G -

 Soil preparation.- To establish a good cane crop it is necessary to prepare
 the soil thoroughly including leveling and moledraining every 12-15 feet.
 Thereafter furrows should be made five feet apart and 10-12 inches deep. It
 is preferred to make three furrows simultaneously and use the same unit later
 for fertilization, planting and mechanical or chemical weeding, to facilitate
 all mechanical operations.

 Planting, fertilization and insect control.- After adequate land prepara-
 tion and furrowing the field will be ready for planting. The best commercial
 variety at present for mucklands is Cl 41-223. As the variety is rather suscep-
 tible to a virus, Ratoon Stunting Disease (R.S.D.), it will be advisable to
 obtain plant material from a field which was started from seed that had been
 hot-water treated originally. If such plant material is not available, the
 farmer should make arrangements for treating a small quantity of plant material
 with hot water and use this material to obtain a future seed stock free from
 R.S.D. disease. Further information about this disease and how to treat the
 cane seed against R.S.D. can be obtained from reference number 1 (see last page
 of this mimeograph).

 The amount of seedcane required will be approximately 2-2- tons of seed
 cane per acre, and the cane furrows should be placed 5 feet apart.

 When seedcane is bought or harvested the cane should only be topped slightly
 with no removal of dry ash or leaves. This will prevent damage of the cane
 eyes during handling and transportation to the field to be planted.

 Two systems of planting are used presently. With the first one the cane
 is dropped whole into the bottom of the furrow and cut by labor into 2- to 3-
 foot pieces while in the furrow. The second system cuts the cane into pieces
 two feet long before transporting the seed to the plant field and the cane
 pieces are dropped into the bottom of the furrow.

 Often the caneseed is infested with wireworms particularly when other crops
 such as corn have been growing previously. To prevent damage, the seedcane
 lying in the furrow should be treated with four pounds chlorodane, three pounds
 aldrin or two pounds B.H.C. (2,3.) directly after the seedcane has been dropped
 into the furrow. While the furrow is still open, the fertilizer should be
 applied. The sugarcane plant is very sensitive to pH. When the pH is 6.0 or
 higher the cane plant will suffer from manganese deficiency and therefore suffi-
 cient sulphur, normally 500 pounds per acre, should be applied into the furrow
 to insure a pH of 6.0 or lower for several years. If the soil has never been
 cultivated, 50 pounds of copper sulfate or its equivalent of copper oxide and
 20 pounds of zinc sulfate should be broadcast and disced into the soil six months
 prior to planting.

 The soils of sugarcane fields should be analyzed by a soil testing labora-
tory in order to determine optimum fertilization. A normal application given to
the cane fields is 350 Ibs. of 0-8-45 with 1% CuO, 1 n, 3% MnO and J B203
together with sulphur. After the application of the fertilizer and sulphur in
the open furrow the seedcane is covered with four to six inches of soil leaving
a furrow of about six inches.

 Maintaining the cane crop.- After covering the seedcane, the field should
be kept clean by mechanical or chemical means. For chemical weed control infor-
mation the farmer is referred to the mimeograph reports concerning this subject