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trash which is left is burnt off, and the new cane comes up from the roots of the old.  This burning and regrowth is done only two or three times as the quality of the cane diminishes about 50% after the burning.
Each estate has its village and when cane field burning is taking place the whole village must turn out and help keep the fire under control.  They are paid for this.  The cane is cut back about 3 feet from the boarders of the field, as the first precaution.  Then all villagers are armed with sacks and other fire fighting apparatus, and it is their duty to put out any sparks which may fly out of bounds.  The total fire fighting area is about 20 feet because there is usually a road running between [[blue pen strikethrough]] each [[/strikethrough]] [[blue pen insertion]] the [[/insertion]] field [[blue pen insertion]] s [[/insertion]] and an irrigation ditch along each side of [[blue pen strikethrough]] that [[/strikethrough]] [[blue pen insertion]] the road [[/insertion]].  The heat made by burning a cane field must be terrific - because in spite of precautions taken, many a coconut palm seems to have been scarred by flames.  If one of those fires ever got out of control it could do unlimited damage to the surrounding fields.
After the burning, the field is allowed to remain as it is with a good soaking

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of water being put on every day or so.  Every 4 rows a deep trough is hoed and into these troughs the irrigation water flows.  The canes grow on the creeks, [[blue pen insertion]] ( [[/insertion]] which are about 6 inches wide [[blue pen insertion]] ) [[/insertion]] after the furrows have been plowed.  The plowing is not done until the green shoots are up 4 or 5 inches.  At the time of plowing some fertilization is done.  The plowing is all done by oxen.  At Dawkins Caymanas we met Mr. Stevens who is one of the bookkeepers for the Estates - which farm I am not sure.  We met Paul Bonell too and much later Mr. Collingswood.
In the course of the afternoon we went thru many banana walks and along the Rio Cobre - one place along here was swarming

Transcription Notes:
I am pretty sure I don't have Mr. "Lsenes" name right, but it was the nearest I could guess. It is certainly "--e-ens", and I think the first letter is probably an L, but I don't have any idea if the other two are right. I see it as "Stevens" - rw