Planting of Sugar Cane.

The planting season for Sugar is usually in September or October. The fields would be measured out and arranged. In the times dating back to mid 18 century, the gangs of slaves using hoes dug a shallow square hole, these were called Cane holes. Short pieces of cane would be planted in each cane hole. Manure would be placed in the holes around the young canes. Even on sloping soils, cane holes helped prevent soil erosion and water run-off. Alot of Manure was used in the fields and were carried by baskets, the fields were weeded often in the early stages of the Sugar Canes growth. Depending on the nature of the soil, canes would take between 14 and 17 months to reach its prime (maturity). By January, some of the canes from the previous season's planting would be ready for cutting.

Often new canes could be allowed to grow from the cut stumps of the previous year's crop. This was called ratooning, and such canes were called ratoons. In good soil , canes could produce ratoons for several years, but sooner or later the ratoon no longer produced enough sugar. The stumps of the cut canes would be dug out and new canes planted, and these were expected to produce more sugar than ratoons. Back in the 18th century planting new canes meant more work for the slaves than looking after ratoons.

The planter timed the planting of new canes, so that different fields were ready for cutting at different times, thus ensuring that the mill was never short of canes during the crop season. The crop season was normally from January to July which was the drier part of the year. Sugar Canes cut in the Rainy Season gave watery juice from which it was harder to get good sugar. Most planters wanted the sugar made and shipped to Europe before the hurricane season came, which would increase the risk of transport by sea.

The Cutting of the Sugar Cane.

In the Caribbean the slaves would cut the canes with bills or cutlasses. They had to bend down to cut each cane close to the ground, stand up, cut the top and strip the dried leaves off the cane and throw the cane to one side and then go again. It was hard backbreaking labour, repeated the whole day. A next set of slave would pick up the cut canes, tied them in bundles, and carried them to the carts drawn by cattle or mules, which took them to the mill. A nearby river might powered a water mill, animal powered mills were used or a windmill was used in this period.

The mills heavy metal rollers crushed the canes to produce juice, which flowed down a gutter or spout into the boiling house. Here the juice was boiled in large open metal vessels called tayches. As the juice boiled impurities came to the surface and were skimmed off. The process was assisted by use of calcium oxide (White Lime) which helped by 'tempering' impurities. After skimming the juice was transferred to the next  tayche with huge ladles and the process repeated, so that the juice gradually became syrup. The tayches, of which there might be three or more, got progressively smaller. The tayches encompassing the boiling syrup when ready would be put out(fire extinguished) and the thick syrup transferred into a "cooler"(a large shallow wooden container), where it crystallized into sugar.