The canes undergo three cleanings from the weeds and the sprouts proceeding from the stumps of the trees; and when the land is poor, and produces a greater quantity of the former, and contains fewer of the latter, the canes require to be cleaned a fourth time.  The cuttings are usually 12 to 18 inches in length, but it is judged that the shorter they are the better.  If they are short, and one piece of cane rots, the space which remains vacant is not so large as when the cuttings are long, and they by any accident fail.  The canes which are used for planting are generally ratoons, if any exist upon the plantation; but if there are none of these, the inferior plant canes supply their places.  It is accounted more economical to make use of the ratoons for this purpose; and many persons say that they are less liable to rot than the plant canes.  In the British sugar islands the cuttings for planting are commonly the tops of the canes which have been ground for sugar.  But in Brazil the tops of the canes are all thrown to the cattle, for there is usually a want of grass during the season that the mills are at work.  In the British colonies, the canes are at first covered with only a small portion of mould, and yet they are as long in forcing their way to the surface as in Brazil, though in the latter a more considerable quantity of earth is laid upon them.  I suppose that the superior richness of the Brazilian soil accounts for this.  Upon rich soils the cuttings are laid at a greater distance, and the trenches are dug farther from each other, than upon those which have undergone more frequent cultivation, or which are known to possess less power from their natural composition.  The canes which are planted upon the former throw out great numbers of sprouts, which spread each way; and, although when they are young, the land may appear to promise but a scanty crop, they soon close, and no opening is to be seen.  It is often judged proper to thin the canes, by removing some of the suckers at the time that the last cleaning is given; and some persons recommend that a portion of the dry leaves should also be stripped off at the same period, but on other plantations this is not practised.

The proper season for planting is from the middle of July to the middle of September, upon high lands, and from September to the middle of November in low lands.  Occasionally, the great moisture of the soil induces the planter to continue his work until the beginning of December, if his people are sufficiently numerous to answer all the necessary purposes.  The first of the canes are ready to be cut for the mill in September of the following year, and the crop is finished usually in January or February.  In the British sugar islands the canes are planted from August to November, and are ripe for the mill in the beginning of the second year.  Thus this plant in Brazil requires from thirteen to fifteen months to attain its proper state for the mill; and in the West India islands it remains standing sixteen or seventeen months.