Book I.
THE
SUGAR-CANE.
31
435 Thy future riches, to the low-land plain : And if kind Heaven, in pity to thy prayers, Shed genial influence ; as the earth revolves Her annual circuit, thy rich ripened Canes Shall load thy waggons, mules, and Negroe-train. chief thee, Planter, it imports to mark 440 (Whether thou breathe the mountain’s humid air, Or pant with heat continual on the plain ;) What months relent, and which from rain are free. BUT
IN different islands of the ocean-stream, Even in the different parts of the same isle, 445 The seasons vary; yet attention soon Will give thee each variety to know. This once observ’d ; at such a time inhume Thy plants, that, when they joint, (important age, Like youth just stepping into life) the clouds 450 May constantly bedew them : so shall they Avoid those ails, which else their manhood kill. Six times the changeful moon must blunt her horns. And fill with borrowed light her silvery urn; Ere thy tops, trusted to the mountain-land, 455 Commence their jointing : but four moons suffice To bring to puberty the low-land Cane. IN plants, in beads, in man’s imperial race, An alien mixture meliorates the breed ; Hence Canes, that sickened dwarfish on the plain, Will shoot with giant-vigour on the hill. 461 Thus D 3