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60 chapter iv y Cutting the Cane and Carrying It to the Mill When the mill begins operation (which in the Recôncavo of Bahia usually is in August), this is also the time when the sickle should cut the ripe cane. The cane is best left before cutting for seventeen or eighteen months in the ground. After that, unless it is oppressed by a great drought, it may be safely left in the same ground for another seven or eight months. As soon as it is finally ready, the order should be given to cut it, after previously fixing the day on which the milling should begin. This will avoid its becoming tainted in the mill, or too dry when exposed to the sun in the harbor,8 if this is distant from the mill. The tenant farmer who brings his cane to the mill first should be informed so that he can press his share. On the other hand, the lazy one who misses his turn on the appointed day by failing to turn up should lose his place. It is the mill owner who allots the days for pressing his own cane and that of the farmers. Each is accorded his turn and advised in a timely manner by the mill supervisor. Twelve to eighteen pairs of slaves with sickles work in the field to cut the cane, depending if the stocks are large or small. The amount of cane that is sent for pressing at any one time is called a “task.” It is the equivalent of twenty-four cart loads of cane, each cart being the standard measurement of eight palmas high and seven broad, capable of containing a greater or smaller number of sheaves of cane, depending on whether the cane is large or small. Fewer sheaves of large cane are needed to make up a task, whereas more are needed if the cane is small. Smaller sheaves occupy less space, both in the cart and the barge. Larger sheaves take up more space, since they are both longer and thicker. However, there are very few carts that can carry more than 150 sheaves of cane. Owners of the cane fields know very well from previous harvests exactly how many tasks their cane fields contain. The first cane that should be cut is the old, which cannot wait any 61 Cutting the Cane and Carrying It to the Mill longer. It is unlike death, whose sickle cuts down indifferently young and old. This cane must be cut at a time when it does no damage to the ratoon, depending on whether the soils are more or less cold and the days are more or less hot and dry. This is the reason why, on some lands, the cane cannot be cut until after the end of February, and on others it can still be cut in March and April. In regard to cutting the new cane, if the farmer is very ambitious and eager to make a lot of sugar, he will cut it all in one harvest. He will then find himself with little or none in the next. For this reason, care should be taken in cutting the new cane with an eye toward the future. The planter should plan according to the amount already planted, on the basis of wellconsidered and reliable calculations. This is what sensible prudence and economy dictate in any other work or business. Both the male and the female slaves are employed in cutting the cane, but as a rule the males do the cutting and the females tie up the sheaves. A sheaf consists of twelve canes. Each male slave has the task of cutting in one day seven “hands” of ten sheaves for each one of the “fingers,” making altogether 350 bundles.9 The female slave has to bundle as many with the cut tops of the same canes. If they have any time left over, they can spend it whatever way they please. This favor is not allowed when they are engaged in weeding the cane, for this work lasts from sunrise to sunset. Also, they do not enjoy this favor in any other labor not allotted them on the basis of a task. The reason the task is counted by “fingers” and “hands,” as noted above, is to make allowance for the ignorance of raw slaves, who would not otherwise understand and cannot count properly. The actual cutting is done as follows. The...

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