the plants by means of manures rich in azotized substances, dried blood and flesh, the residues of fisheries, spoiled codfish, &c.

To avoid the employment of manures capable of adding an excess of different salts beyond the proportions useful for the development of the canes.

colonial industry; they will allow an increase of the real value of the products, and a diminution of the cost of packing and transportation they will avoid, finally, the alterations which fermentations in impure and moist sugars occasion while in transitu. It is evident, likewise, that administrative measures of a nature to encourage the production of the purest sugar would be useful in reference to the impost, applicable from that time to a greater and more stable value: they would have the effect of hastening the progress of metropolitan and colonial industry, of soon rendering the production more economical, and of developing the consumption of sugar, as yet behindhand with us. The principles on which all these im

Manufacture. In the first rank, it is necessary to place the means of extracting a greater quantity of juice, to carry this quantity from fifty to sixty per cent., which is obtained, to seventy five or eighty, which could be obtained. The use of a second mill, with the injection of vapor or streams of boiling water, would give this result, according to practical experiments made in the colonies by M. Derosne, which we concerted together. In all cases, the most necessary condition of success would be to avoid all delay in the operations, to accelerate even the extraction of the juice, and the elevation of the temperature above the point where fermentation can take place.

We should obtain a very desirable rapidity also in the evaporations, by using the evaporating apparatus perfected in France, and applied with success in the manufactories of beet sugar (especially those of MM. Derosne & Cail, Pecqueur, Gaspard, Tamisier, Claes, &c.) Perhaps it would be well, in order to render the general introduction into the colonies rapid, to carry there, in the first place, the most simple and least costly apparatus.

The rapid extraction of the juice and evaporation are, it is true, subordinate to the resources of fuel in certain localities, which cannot receive importations of coal, and have no other combustible than bagasse.

It would be very useful to render general the use of bone-black, and the processes of revivification, in order to obtain purer and more abundant products of crystallized sugar, and to be able to render profitable a greater mass of the useful residues as manures.

The new processes of methodical purification and rapid drainage by centrifugal force; finally, the drying of crystallized sugars, offer a useful complement to the improvements which may be realized in our

testible. Their application would demand, without doubt, serious studies in each one of the localities which would present peculiar circumstances; but a similar study, undertaken by competent men, would be neither very long nor difficult at the present day.

The

SUGAR-CANE CULTURE.-CULTURE oF THE SUGAR-CANE AS FOLLOWED ON SOME oF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL ESTATES.-The first operation is to clear the main drains and the cross ditches leading to them, so as to arrive at as complete a draining of the field as the localities will permit. This is a work of the utmost importance; indeed, when judiciously attended, the soil of Louisiana will be found as favorable to the sugarcane as that of any part of the world. ground is then cleared of all trash remaining on it at the close of each grinding, and the whole is bedded in a trench opened for that purpose between the rows of such of the stubbles whose soil requires renovation; by so working, the nutriment absorbed by the cane prepared for the mill is returned to the soit, and the bedded leaves and trash serve for the planting of the following crop, whilst in the mean time giving porosity to the soil and facilitating percolation for the grow ing stubbles. Fields thus worked are found to gain in fertility by cultivation, mstead of losing, as is always the case when the ground is left without repose, and the trash is burned.

The field being in a fit state for the plow, the ground intended for the plant-cane is opened as deeply as possible, each plow being drawn by a team of four heavy mules; then wide, clean furrows, by a double plow called the fluck, are opened eight feet apart, and according to the quality of the soil, from two to four canes are placed in each furrow and lapped the whole length, and are immediately covered with fine earth; on a wellmanaged estate, this work should be completed at latest by the first of March. Im

mediately after which begins the second operation, to wit: the barring off the stubbles or rattoons, and the cultivation of the field including corn and other provisions; barring off consists in running as near as possible each side of the stubble, a plow so shaped as to throw off the earth from the stubbles, then the stubbles are shaved close to the mother plant by a very sharp instrument worked by a horse, and very rapidly and in such a manner as to leave on the plant, if possible, only from a half to one inch at most of earth. And now begins the plowing between the rows of canes, plants and stubbles, to put down the grass, to loosen the soil and to forward vegetation; for this purpose, and for a field of six hundred acres of cane and two hundred acres of corn, thirteen two-horse plows are amply sufficient, provided the teams can be changed twice a day; three hands follow each plow with their hoes to clear the grass where the plow cannot do it, and to clean the cross ditches; this working is continued until the canes are sufficiently forward to be earthed, when the fine soil between the rows is gradually brought from their centre to the foot of the plant, thereby turning the row into as many ridges, and the space between them into as many drains, sloping about one foot from the top of the ridges to the bottom, and emptying themselves in the cross drains, which in their turn run into the main drains made of sufficient capacity to carry rapidly any quantity of water that may fall during the most rainy season. So soon as this work is completed which should not be later than the 15th of June, a subsoil is run three times between each row, and to the depth of one foot; this is done very rapidly where the instrument is sharp and well shaped, and drawn by two strong mules, and adds considerably to the porosity of the soil.

The canes thus brought to this stage require no more cultivation; they soon form a beautiful arch, smother the grass below, and shoot gradually their saccharine matter above from cell to cell of a tubular form, until the beginning of October, when commences the cutting, the matressing, the grinding, and the boiling of the cane into sugar.

That this mode of cultivation, compared to the routine of three-fourths of our planters, may be well understood, the following dialogue is introduced:

Dialogue between a Planter of the Old, and a Planter of the New and Progressive School of Husbandry-1st Planter:-How is it, neighbor, that with the same number of working hands your crop of sugar is secured when mine is hardly half through, and that your crops are regular, and generally double of mine!

2nd Planter :-The reason is very simple.

We have, it is true, the same number of hands, but you rely chiefly upon them for your field work, whilst besides mine, I employ mules wherever they can do the same work; the consequence is, that my working power is really greater than yours, as you perceive as we go on.

My teams forming an essential part of my working power, I take special care of them, and never overwork them. I employ 60 strong, well-fed mules; you have only 30 mules and horses, that you overwork and feed badly, whereby they are soon made unequal to the task; they should perform it in good order. The consequence is, that your work is badly done, and that you lose half of your teams every year, whilst I seldom lose any of mine

Drainage is the life of vegetation; my field is completely drained, yours is not, and thus it is that your soil is stiff and clammy, whilst mine is the reverse. It is true that you employ your own negroes to open a few narrow ditches, without issue when they are full, whilst I employ Irishmen to open main drains so that my lesser drains may always find a rapid issue. This, however, I do not consider an expense, but a capital at compound interest which I place upon my estate.

My soil being made deep and porous by drainage, and yours being the reverse for want of it, gives me a very great advantage over you in a rainy season, or during a drought. In a rainy season all surplus water is rapidly carried away from the surface of my field by percolation, so that a few hours after the heaviest rain, my plows are seen at work; in your stiff and clammy land, on the contrary, your field remains under water, it being deprived of surface draining by percolation, and your plows are seen at a stand for days together when most wanted to command the grass smothering your plants, whereby you lose your crop. Again, our summer sun is death to the plant under surface water, whilst highly favorable to that freed from it.

During a drought, in my deep and porous soil, the sun by attraction supplies my plants with moisture, to meet which they send their roots deep in the soil, which is favorable to the production of saccharine matter. In your field, on the contrary, the sun having no action beyond its surface, bakes the land, and starves your plants, whose roots cannot penetrate below. For purposes of reproduction the best and most perfect seed are used. This I invariably do; you do the reverse, by keeping for plants your worst canes.

My first operation, in beginning the agricultural year, is to clear my drains, so as to prepare my ground for the plow, and to clear my field of leaves and tops by bedding

the trash in furrows between the stubbles, that nutritious power taken from the soil by the cane ground, be returned to it by the leaves and tops thus bedded, production and renovation being found thereby to keep in perfect equilibrium, and rendering unnecessary the laying by of a large portion of the field for purposes of renovation, by a change of cultivation or otherwise, as was lately the general practice.

Your first operation, on the contrary, is to burn your trash, thereby destroying the best manure that can be used for renovation of the soil and production, and then, before cleaning your ditches, you commence plowing and planting. The consequence is, that when the season is wet, your ground, being saturated with water, becomes stiff and clammy; that your plows move in it with the greatest difficulty, and at best only scrapes it, and that your canes are bedded in mud or earth as hard as brickbats, according to the weather-all things destructive of good vegetation; whilst my field being completely drained before I begin plowing, my teams of four stout and well-fed mules walk over it rapidly, leaving behind them as deep a furrow as needed, and the ground, thus loosened at a proper depth, being ever relieved by my drains of all surplus water, retains a porosity which affords to my canes a dry bed and a cover of fine soil, whereby life is secured to almost every eye of the plant; and then again your land being stiff and clammy for want of draining, and mine not, my planting is completed before yours is half done.

I plant my canes eight feet apart, and according to the quality of the land; I place from two to four canes in each furrow, lapping the same the whole length.

There being plenty of room between my rows of cane, I work two-horse plows with ease, and without disturbing the young plants shooting out, or the fibres forming in the deep soil prepared, all which is of great importance, for the moment the young roots are disturbed, the plants turn yellow and their growth is suddenly checked, and so remain until new fibres restore them again to a healthy condition, which seldom takes place in less than a fortnight; thereby throwing back the growth and maturity of the cane a fortnight and more. Thirteen two-horse plows and a double set of mules, so as o change them once a day, and three hands to each plow to clear the grass where the plow cannot act, suffice to keep in the very best order my six hundred acres of cane and two hundred acres of corn, (whilst preparing fine soil to earth my plants when needed,) to clear my cross ditches of grass and earth thrown in them by the plow, and to open each furrow into the cross ditches, so that in heavy rains the water not absorbed by percolation may be

rapidly carried to my cross and main drains, &c., &c.

By 15th June my canes are sufficiently forward to leave them to themselves, when the fine soil prepared by the plow between the two rows is rapidly carried to the foot of the cane so as to form a ridge of about one foot, descending gradually to the centre of each row, thereby forming a drain, through which I run three times a subsoil to the depth of about one foot, the whole finding an issue for any surplus water in the crossditches. By the middle of June, my field requires no more care, and then begins woodchopping by the men, and brick-making, road-making, or some other light work, by the women and weak hands.

You, on the contrary, plant your canes five to six feet apart, and, be the condition of your land what it may, you only put two canes in each furrow, lapping the same.

My furrows containing one half more canes than yours, and my ground being better prepared, I obtain a much larger number of mother plants in each row; and then I do not disturb them whilst forming their roots, my plows having plenty of room to work down the grass, and to prepare soil for them when ready to receive it.

The reverse is the case with you: you cannot work your plow in your narrow rows without destroying more or less of your plants, or disturbing their tender roots, whereby their growth is immediately checked, the plants turning yellow, as before said, to their great injury.

Want of space compels you to use only one horse, whilst I use two mules to each plow; the consequence is, that with exactly the same number of plowmen, I perform double the work you do, and that the grass in my field is rooted out and destroyed, whilst in yours it is seen growing up nearly as fast as cut. Unable to overcome the grass with your plows, the whole of your gang of negroes is seen constantly employed with their hoes helping the plows, and it requires unusually favorable weather to enable you to lay by, by close of July, such canes as you can bring forward, thereby throwing back their maturity, and your wood-chopping, fully one month and more, and bringing your grinding to the most critical period of the year.

And when the cane is laid by to shoot up its tubular cells and to form its saccharine matter, it requires both air and sun, neither of which yours can have in your narrow rows, and hence the want of maturity of your canes when mine are fully ready for the boiling-house. Thus it is:

That my canes having good drainage, plenty of room for air and sun, and good plowing, neither of which yours have, grow faster and larger, and mature sooner,

whilst I obtain more mother plants and less shoots in my twenty-two rows per acre than in your thirty or thirty-six rows.

That my negroes are chopping wood in the forest, making bricks, preparing the sugar house, &c., &c., whilst yours are sweating among your canes, and catching cold and fever on issuing out of the crowded leaves. That my canes are laid by a month earlier than yours, and even more, which gives me an advantage over you of one month in the maturity of my canes, which is all important, for, when the winter is early, the ripe cane can bear a very heavy frost, and be cut and preserved one month and more, whilst a green cane, whether cut down or not, is destroyed by the first heavy frost.

That whilst I carry canes to the mill, averaging five to six feet high, yours seldom average more than three to four feet.

That my wood-chopping is completed when you begin yours, whereby my fuel for boiling is dry before used, which is a very great advantage, both for the rapidity and quality of granulation, whilst yours is green. That my hay and provisions are secured when you begin to take in yours, whereby you are very often deficient in your stock of hay, by not being ready for it, when it is ready for you, and your poor animals suffer for want of dry food at the very time they

most want it.

comes with the study of the few simple truths, the basis of the laws of Nature, and which the observing mind finds beautifully written out in natural language, speaking volumes of wisdom to him who, moving through the world, trains his eye to observa-. tion, and his mind to reflection. Very many of the phenomena of nature, which to the uninformed appear prodigies, are only beautiful illustrations of fundamental knowledge, which is not an oppressive weight, but a charm that sustains the student in his labors, and enables him to add to his store every new and important fact, giving it place and relation until each acquisition successfully elevates a structure of correct proportions and increasing strength, which at last becomes a fortress of enduring knowledge. It is a common prejudice that persons possessing instruction in general laws extending over the wide field of what is termed education, have had their attention too much divided, aud can know nothing perfectly; but the very reverse is true, for general knowledge renders all particular knowledge more clear and precise, and is a foundation already laid, to be built upon at any angle. The ignorant man may be said to have charged his hundred books of knowledge with single objects, while the informed man makes each support a long chain, to which thousands of useful things are attached. The laws which govern nature in all her works are to us keys, which, properly applied, give free admission to the mysteries of her palaces and gardens, are the wards of her magic power, which unveil the face of the universe, and disclose endless charms, of which ignorance never dreams. A man reading a thousand volumes of ordinary books, as agreeable pastime, will receive only vague impressions, but he who studies the methodized book of nature, consublime history, which tells of a Creator, and verts the great universe into a simple and may worthily occupy his attention to the end things, we are too apt to overlook the very of his days. In seeking an enlarged view of objects of our search, and too late in life discover that our habits of observation are entirely general and superficial, instead of being close and particular.

Things that are seen, felt and heard; that is, which operate on the external senses, leave on the memory much stronger, and more correct impressions, than where the conceptions are produced merely by verbal description, however vivid; and an author of readers and critics say: an essay or a volume may often hear his he has written

But

take a philanthropic view of the world, will observe with pleasure that those of their fellow-travelers in life who are most generally informed and familiar with the laws which govern matter, are men most fertile in resources, more independent of others, and therefore more reliable upon themselves, and the contributions which the world at large receives from such hands, deserve a greater recompense for their more extended benefit.

The agriculturalist will esteem vegetable physiology as the highest branch of natural science, and will observe that it depends absolutely upon an exact knowledge of parts and constituents, and that any attempt to investigate the important laws of vegetable life must necessarily be abortive without a strict acquaintance with the not less important details of organization. And by this is not meant merely a general idea of external form, or a vague notion of internal anatomy, but the most precise knowledge that the nature of the subject will admit. This, in the sense of perfection in one branch, and exclusive study therein; but how much more is to be acquired for practical utility, by more general observation at first, and thus sur rounding the subject from the borders, make regular approaches toward the centre. The farmer confines his labors not solely to the production of wheat, nor the planter exclusively to the culture of the cane or the cotton plants, but each must likewise attend to his crops of corn, of hay, vegetables, etc., each governed by its peculiar laws of re-production, which must be conformed to with little deviation. Neither is vegetable life the only branch for their attention, while they have to provide the animal power to perform the labors of cultivation, and it takes not long to discover that the greater part of the phenomena of organic and inorganic life are merely chemical and physical phenomena, modified by an additional principle.

Intuitively, we learn the rotation of the seasons, and the planter adapts his labor thereto, with definitive result. The seed is not placed in the ground in mid-winter, nor a harvest expected in mid-summer. But beyond these things, which are only the routine of common existence, the intelligent mind finds the field of observation opening with extended view, as it progresses in the ever constant labor of adapting existing means to desired ends.

The cultivation of cane would not be attempted on land where water constantly stands, for it would be vain, while the same locality would produce a crop of rice with little labor. And beyond this, aside from the facility of inundation, we learn that the rice will grow in comparatively dry land, and that "flowing" is not absolutely necessary to its production. The cultivation of the same plant successively for several years, is found

to impoverish the soil, it is said, if continued on the same field, and while some of our neighbors are warm on the subject of rotation of crops, others have almost equal confidence that the powers of the soil may be sustained by deep plowing, proper manuring, or returning to it the otherwise useless trash of its production. This necessity of rotation in crops being now proved by the experience of the planter, he is led to discover that nature herself, unassisted by art, brings about the same ends. The pine forest, destroyed by fire, is soon replaced by oaks and other trees. The mangrove swamp having existed for a century, even until successive contributions of its leaves, falling upon the water and there detained to decay by the floating roots of the same plants, at last accumulate material and elevate the soil above the level of the water, when the mangroves die, and are succeeded by the cane-brakes. With them come the numerous grasses, the seeds of which, planted by the wind, soon take root and thrive, until their production, together with that of the cane, again raises the soil to another level, whereon the stronger trees of the forest succeed.

Plants require different organic matter at different times, and are not always prepared for the natural vicissitudes of their existence; wherefore, we observe that protracted rains, drought, temperature, all sources of nutriment as agents of nature to the plant, produce definite results upon its growth, but different one time with another, and it becomes desirable to know how to make best use of such incidents. For this purpose, the knowledge of vegetable anatomy and physiology, by which we may in a measure comprehend the structure and causes of increase, will lead to a better understanding of the wants and material necessary to each plant, and how these supplies may be best obtained and administered, to the attainment of more profitable results.

Since the discovery of the microscope, the world has learned not only that plants breathe, feed and digest, but how the func tions of breathing, feeding and digesting are carried on. It has been ascertained by what means an increase of dimension is brought about; how their want of locomotive power has been compensated for, and by what precise means their reproduction and multiplication are placed beyond obstruction by any natural impediments. In short, the exact use of every plant, for its various parts have been distinctly ascertained, and in the end the vegetable kingdom is rendered subject to the power not only of man's physical energies, but of his mental resources.

The two great sources of food to plants are the soil and the air, and consequently we observe that they take their nutriment only when resolved to liquid and gaseous forms, whatever be the shape in which it is admin