THE lands in Brazil are never grubbed up[143], either for planting the sugar-cane, or for any other agricultural purposes. The inconveniences of this custom are perceivable more particularly in high lands; because all of these that are of any value are naturally covered with thick woods. The cane is planted among the numerous stumps of trees, by which means much ground is lost, and as the sprouts from these stumps almost immediately spring forth, (such is the rapidity of vegetation,) the cleanings are rendered very laborious. These shoots require to be cut down, sometimes even before the cane has forced its way to the surface of the ground. The labour likewise is great every time a piece of land is to be put under cultivation, for the wood must be cut down afresh; and although it cannot have reached the same size which the original timber had attained, still, as several years are allowed to pass between each period at which the ground is planted, the trees are generally of considerable thickness[144]. The wood is suffered to remain upon the land until the leaves become dry; then it is set on fire, and these are destroyed with the brushwood and the smaller branches of the trees. Heaps are now made of the remaining timber, which is likewise burnt. This process is universally practised in preparing land for the cultivation of any plant. I have often heard the method much censured as being injurious in the main to the soil, though the crop immediately succeeding the operation may be rendered more luxuriant by it. I have observed that the canes which grew upon the spots where the heaps of timber and large branches of trees had been burnt, were of a darker and richer green than those around them, and that they likewise over-topped them. After the plant-canes or those of the first year’s growth are taken from the lands, the field-trash, that is the dried leaves and stems of the canes which remain upon the ground, are set fire to, with the idea that the ratoons, that is the sprouts from the old roots of the canes, spring forth with more luxuriance, and attain a greater size by means of this practice[145]. The ratoons of the first year are called in Brazil _socas_; those of the second year, _resocas_; those of the third year, _terceiras socas_, and so forth. After the roots are left unencumbered by burning the field-trash, the mould is raised round about them; indeed if this was neglected, many of these roots would remain too much exposed to the heat of the sun, and would not continue to vegetate. Some lands will continue to give ratoons for five or even seven years; but an average may be made at one crop of good ratoons fit for grinding, another of inferior ratoons for planting or for making molasses to be used in the still-house, and a third which affords but a trifling profit, in return for the trouble which the cleanings give.[146]