the canes are at first covered with only a small portion of mould; and yet they are as long in forcing their way to the surface as in Brazil, though in the latter a more considerable quantity of earth is laid upon them. I suppose that the superior fatness of the Brazilian soil accounts for this. Upon rich soils the cuttings are laid at a greater distance, and the trenches are dug farther from each other, than upon those which have undergone more frequent cultivation, or which are known to possess less power from their natural composition. The canes which are planted upon the former throw out great numbers of sprouts, which spread each way; and although when they are young the land may appear to promise but a scanty crop, they soon close, and no opening is to be seen. It is often judged proper to thin the canes, by removing some of the suckers at the time that the last cleaning is given, and some persons recommend that a portion of the dry leaves should also be stripped off at the same period, but on other plantations this is not practised. The proper season for planting is from the middle of July to the middle of September, upon high lands, and from September to the middle of November in low lands. Occasionally the great moisture of the soil induces the planter to continue his work until the beginning of December, if his people are sufficiently numerous to answer all the necessary purposes. The first of the canes are ready to be cut for the mill in September of the following year, and the crop is finished usually in January or February. In the British sugar islands the canes are planted from August to November and are “ripe for the mill in the beginning of the second year.” Thus this plant in Brazil requires from thirteen to fifteen months to attain its proper state for the mill; and in the Columbian islands it remains standing sixteen or seventeen months.[153] I did not discover, nor hear it mentioned, that the cane is liable to destruction from the _blast_, which is spoken of by Mr. Edwards, as doing much injury to the plantations in the British colonies. The cane is subject certainly to several pests, but they are of a nature which may be remedied. The rats destroy great quantities[154], and the fox is no less fond of it; and when he gets among it he makes dreadful havock, for he is only satisfied by cutting down great numbers of canes, taking only a small portion of each. There is also a strange custom among the lower orders of people; they scruple not in passing a field, to cut down and make a bundle of ten or a dozen canes, from which they suck the juice as they go along, or preserve some of them to carry home. The devastation which is committed in this manner is incalculable, in the fields that border upon much frequented paths. It is a custom; and many persons think that the owner has scarcely a right to prevent these attacks upon his property.