FIELD AND FARM PRODUCTS. 265

sand pounds of sugar to the acre; rich land, thoroughly
ferifized, will produce from two to four thousand pounds.
The black hammock or "sugar-lands" of Florida will pro-
duce at least equally large crops, and it is believed by many
planters that, with fertilizing, the pine-lands will produce
as well, and of a better quality. The soils of Central and
South Florida are, in general, peculiarly adapted for the cane.
Here the cane matures and perfects its seed, and often at-
tains a height of from ten to fifteen feeteven when grown
fora number of years on the same land without manure.
 Sugar-cane grows in joints of from three to six or nine
inches in length, like the reeds used for fishing-poles, with
a sort of partition between each two joints of a hard, vege-
table substance. At or near each of these partitions, on
one side of the cane, is an eye, which is always exactly op-
posite to the eye attached to the next joint above or below;
so that the eyes on a perfect cane together form two rows of
eyes on opposite sides of the cane. From each of those
eyes, when covered with earth to the proper depth, proceed
the sprouts and roots which constitute in time the complete
cane. Cane does not of necessity require replanting every
year, the stalks being cut in the fall. From the same roots,
in the next year, unless the root is injured by cold, drought,
or excess of moisture, there springs a second growth of
sprouts similar to the first. This subsequent repeated
growth from the same root is called ratooning, and may
be repeated from year to year for several years. The
value of these succeeding or ratooning crops is variously
estimated, some asserting that it "continually deteriorates
after the second year, and others maintaining that with
care it may be ratooned indefinitely. The common opin-
ion is that replanting is necessary once in three or four
years. But Judge Dupont, of Quincy, in Gadsden County,
one of the northern counties in this State, told me that
he had raised cane from the ratoon six successive years