most successful cultivators. In Zilla, N. Mooradabad, in April, about six weeks after planting, the earth on each side of the canerows is loosened by a sharp-pointed hoe, shaped somewhat like a bricklayer's trowel. This is repeated six times before the field is laid out in beds and channels for irrigation. There, likewise, if the season is unusually dry, the fields in the low ground are watered in May and June. This supposes there are either nullahs, or ancient pucka wells, otherwise the canes are allowed to take their chance, for the cost of making a well on the uplands is from ten to twenty rupees-an expense too heavy for an individual cultivator, and not many would dig in partnership, for they would fight for the water. In the vicinity of Benares, as the canes advance in growth, they continue to wrap the leaves as they begin to wither up round the advancing stem, and to tie this to the bamboo higher up. If the weather continue wet, the trenches are carefully kept open; and, on the other hand, if dry weather occurs, water is occasionally supplied. Hoeing is also performed every five or six weeks. Wrapping the leaves around the cane is found to prevent them cracking by the heat of the sun, and hinders their throwing out lateral branches. In January and February the canes are ready for cutting. The average height of the cane is about nine feet, foliage included, and the naked cane one inch to one inch and a quarter in diameter. Near Maduna, the hand-watering is facilitated by cutting a small trench down the centre of each bed. The beds are there a cubit wide, but only four rows of canes are planted in each. It is deserving of notice, that the eastern and north-eastern parts of Bengal are more subject to rain at every season of the year, but especially in hot months, than the western; which accounts for the lands being prepared and the plants set so much earlier in Rungpore than in Beerbhoom. This latter country has also a drier soil generally; for this reason, so much is said in the report from thence of the necessity of watering. The Benares country is also drier than Bengal, therefore more waterings are requisite. At Malda, "ten or fifteen days after the earth has been removed from the roots of the canes and the plants have appeared, the land is to be slightly manured, well cleared of weeds, and the earth that was removed again laid about the canes; after which, ten or fifteen days, it must be well weeded, and again twenty or twenty-five days afterward. This mode of cultivation it is necessary to follow until the month of Joystee. The land must be plowed and manured between the rows of canes in the month of Assaar; after which, fifteen or twenty days, the canes are to be tied two or three together with the leaves, the earth about them well cleaned, and the earth that was plowed up laid about the roots of the canes something raised. In the month of Saubun, twenty or twenty-five days from the preceding operation, the canes must be again tied as before, and again ten or fifteen days afterward; which done, nine or ten clumps are then to be tied together. This care to be taken until the end of the month Saubun; after which, in the month of Bhaddur, they must be tied with the cane-leaves as before, and again in Assen, when the cultivation is completed." In the Rajahmundry Circar, on the Delta of the Godavery, Dr. Roxburgh states, "that nothing more is done after the cane is planted, if the weather be moderately showery, till the young shoots are some two or three inches high; the earth is then loosened for a few inches round them with a small weeding iron, something like a carpenter's chisel. Should the season prove dry, the field is occasionally watered from the river, continuing to weed and keep the ground loose around the stools. In August, two or three months from the time of planting, small trenches are cut through the field at short distances, and so contrived as to serve to drain off the water, should the season prove too wet for the cane, which is often the case, and would render their juices weak and unprofitable. The farmer, therefore, never fails to have his field plentifully and judiciously intersected with drains while the cane is small, and before the usual time for the violent rains. Should the season prove too dry, these trenches serve to conduct the water from the river the more readily through the field, and also to drain off what does not soak into the earth in the course of a few hours; for they say if water is permitted to remain in the field for a greater length of time, the cane would suffer by it, so that they reckon these drains indispensably necessary, and upon their being well contrived depends in a great measure their future hopes of profit. Immediately after the field is trenched, the canes are all propped; this is an operation I do not remember to have seen mentioned by any writer on this subject, and is probably peculiar to these parts. It is done as follows: "The canes are now about three feet high, and generally from three to six from each set that has taken root from what we may call the stool. The lower leaves of each cane are first carefully wrapt up around it, so as to cover it completely in every part; a small strong bamboo (or two,) eight or ten feet long, is then stuck into the earth in the middle of each stool, and the canes thereof tied to it. This secures them in an erect position, and gives the air free access round every part. As the canes advance in size, they continue wrapping them round with the lower leaves as they begin to wither, and to tie them to the prop bamboos higher up; during which time, if the weather is wet, they keep the drains open, and if a drought prevails they water them occasionally from the river, cleaning and loosening the ground every five or six weeks. Tying the leaves so carefully round every part of the canes, they say, prevents them from cracking or splitting by the heat of the sun, helps to render the juice richer, and prevents their branching out round the sides. It is certain you never see a branchy cane here." In Dinajpoor, in about a month after planting, "the young plants are two or three inches high; the earth is then raised from the cuttings by means of a spade, and the dry leaves by which they are surrounded are removed. For a day or two they remain exposed to the air, and are then manured with ashes and oilcake, and covered with earth. Weeds must be removed as they spring; and when the plants are about a cubit and a half high, the field must be plowed. When they have grown a cubit higher, which is between the 13th of June and the 14th of July, they are tied together in bundles of three or four, by wrapping them round with their own leaves. This is done partly to prevent them from being laid down by the wind, and partly to prevent them from being eaten by jackals. During the next month three or four of these bunches are tied together; and about the end of September, when the canes grow rank, they are supported by bamboo stakes driven in the ground. They are cut between the middle of December and the end of March." If the canes grow too vigorously, developing a superabundance of leaves, it is a good practice to remove those which are decayed, that the stems may be exposed fully to the sun. In the West Indies, this is called trashing the canes. It requires discretion; for in dry soils or seasons, or if the leaves are removed before sufficiently dead, more injury than benefit will be occasioned. February. In N. Mooradabad, upon the low land, the canes are ripe in October, and upon the high lands a month later. The fitness of the cane for cutting may be ascertained by making an incision across the cane, and observing the internal grain. If it is soft and moist, like a turnip, it is not yet ripe; but if the face of the cut is dry, and white particles appear, it is fit for harvesting. Injuries.-1. A wet season, either during the very early or in the concluding period of the cane's vegetation, is one of the worst causes of injury. In such a season, the absence of the usual intensity of light and heat causes the sap to be very materially deficient in saccharine matter. But on the other hand, 2. A very dry season, immediately after the sets are planted, though the want of rain may in some degree be supplied by artificial means, yet the produce under such circumstances proves but indifferent. These inconveniences are of a general nature, and irremediable. 3. Animals. Not only the incursions of domesticated animals, but in some districts of the wild elephant, buffalo, and hog, are frequent sources of injury. Almost every plantation is liable, also, to the attack of the jackal. 4. White Ants.-The sets of the sugarcane have to be carefully watched, to preserve them from the white ant, (Termites fatale,) to attacks from which they are liable until they have begun to shoot. To prevent this injury, the following mixture has been recommended: Asafoetida, (hing,) 8 chittacks. Mustard-seed cake, (sarsum ki khalli,) 8 seers. Bruised butch root, 2 seers; or muddur, 2 seers. Mix the above together in a large vessel, with water sufficient to make them into the thickness of curds; then steep each slip of cane in it for half an hour before planting; and, lastly, water the lines three times previous to setting the cane, by irrigating the water-course with water mixed up with bruised butch root, or mudder, if the former be not procurable.* 5. Storms. 6. The Worm. Harvesting.-The season in which the canes become ripe in various districts has already been noticed when considering their cultivation. In addition I may state, that in the Rajahmundry Circar, about the mouth of SUGAR CULTURE IN WEST INDIES. the Godavery, Dr. Roxburgh states, "that-The following essay, received several years in January and February the canes begin to ago, the prize of one hundred guineas, offered be ready to cut, which is about nine months from the time of planting. This operation is the same as in other sugar countriesof course I need not describe it. Their height, when standing on the field, will be from eight to ten feet, (foliage included,) and the naked cane from an inch to an inch and a quarter in diameter." That the above application would be beneficial, is rendered still more worthy of credit from the following experience :-In the Dhoon, the white ant is owing to the destruction it causes to the sets when the most formidable enemy to the sugar planter, first planted. Mr. G. H. Smith says, that there is a wood very common there, called by the natives Butch, through which, they say, if the irrigating waters are passed in its progress to the beds, the În Malda, the canes are cut in January and white ants are driven away. by Lord Elgin, then governor of Jamaica, for | field-work, should be performed by horses, the best practical treatise upon the subject. in which case three plowmen, six boys and We have supposed it might interest our planters to know what systems their neighbors have been adopting, though no great practical good should be derived from the informa tion.-ED. Commence by subdividing the old canefields, or such parts of them as may be suitable to receive the plow, into sections, by substantial and durable fences, and in the most convenient manner to save fencing and promote draining. Fences may be growing fences, or ditch and penguin. As ditches may be necessary in mauy parts, in carrying out the principle of draining and retaining water for stock, they will be found beneficial, and may be planted on the top of the bank with any of the growing fences found on experience to be the most substantial, durable and least expensive, and least likely to harbor rats. The next important duty is to drain the land by under-drains, which can be dug by machinery, the tiles necessary for draining being made on the spot, by machinery. These points accomplished are the most expensive outlay at the commencement, but will be attended by a durable benefit. The next duty is to manure the land as high as you possibly can, by penning it over with horned stock, or sheep, or stable, or cattle-pen dung, given in any way by which its virtues are saved to the soil, covering the pens immediately after they are removed, with a coat of loam, or if stiff clayey land, with lime or marl. This done, close-plow the land with a common single "Wilkie's" plow, seven inches deep, following in the same furrow with the sub-soil, going to sixteen inches into the sub-soil, or deeper, if possible. Then roll and harrow the land, extracting the weeds and grass, and open it into cane holes with a deep single plow, cleaning out the holes with a deep double-breasted plow. Your next duty is to plant them, giving the canes an opportunity of growing in their favorite manner in clusters, or stools, and not in single file along the row. As you plant, cover the bank and canebed with cane-trash, dry grass, or any other suitable covering, with a view to keep down grass and weeds, and to protect the soil from that exhalation, which, in tropical climates, is so rapid and so detrimental to land. By these means the plant canes will give very little trouble until they are fit to take the bank, which can be given with the plow. Cane land, so managed, will require very little labor in weeding or hoeing, the principal part of such work being performed with suitable light plows, drills, harrows, scarificators and other agricultural implements now in use in the United Kingdom. They not only eradicate grass and weeds, but turn up the soil and scatter seeds and manures of every kind, thereby saving a world of labor. The principal part of the plowing and other eight good plow-horses, with the assistance of steers occasionally to break stiff land, or in sub-soiling it, will be sufficient to plow, subsoil, roll and harrow, drill, scarify, mould and hoe, all the various crops on the model sugar farm, with the aid of a small gang occasionally to plant, weed, trash, heap and turn out manure, fencing, &c. While on the subject of plowing, it may be as well to remark, that as the plow is now coming into general use throughout the island, and its beneficial effects freely admitted and tolerably well understood, all that remains for me, is to point out some improvement. The team of horses or steers should be brought as close as possible to the beam of the plow, and exactly in the centre. They should then walk with a quick step without stopping. It is proved beyond a doubt by the British. farmers, that the work is better performed and with greater ease to the stock, when the horses in the plow go at the rate of three miles an hour, than when traveling at the rate of one mile in the same space of time. Repeated stoppages and going slow, are fagging both to man and beast, and detrimental to the quantity and quality of the work. Oxen may be so trained, as to perform excellent work without flogging. They ought to be stall-fed during the plow season, on a mixture of hay, corn and grass, and kept exclusively for the plow. The same rule should be extended to the plow-horses, with the addition of being well groomed twice a day. When the plow does not take ground, or is otherwise out of order, the means of repairing and altering it should be on the estate. Ratoons should be plow-molded every year, during which operation any of the chemical or lately discovered manures may be applied, such as are found by experience to be congenial to the nature of that specific soil which is drawn by analysis. By analyzing the soil and the compost, or other chemical manure, it is soon found which description of manure will be most beneficial; or well-digested cattle pen or stable mauure, harrowed into the bauk so broken, and covered over with the trash so taken off, when clearing for the plow. This may be done by a couple of smart boys going before the plow, raking the trash on the bank last cut by the plow, and so on in rotation to the end of the piece; or a raker drawn by one horse may be invented to remove the trash. By this simple process, canes may be kept ratooning as long as you like. The plow-molding, with the application of manure in the bank, may be done at an early stage, that is, when the sprouts make their appearance. As the canes are covering the ground, or soon after, the soil may again be disturbed, either by a light single one-horse plow, or by a scarificator, harrow-drill or horse-shoe, or such of them as the sugar-farmer, on experience, finds to be most beneficial. By cutting the rooty fibres of the canes that push out in collateral directions, fresh ones immediately replace them, and take up such nourishment as they can find in the newly cut bank; a reinforcement of suckers will be the result, while fresh stability is added to the mother cane. It is to this end I recommend dung and manures annually to the ratoons, which, if properly done, places them pretty nearly on an equality with the plant canes, and planters of experience know that the cheapest sugar is that produced from ratoons under the old system, and it will be doubly so under mine. When you determine on throwing out a piece of ratoons, I recommend a rotation of crops, such as Guinea corn, Indian corn and green crops, of the most beneficial description, for benefiting the land and affording food both for man and beast. They may be of plantains, cocoes, cassadoes, ochres, peas and beans; yams, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, melons and turnips, if you can succeed in this hot climate. Next come artificial grasses, to be planted before or after the green crops. At this stage, you have the sample estate dividend in the different crops-canes, corn, fallow and green crops, and a part in artificial grasses, sufficient to make hay for the stable, cutting grass for the pens, and sufficient feeding for your stock. By this rotation of crops, you improve and benefit the land and produce good crops at a very moderate expense, and with one-fourth of the manual labor necessary under the old system. The greatest attention should be paid to making manure in the field and at the works-the drainings of the stables and cattle-pens should be preserved, and carted out to the field where most required. The compound qualities of this mauure are very powerful. A few boys and mule-carts would materially assist in carting out manure-bringing feeding for the pens and stable, and carting loam, lime, marl, or any other ingredient deemed necessary to improve the land. After the first two years necessary to lay the foundation of this work, a small plant will be sufficient-say, at the utmost, from 20 to 25 acres a year, which, after a routine of crops and for years fed on by horned stock, horses,, sheep, poultry and hogs-the land being in the first instance fenced, drained and subsoiled-should, with moderate penning, give splendid returns in plants and ratoons. vegetation. When any quantity of moisture was retained on the surface, or in the upper strata, it heated and scalded the canes, while in the fall of the year or wintry months, it chilled them-in either case, checking vege tation and producing booty and woody joints, and thereby poor returns. The land being under-drained and sub-soiled 16 to 18 inches deep, the moisture soaks down through the soil into the sub-soil, from whence it escapes by the under-drains, leaving its chemical benefits in the soil while passing through it. By this means, in a dry season, the canes or other crops receive sufficient coolness and moisture by evaporation from the sub-soil, which for the most part being stiff and clayey, continues cool and moist. It is a well-known chemical fact, that all the essential airs necessary for the preservation and benefit of the animal and vegetable world, are contained in the clouds, and reach the earth in wind and rain. Rain-water being highly charged with them, is deposited in the soil, giving a lively impulse to vegetation, and aiding the manures and natural stability of the soil-that is, when the land is under-drained and sub-soiled. The drains are to be cut 30 inches deep, then lay a course of tiles on the bottom; after which, lay 12 inches of broken stones, to be covered on the top with sods, flat stones, slate, tiles or boards, to prevent the loose soil from getting amongst the stones and injuring the drain. The tiles prevent the stones from sinking into the clay, by which means the drains will be of long duration. The sub-soil plow must enter 16 inches deep, leaving two inches on the top of the drains, clear of the plow. The land must be sub-soiled across the drains. Manuring, etc.-A flock of sheep, consisting of from 200 to 300 head and as many working steers, horses and mules, as may be necessary to carry on the trial sugar farm, with the assistance of some breeding stock necessary to supply it, and constantly fed on the sections of the cane fields thrown out to rest, and producing artificial grasses and green crops, would be sufficient to make 250 hogsheads. Land so dressed, with a due regard to the laws of agricultural chemistry, and receiving an annual supply of manure, either simple or compound, such as are found by analysis or experience to agree best with the description of the soil, should average 24 hogsheads Draining and Sub-soiling, being of the (West India hogsheads average 18 cwt.) per greatest benefit in producing large crops and acre through the crop, that is, from plants improving the soil, I may as well give an idea and ratoons. In this case, a field of one hunof their merits. The old system of draining dred acres would be sufficient, putting in an by open trenches, was detrimental to the annual plant of twenty-five acres, and supland during heavy rains, as a quantity of loose plying the ratoons with manure. In addition soil and manure were washed away into the to the necessary number of plow and cart gulleys and rivers. The land not being sub-men, very few field laborers would be resoiled, the rain could not penetrate far into the soil; the land became caked with a few days of hot sun, which proved detrimental to quired to plant, clean and trash the canes. The sugar farm should raise its own stock thus situated, and breed as many stock and horse-kind as would be sufficient to carry on his farm successfully. European farm laborers, if properly managed, are fully competent to perform a large proportion of the work necessary on this sugar farm. Bourbon and Colored Canes.-The saving of labor being a matter of vital importance, permit me to remark that the Bourbon cane, so much admired for its superior yielding, is a very expensive cane, giving great trouble, and before it comes to maturity, requiring a great deal of labor. It is a delicate cane, and very slow in its growth, requiring many cleanings before it covers the ground, and seldom takes a start until the fall of the year. It furnishes a scanty supply of dry leaves to cover the land and keep it cool. It gives a smaller proportion of tops to supply the cattle-pens with feeding, and to make manure, and it suffers more from trespass.. It gives a smaller proportion of fuel compared to the other canes, and in every sense of the word, it is not, in these bad times, so good a poor man's cane as the Montblanc and blue canes, and black transparent canes. From the prejudices that formerly existed against the colored canes, they have been planted on light sandy soils, and in galls, in which the Bourbon cane could not long exist. But if these inferior canes were planted in your best lands, well manured, I am convinced they would, on an average of five or seven years, pay better than the Bourbon cane, and would, in this given period, in plants and ratoons, make as much sugar at nearly one-half of the expense. For example, they grow rapidly, and cover the ground quickly; they throw a great quantity of dry trash on the ground, and have a large bushy top that affords ample shade for the roots. Comparatively speaking, they require very little weeding and trashing; they give ample protection to the land, by a deep cover of trash; they suffer less from the trespass of stock, hogs and rats, and the people do not eat them as they do the Bourbon cane. They give a great quantity of feeding for stock, and supply for the cattle-pens, and a larger quantity of trash from the mill than is necessary for fuel to manufacture the sugar. The overplus is a valuable ingredient for making manure, which may be fermented in cattle-pens, or in pits where it may receive dundar. The drainings of the stable and cattle-pens, the refuse of skimmings, the washings of cisterns, and all the sweepings and cleanings about the works may be added, and ashes, &c. The white or Montblanc cane comes next in quality to the Bourbon, and may be successfully planted in the same piece, say every alternate row or two of Bourbon, and one of white cane. By this mixture, the extra trash from the latter assists in making up the deficiencies of the former. The white and other colored canes suffer less from drought and poverty of soil, and ratoon better and much longer than the Bourbon cane, as they do not impoverish the land, but tend to improve it with proper culture. A great deal more may be said in carrying out these leading principles into practical detail, but they are too numerous for this paper. SUGAR ESTATE IN CUBA, WITH ALL ITS APPURTENANCES, MARCH, 1846. Lands 55% caballerias,* at $1,000..... 28 of which are in cane, .$55,500 00 .$24,000 00 4,000 00 3,125 00 100 00 31,225 00 |