the points, and running a thong of leather, through those holes, so as to tie the horns of each pair at six inches distance from each other. By this ligature the pair of cattle are absolutely bindered from turning different ways, and draw in an even direction with united force. Thus it appears evidently from reason, as well as from experience, that the labour of our beasts may, by a little contrivance, be rendered more easy and effectual.

Of the Culture of various Soils.] In the British sugarcolonies there is as great a variety of soils as in any country of Europe; some naturally very rich or fruitful, yielding a luxuriant product with little labour or culture. This fruitful soil is of three kinds: a loose hazel mould mixed with sand, like that of St Christopher's, and is the best in the known world for producing sugar in great quantity, and of the best quality. The brick mould of Jamaica is somewhat of the same nature, and next in value; and then the various mixtures of mould and gravel, to be found in veins or plats over all the other islands. When any of these soils are exhausted of their fertility by long and injudicious culture, they may be restored by any kind of dung well rotted; for these (B) warm soils cannot bear hot unrotten dung, without being laid fallow for a considerable time after it. Another improvement is by seasand or sea-weed; or by digging in the cane-trash into steep lands, and by letting it lie to rot for some months. A third method is, by ploughing and laying it fallow; and the fourth method (the best of all), is by folding the fallows by sheep. But this can be practised only where there are extensive pastures; nor can the plough be employed where the soil abounds with large stones. In that case, however, the former method of digging in trash

(A) One pound of native sulphur, a quart of lamp-oil, and the like quantity of hog's-lard, intimately mixed and made into an ointment, is a cure for the mange, lice, &c.

(B) These soils, which are naturally loose and upon marle, Mr Martin calls hot soils; and these, he says, have been much injured in some of the islands by dung hastily made with marle; but if the sediment of lees were thrown into these pens, after being turned over, it would much improve the dung.

Planter- trash will be nearly as effectual, though more expensive, ship. by hand-labour or hoe-ploughing.

The next best soil for producing good sugar is a mould upon clay, which if shallow requires much culture and good labour, or its produce will be small in quantity, though of a strong grain and bright colour, so as to yield most profit to the refiner of any sugar, except that produced from an hazel or gravelly soil, as before mentioned. All the black mould soils upon marle are generally fruitful, and will take any kind of dung; but yield not so strong or large-grained sugar. Marle, however, of a white, yellow, or blue colour, or rich mould from washes, or ashes of every kind, are excellent for every strong soil, as the chief ingredient in the compost of dung: either of them will do alone for stiff lands; but the yellow and chocolate marle are the most soapy, and the richest kind of manure (except fine mould) for all stiff lands. If these are well opened, pulverized by culture, and mixed with hot dung, or any kind of loose earth or marle, they will produce as plentifully as lighter soils; and all kinds of clay-soils, except that of a white colour, have these two advantages above the finest gravel soils, that they do not scorch soon by dry weather; and never grow weary of the same manure, as most other soils do.

The extraordinary hand-labour bestowed in making dung, may be saved by the art of caving, now in general use in England. Ten mules or horses, and two light tumbrels with broad wheels, and ten able negroes, may, by the common use of spades, shovels, and light mattocks or grubbing hoes, make more dung than 60 able negroes can do in the present methods.

If marl lies upon rising grounds, or in hillocks, as it often does, the pit is to be opened at the foot of the declivity; which being dug inwards, till the bank is three feet high, then it is to be caved thus. Dig an hollow space of 12 or 18 inches deep under the foot of the bank; then dig into each side of it another perpendicular cut of the same depth, and 18 inches wide from the top of the bank to the bottom: that being finished, make a small trench a foot or two from the brink of the bank; pour into it water till full; and when that is done, fill it again, till the water soaking downward makes the marle separate and fall down all at once. This may be repeated till the pit rises to 50 feet high; and then many hundreds of cart-loads of marle may be thrown down by four negroes in two hours; from whence it may be carted into cattle pens, or laid out upon lands, as occasion requires. Five or six negroes with spades or shovels will keep two or three tumbrels employed according to the distance of cartage: and thus as much dung may be made by ten negro men as will dung richly at least 70 or 80 acres of land every year, and laid out also with the assistance of cattle-carts: An improvement highly worthy every planter's consideration, when negroes and feeding them are so expensive; and this is no speculation, but has been confirmed by practice. In level lands, the same operation may be as effectual, provided the mouth of the pit be opened by gradual descent to any depth: but when marle is to be found on the sides of hills, the operation is less laborious for the horses. But if the surface of the marle-pits (as it often happens) be covered with clay or stiff soil, so that the water cannot quickly soak from the trench above; in that case, pieces of hard wood, made like

piles, four feet long, and four inches square, pointed at Planterone end, and secured at the other square head by an iron ship. clamp, may be driven by heavy mauls into the trench, as so many wedges, which will make the caved part tumble down: but a skilful eye must watch the last operation, or the labourers may be buried or hurt.

But then clay soils that are level, and subject to be drowned, or to retain water in stagnated pools, can never be made fruitful by any kind of manure, without being first well drained: for water lying upon any soil will most certainly transform it to a stiff unfruitful clay; as appears evidently by the bogs of Ireland, the fens of Lincoln and Cambridgeshire, and even by the ponds of Barbadoes situated in the deepest and lightest black mould; for that fine soil being washed into those ponds, becomes the stiffest black clay, not fit even for an ingredient in dung, until it has been laid dry, and exposed to the sun for a whole year: but when these bogs and fens are well drained, they become the most fruitful soils, Natural clay the celebrated Boerhaave thinks the fattest of all soils; but then it must be opened by culture, marle, or sandy manures. It is hard to conjecture how the opinion prevailed in the British plantations, that sandy gut mould was most unfit for clay-soils, as being the means of binding them to the compactness of brick; whereas it is proved, from long experience, to be one of the best means of opening clay soils, and rendering them abundantly fruitful. Brick is made of clay alone; no sand being used in it, farther than to sprinkle the board, on which it is moulded into shape. From repeated experience it appears, that a mixture of sand in gut-mould is the best of all manure for stiff and barren clay-lands; provided they be well drained, by throwing the whole soil into round ridges of 12 feet wide, with furrows of three feet wide between each ridge. And this is done with little more hand-labour than that of hoe-ploughing well in the common way. For if a piece of land be marked in lines at seven feet and a half distance from each other, and the labourers are set in to hoe-plough at the second line, hauling back each clod 12 inches; half the ridge, and near half the furrow, is made at the same time: and thus a piece of land may be round-ridged, and the furrows all made at once, by the common operation of hoe-ploughing, provided the digger drives his hoe up to the eye at every stroke. Hoeploughing in clay soils that have lain long under water, is indeed hard labour; but it will every year grow the lighter by being well drained by round-ridging and in the meanwhile the labour may be rendered much more easy by the plough conducted by the lines above described. As therefore sandy mould is the best manure for stiff clay, so, by parity of reason, confirmed by long experience, stiff clay is the best manure for sandy or chaffy soils.

The method of round ridging before described, is, by several years experience, found the most essential improvement of flat clayey soils: and yet there are some who will prefer speculation to ocular demonstration, fancying that all kinds of ridges will carry off the mould in heavy rains. The fact is otherwise in clay soils: and plain reason, without experience, vouches, that where great confluxes of water are divided into many small rills, the force is broken; and therefore less mould carried off the land. Another objection made to round ridgeing, is that by digging much clay to form the sides of

the

ship.

is the best manure for all kinds of light soils, and is of Flinter. all others the least expensive, as not requiring hand-la- ship. bour. But the use of the fold is impracticable in any island not abounding with large savannas or sheep pastures, as in Jamaica.

Planter the ridge, the soil is impoverished: but this objection stands good only against those ridges which are raised too high, and made too broad; but if land is ridged in the manner before directed, that is, 12 feet broad, and not above six or eight inches higher in the middle than at the sides, the objection vanishes. Ridges were never proposed for light soils or steep lands; and even in flat soils upon loam they should be made with great caution, because loam melts away by water. But there are poachy lands of a white clay, even upon small descents, too fetentive of water; these may certainly be improved much by ridges of 12 feet wide, as above described, without fear of washes.

But supposing, as the objection urges, that a little clay should be turned up at the sides of such ridges, can it not be manured somewhat more than the other parts with marle or sandy mould, so as to become equally good with any other part of the soil? And is not this well worth the labour, since round-ridging not only improves the soil by draining it to a surprising degree, but adds one-fifth part to the depth of the staple? And will not a ridge made a little rounding, throw off the water much better than a flat ridge?

The general maxim of not burning cane-trash (which may be called the stubble of cane-lands) upon any kind of soil is surely a great mistake; as may be evinced by observing the contrary practice of the best husbandmen in England, where buru-baiting or bastard burn-baiting is found by experience an admirable method of fertili zing cold, stiff, or clayey lands. It must indeed be a constant practice, not only for the sake of contributing to warm and divide the soil, but as the only effectual means of destroying pernicious insects, and weeds of various kinds, such as French weed, wild pease, and wild vines.

Soon after the disuse of burning trash upon our land in the islands, the blast made its first appearance with incredible devastation to revive that practice therefore seems to be the most obvious means of expelling it. It may be presumed that the disuse of burning trash was founded upon the mistaken notion of burn-baiting, which is turning up a thick sod of very dry, light, and shallow soils, and burning the whole superficies or staple to ashes. This practice the writers upon husbandry condemn universally, and very justly: for though by this practice the land will produce two or three crops more plentifully than ever, yet the soil is blown away by the wind, and the substratum being generally a hungry gravel or chalk, can never be restored to fertility by the common arts of husbandry. But surely this has no resemblance to our superficial burning of the little trash we can spare from dung: and though this method of burn-baiting light and shallow soils be justly condemned, yet the best writers recommend that very practice in cold, moist, and heavy soils, as is observed above; and long experience justifies it.

Deep mould upon clay or loam being subject to the grub-worm (c), will not take any kind of dung, till perfectly rotten, except that of the sheep-fold; which

Those soils therefore which are subject to the grub, and must be fertilized by common dung, which is a proper nest for the mother-beetle to deposite its eggs, must be well impregnated with the brine of dissolved salt, after the dung is first cut up; two large hogsheads of salt will make brine enough for a dung-pen of 50 feet

square.

This cure for the grub is a late discovery; and which has been attended with success, so far as the experi ment is made. But though it proves effectual to destroy that pernicious insect in plant-canes, it probably will not be sufficient to save rattoons, without a new application of salt in powder; because the first brine must be washed away by the time when rattoons spring

up.

The planter who would save his rattoons from the grub ought therefore to cut off the heads of his stools with sharp hoes three inches below the surface of the soil, and then strew an handful of salt round each stool, and cover it up to a level with fine mould taken from the edges.

In soils where there is no grub, and the planter wishes to have very good rattoons, let him, as soon as his canes are cut, draw all the trash from the stools into the alternate spaces, if planted in that manner; or into the furrows, if his land be round-ridged; and then cut off the head of his stools with sharp hoes, as above directed. Experience has shown the advantage of this practice, and reason demonstrates the great benefit of the rattoonsprouts rising from three inches below the surface, instead of superficial shoots which come to nothing, and only starve the strong sprouts. Besides, the stubs which are left upon the stools after the canes are cut, canker, and rot the stools; which is one reason why good rattoons are uncommon in soils long cultivated. Yet it is the opinion of some, that by hoe-ploughing and even dunging rattoons, the produce might be as good plantcanes, which would save the labour of holing and planting so often as planters commonly do.

Fallowing is of incredible advantage to every soil, not only by being divided into the minutest parts, but also by imbibing those vegetative powers with which the air is impregnated by the bountiful hand of Providence, whenever rain falls. What those powers are has been explained under the articles AGRICULTURE and PLANT; and experience evinces, that the tender vegetables of the earth are invigorated more by the smallest shower of rain, than by all the water which human art can bestow. Let it therefore be a constant maxim of the planter, never to plant his ground until the soil is well mellowed by fallowing, even though he bestows upon it a due proportion of dung: we say a due proportion; for too much will force up rank canes, which never yield good sugar; and though some advantage may be reaped from the rat

toons,

(c) This pernicious insect is most apt to engender in dung made from mill-trash, which therefore never ought to be put into dung compost or still ponds; but after being burnt, the ashes will be as good as any other kind. Round-ridging, with manure of unwet ashes, sea-sand, or lime, or dry marle, kills the grub.

Planter toons, yet it will be found by experience not to comship. pensate the loss by the plants. In stony or steep soils, where the plough cannot be used, or where a sufficient strength of cattle cannot be supported for that purpose, hand-labour or hoe-ploughing must be substituted: but even in that case, much labour may be saved by spreading the dung according to the English husbandry, and digging it into the soil. To evince this truth, let any planter compute his negroes labour of distributing dung by baskets, and by spreading it with dung-forks; and then judge for himself by one single experiment which is the most profitable.

But if some planters are so devoted to the old custom of distributing dung by baskets instead of wheel-barrows in level ground, or hand-barrows in uneven land, by which three times the labour may be accomplished in the same time and by the same hands; let them at least save much of their hand-labour, by the following method of laying out dung, before the distribution by baskets.

In holing a piece of land, let a space be left after 80 holes from the first interval, and then the like space after 80 holes throughout the whole plat, which spaces must run exactly parallel to the intervals on the right and left of the holes. Into these spaces the dung may be carted, even before it be rotten (D), at the most leisure times, and covered with mould or cane-trash, to prevent exhalation; and in such quantity as will suffice only to dung a row of 40 holes, from the point opposite to each side of it. In the intervals at each side of the canepiece, which are parallel to those spaces, there must be dung enough carted to manure a row of 40 holes, and covered in like manner.

By thus placing the dung or gut-mould, it is evident at the first sight, that the farthest distance cannot be above 40 holes in distributing the dung: and in case it be not sufficiently rotten for present use, it may be distributed even in dry weather, and covered by the bank; which will both prevent its spirit from exhalation, and occasion it to rot sooner, which is no small advantage. Moreover, by being thus laid out at the most leisure times, and covered with the banks, the dung will be more intimately mixed with the soil, and therefore continue to nourish the plant for a longer time than if laid as usual at the bottom of the holes. A farther advantage of thus distributing the dung, and covering it, results from the more expeditious planting the land after a short or sudden shower: for the labour of covering the dung, and uncovering it when the land is planted, however it may appear in speculation, is in practice a trifle; and besides all the other advantages arising by the distribution of dung from the spaces above described, this is not the least, that not a bank is trodden under foot. But it is evident, that by distributing the dung with baskets in the present method, the soil is much trampled

under foot; and by that means, the very end of hoe- Planter ploughing, or loosening the soil, is much defeated. In ship like manner, by the present method of hoe-ploughing, the same ill effect is produced; for as the negroes hoeplough or dig the soil directly forward, so they must necessarily tread the ground as fast as they dig it: whereas by putting the labourers to dig sidewise, no one puts a foot upon the soil after it is dug; and by lining the land before it is hoe-ploughed, each negro may have an equal share to dig. The only difficulty of hoeploughing sidewise is in first setting the negroes to that work; but it may be done without loss of time when working in a contiguous field. Whether hoe-ploughing before or after the land be holed for canes is most eligible, experience must determine; but certainly both operations will be most effectual: and therefore it will be advisable (E), first to plough the soil where the land will admit the plough; and where it will not, to hoeplough it with or without dung, as requisite; then let it lie fallow till perfectly mellowed; then hole and plant it; and instead of weeding in the usual manner, let the weeds in all the spaces be dug into the soil: but as this is not to be done so well with the hoe, it is submitted to future experience, whether the dexterous use of spades, as in England, will not answer the purpose much better, and with equal dispatch. But whatever method is preferred, most certain it is, that by loosening the soil in all the spaces between the young canes after being come up, their fibres will more easily expand on every side, and acquire more nutrition to invigorate their growth. But where the planter grudges this labour, by thinking it needless in a rich loose soil, he may dispatch more weeding-work by the Dutch hoe than by any other; which being fastened upon the end of a stick, is pushed forward under the roots of the small weeds, in such a manner as to cut them up a little below the surface of the soil, and will do more execution at one shove than can be done at three strokes of the common hoe; but there is yet another practice of the horse-hoe plough, whereby all weeds growing in rows between beans and pease, are extirpated with incredible ease and expedi tion. It is a very simple machine, drawn by one or two horses, consisting of a pair of low wheels turning upon a common axis; from whence two square irons are let down at equal distances, and triangular hoes made at the ends, the points of the triangles being placed forward, and so fixed as to cut all weeds an inch below the surface, in the same manner as the Dutch garden-hoe above-mentioned. By this machine a man and a boy, with two horses or mules, will clear perfectly all the spaces of a field of ten acres in two days, and may be of admirable use in all loose and dry soils in the sugarislands: for while two horses or mules draw in the space before each other, the wheels pass on the outside of each row of canes, without doing the least injury, while the plough

(D) In order to make dung rot the sooner, much labour is bestowed in digging and turning it over by hoes: but two-thirds of that labour may be saved by the use of hay-knives; six of which, used dexterously, will cut up a pen in less time than 65 negroes can do by hoes: but hay knives cannot be used where gritty mould is employed in pens.

(E) Deep and loose soils may be ploughed with a small strength of cattle or mules: but stiff lands in hot climates require more strength of cattle than can be maintained in the small pastures of the planters; for if those strong soils are either too wet or too dry (as is generally the case), ploughing is impracticable. 4 I

VOL. XVI. Part II.

canes.

Planter plough-holder attends to his business. In stiff soils ship. which require draining, neither the horse-hoe plough nor the Dutch hoe can be proper; or any other instrument so effectual as the spade used in the manner above hinted, where the staple is deep.

But where the staple of land is shallow, care must be taken not to dig much below it, according to the unversal opinion of all the best writers, supported by the experience of 100 years. Yet some good planters are fallen into the contrary practice, and dig up stiff clay far below the staple. This, Mr Martin says, was done in his own lands, during his absence, by injudiciously ploughing below the staple; and so injured the soil, that all the arts of culture for many years hardly retrieved its former fertility. Indeed, where the staple is shallow, upon a fat clay, the turning up a little of it at a time, from the bottom of the cane-holes, and mixing it with rich hot dung, made of marle, or sandy mould, which may take off its cohesive quality, will in due time, and by long fallow, convert it into good soil: but if stiff clay be turned up, without any such mixture, in large quantities, it will infallibly disappoint the operator's hopes: for though solid clay will moulder, by exposure, to a seeming fine earth, yet it will return to its primitive state very soon after being wet, and covered from the external air, if not divided, as above suggested.

After all, the common horse-hoeing plough drawn by two mules in a line before each other, or the hand-hoc in common use, will answer the purpose very well, where the lands are planted in Mr Tull's method; that is, where the spaces are equal to the land planted, in the following manner.

Suppose six feet planted in two rows of canes, and six feet of land left as a space unplanted; and so a whole piece of land, planted in alternate double rows (F), with equal spaces, may be hoe-ploughed with ease, as before hinted; and that at any time during the growth of canes, when it is most convenient to the planter, which is a considerable advantage; and yet it is the least of all attending this method of culture: for, by leaving these spaces, the canes will have both more air and sun: by hoe-ploughing them, the roots of each double row will have large room for expansion, and consequently, by gaining more nutriment, will grow more luxuriantly: by these spaces the canes may be cleaned from the blast with much more ease and convenience; and will serve as proper beds to plant great corn, without the least injury to the canes; as well as to contain the trash taken off the land, where, by rotting, and being hoe-ploughed into the soil, it will wonderfully enrich it, and will fit it to be planted immediately after the canes in the neighbouring double rows are cut down. Besides all these admirable advantages of planting the land in alternate double rows with equal spaces, the canes, when at full age, may be easily stripped of their trash, and by that means the juice rendered so mature as to yield double the produce, and much better sugars than unstripped

This method of culture may be recommended Planter for all kinds of soil: for as by this practice the rank ship luxuriant canes will be more matured, so the poor soils will be rendered more fruitful; and as the roots of the canes which expand into these spaces will be kept moist by being covered with rotten trash, so they must bear dry weather much longer in the burning soils. In those low lands which require draining by furrows, the alternate double rows and spaces must be made cross the ridges; by which means those spaces, being hoe-ploughed from the centre to the sides, will be always preserved in a proper state of roundness. By this method of planting, the canes may be so well ripened as to yield double the quantity of sugar of canes planted in the close manner; which saves half the labour of cartage, half the time of grinding and boiling, and half the fuel, besides yielding finer sugar.

Yet, how well soever the method of planting in single or double alternate rows has succeeded in the loose and

stiff soils, experience has shown that it is a wrong practice in stiff lands that are thrown into round or flat ridges: for these being most apt to crack, the sun-beams penetrate soon to the cane-roots, stop their growth, and have an ill influence upon the sugar. It is therefore advisable to plant such lands full, but in large holes, of four feet, by five feet towards the banks: after the plant-canes are cut, to dig out one, and leave two rows standing, hoe-ploughing the spaces after turning all the trash into furrows till almost rotten; for if the trash is drawn upon the hoe-ploughed spaces, they will hardly ever moulder, at least not till the trash is quite rotten. This is an infallible proof from experience of how little advantage trash is to the soil, unless it be in great droughts, to keep out the intense sun-beams: for, in all other respects, it prevents that joint operation of the sun and air, in mouldering and fructifying the soil, as has been proved by repeated experiments.

But in flat stiff soils that are properly drained by round-ridging, no culture prevents cracking so effectually as hoe-ploughing into them a quantity of loose marle, of which that of a chocolate or of a yellow colour is best; and it will be still much better, by lying upon the land, in small heaps, or in caue-holes, for some time, to imbibe the vegetative powers of the air before it is intimately mixed with the soil.

As to the manner of planting canes, the general practice of allowing four feet by five to a hole, and two fresh (G) plants, is found by common experience to be right and good in alternate rows. But the following precautions are necessary to be observed. First, let all the cane-rows run east and west, that the trade-wind may pass freely through them; because air and sunshine are as conducive to the growth and maturation of sugarcanes as of any other vegetable. Secondly, let not any accession of mould be drawn into hills round the young canes, except where water stagnates (H); because the fibres which run horizontally, and near the surface, are much

(F) In stiff lands, the single alternate rows of four feet distance, as preventive of much labour in weeding, are found best; and also yield more sugar by the acre; and are less apt to be affected by drought.

(G) It is an odd fancy that stale plants grow best, when both reason and experience vouch that the most suc culent plants are best one good plant in the centre of a large hole is sufficient when the land is full holed. (H) The stagnation of water in pools (usual in stiff level lands) is the most injurious circumstance attending it;

for

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