The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-10-12
PLANTERS IAEoR AND SUPPLY co.
SATURDAY, Oct. 10th.
AFTERNOON SESSION--CON-
TINUED.
CANE CULTIVATION.

CANE CULTIVATION.
Mn. j. NJ. HoRNER, Chairman of
the Committee on Cane Cultivation,
read the report of the Committee.
In cnforccs the necessity for i'm
proved cultivation, and attention
being paid to the selection of seed,
q proceeding which. had resulted in
such marked increase in the yield
of beet sugar in Germany. Twice
blowing and twice narrowing, if
well done, was sufficient prepara-
ton for the furrow pillow to follow.
If, however, grass sod or trash
was turned under ut first blowing,
sufficient time should elapse to allow
the trash to decay before the second
blowing, which should be done just
before planting, thus getting rid of
all weeds while planting was going
on. The furrow pillow was recon-
mendcd for making seed burrows
and bitches. Cane rows should be
between five and six feet apart.
This admits of the free use of the
cultivator without injuring bitches,
etc. 1t had been found advantage
Gus to run one-horse subsoil pillow
in the bottom of the furrow just
ahead of the planters, loosening the
soil from two to six inches, making
a nice fresh seed bed, the seed to be
planted under the bottom of the
furrow in the mellow soil. July
was the best month to plant below
an elevation of 700 feet; at an
elevation of 1920 feet or more May
was not too soon. In after cultiva-
ton, the report strongly urges the
use of the cultivator, which nearly
dispenses with the less effective and
more expensive hoeing. An exam
pie of this is given in the case of
the Spreckelsville plantation when
raising the first crop. The cultiva-
tor was used with great success on
one part of it. The soil was loos-
ened, weeds killed, and drains
scrapcd at SIS an acre, while it cost
another overseer $40 to have his
section scraped with hoe. The
weeds got the better of him, and
the cane was stunted. The cane
treated by the cultivator yielded one
ton an acre more than the cane
under the hoeing process. Never
let weeds grow; put the cultivator
through as soon as the cane begins
to make its appearance above the
ground. Keeping the soil loose and
fine on top by cultivation was, in a
measure, both food and water to the
crop, as it prevented evaporation.
Experience showed that the best
way to care for cane the first six
months after planting was to COM
mence cultivating when the young
cane began to come up, and about
the time. it was all up, go over it
again with a cultivator, going around
each row, and each time roll down q
little fresh soil around the cane,
and to continue until the cane was
too large to allow of further culti-
walton. One cultivator would suffice
for sixty acres, rows five and half
feet apart. During the season the
soil thrown out from the seed furrow
worked back, leaving the land about
level at the finish; the soil would be
loose, and might be freed of weeds
with very little hoeing. The filling
up of the burrows was only apple
able to rainy regions. This course
was pursued the past year at Kakai-
All with gratifying results. The
difference in labor alone between
cultivating and hoeing was that OF
one man to four acres or five men to
one acre. This was difference
which no planter was justified ir
sighting, not to speak of the benefit
liberal cultivation was to the cane.
The report was accepted an(
ordered printed in the Planters
Monthly"
LIVE STOCK.
Mr.. DILLINGHAM; read an, eXhaus
tive report from the Committee OF
Live Stock. The document being il
the hands of the +" Monthly" print
ers, we cannot give an abstract a