849.

_Mode of Cultivation in Brazil_.--The lands in Brazil are never
grubbed up, 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 amongst 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 found its way to the surface
of the ground. The labor 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. 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 brush wood 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. 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