years, and five years after the expiration of their contract they have the privilege of being taken back to their homes, without charge. During the five years following their contract term they can obtain work as free hands and they may acquire small parcels of land. In fact many of them have become land owners and have settled permanently in the colony. There are also a considerable number who, after having gone back to India, return to British Guiana of their own volition and at their own expense to work as free laborers. Most of the sugar plantations are found on the seacoast on lands formerly marshy that have been diked and drained either by sluices or by pumping. The plantations along the river banks, too, are on reclaimed lands that have been drained by sluices. In 1911 there were 160,000 acres of reclaimed land in the colony, and 81,000 acres of it were devoted to sugar cane. The plantations are oblong in shape, one end fronting on the sea or the river, as the case may be. Originally they varied in size from 500 to 1000 acres, but in many instances consolidation has taken place. The dike next to the sea is naturally the strongest and most carefully built, while those at the sides and rear are less substantial. As a rule, there is a broad road that runs through the middle of the plantation, with a navigable canal on either side. These canals contain fresh water, salt water and flood waters being kept out by a gate through which excess fresh water may run off at low tide. Short feeder canals run at right angles, and as they are not connected with the drainage canals they may contain salt water if necessary. In crossing a transportation canal, the waters of drainage canals pass underneath through a siphon. Between these transportation canals are the cane fields, from ten to twenty acres in size, and separated from one another by small drainage ditches. The largest transportation canals are between sixteen and twenty feet wide at the top, between twelve and sixteen feet wide at the bottom and four to five feet deep. The smaller transportation canals are twelve feet wide at the top, nine feet wide at the bottom and four to five feet deep. The large drainage canals are fifteen feet wide and four feet deep, and the irrigation ditches are from two to three feet wide and three feet deep. Before planting cane in virgin soil the trees are cut down, the ground is cleared of grass and weeds, canals are dug, furrows are made at intervals of from six to seven feet, and then the planting is done. A month later weeds are removed, the young shoots are banked and the ground between the furrows is loosened. When five months old the cane is trashed[77] and weeding is done if necessary. After an interval of three months this operation is repeated, and when the cane is a year old the final trashing is done, the harvesting following two weeks afterward.