cultivation is somewhat
different. The slow oxen are still commonly used for plowing and for
carts. This is not because of any lack of progressive spirit, but because
experience has shown that, under all conditions of the industry, the ox
makes the most satisfactory and economical motive power, notwithstanding
his lack of pace.

The Encyclopaedia describes sugar-cane as "a member of the grass family,
known botanically as _Saccbarum officinarum_. It is a tall, perennial
grass-like plant, giving off numerous erect stems 6 to 12 feet or more in
height, from a thick solid jointed root-stalk." The ground is plowed
in rows in which, not seed, but a stalk of cane is lightly buried. The
rootlets and the new cane spring from the joints of the planted stalk which
is laid flat and lengthwise of the row. It takes from a year to a year
and a half for the stalk to mature sufficiently for cutting and grinding.
Several cuttings, and sometimes many, are made from a single planting.
There are tales of fields on which cane has grown for forty years without
re-planting. A few years ago, ten or fifteen years was not an unusual
period. The present tendency is toward more frequent planting, but not
annual, as offering a better chance for stronger cane with a larger sugar
content. The whole process of cultivation and field treatment is hard,
heavy work, most of it very hard work. Probably the hardest and heaviest is
the cutting. This is done with a long, heavy-bladed knife, the _machete_.
The stalk, from an inch to two inches in thickness, is chopped down near
the root, the heavy knife swung with cut after cut, under a burning sun.
Only the strongest can stand it, a wearying, back-breaking task. After
cutting, the stalk is trimmed and loaded on carts to be hauled, according
to distance, either directly to the mill or to the railway running thereto.
The large estates have their own railway systems running to all the fields
of the plantation. These are private lines operated only for economy
in cane transportation. Most of the crushing mills measure their daily
consumption of cane in thousands of tons. While every precaution is taken,
there are occasional fires. In planting, wide "fire lanes," or uncultivated
strips are left to prevent the spread of fire if it occurs.

Mill installations vary on the different plantations, but the general
principle of operation is the same on all. The first process is the
extraction of the juice that carries the