Of
course Madame Pfeiffer visited the sugar-cane plantations, which cover
the broad and fertile plains of Pamplemousse. She learned that the sugar-
cane is not raised from seed, but that pieces of cane are planted. The
first cane requires eighteen months to ripen; but as, meanwhile, the
chief stem throws out shoots, each of the following harvests can be
gathered in at intervals of twelve months; hence four crops can be
obtained in four years and a half. After the fourth harvest, the field
must be cleared completely of the cane. If the land be virgin soil, on
which no former crop has been raised, fresh slips of cane may be planted
immediately, and thus eight crops secured in nine years. But if such is
not the case, "ambrezades" must be planted--that is, a leafy plant,
growing to the height of eight or nine feet, the leaves of which,
continually falling, decay and fertilize the soil. After two years the
plants are rooted out, and the ground is once more occupied by a sugar
plantation.
When the canes are ripe and the harvest begins, every day as many canes
are cut down as can be pressed and boiled at once. The cane is
introduced between two rollers, set in motion by steam-power, and pressed
until it is quite flat and dry: in this state it is used for fuel. The
juice is strained successively into six pans, of which the first is
exposed to the greatest heat--the force of the fire being diminished
gradually under each of the others.
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