With juice nectareous flows; to pungent sour,
Foe to the bowels, soon its nectar turns :
Vain every joint a gemmy embryo bears,
Alternate ranged; from these no filial young
Shall grateful spring, to bless the planter's eye.

THE ANTS DESTRUCTIVE TO THE CANE-PLANTS.

With bugs confederate, in destructive league, The ants' republic joins; a villain crew, As the waves countless, that plough up the deep (Where Eurus reigns vicegerent of the sky, Whom Rhea bore to the bright god of day), When furious Auster dire commotions stirs : These wind, by subtle sap, their secret way, Pernicious pioneers! while those invest, More firmly daring, in the face of Heaven, And win, by regular approach, the cane.

REMEDIES AGAINST THE BLAST' AND INSECTS; ROOTING UP AND BURNING THE CANE-FIELD.

'Gainst such ferocious, such unnumbered bands,
What arts, what arms, shall sage experience use?
Some bid the planter load the favoring gale
With pitch, and sulphur's suffocating steam :-
Unless the vapor o'er the cane-grove flies,
In curling volumes lost, such feeble arms,
To man though fatal, not the blast subdue.
Others again, and better their success,
Command their slaves each tainted blade to pick
With care, and burn them in vindictive flames.
Labor immense! and yet, if small the pest;
If numerous, if industrious, be thy gang;
At length, thou mayst the victory obtain.
But, if the living taint be far diffused,
Bootless this toil; nor will it then avail
(Though ashes lend their suffocating aid)

To bare the broad roots, and the mining swarms
Expose, remorseless, to the burning noon.
Ah! must then ruin desolate the plain?
Must the lost planter other climes explore?
Howe'er reluctant, let the hoe uproot

The infected cane-piece; and, with eager flames,
The hostile myriads thou to embers turn:
Far better, thus, a mighty loss sustain,
Which happier years and prudence may retrieve,
Than risk thine all. As when an adverse storm,
Impetuous, thunders on some luckless ship,
From green St. Christopher or Cathay bound:
Each nautic art the recling seamen try:
The storm redoubles death rides on every wave:
Down by the board the cracking masts they hew,
And heave their precious cargo in the main.

THE HURRICANE; COMPARED WITH A VOLCANO'S RAGE.
Say, can the Muse, the pencil in her hand,
The all-wasting hurricane observant ride?
Can she, undazzled, view the lightning's glare,
That fires the welkin? Can she, unappalled,
When all the flood-gates of the sky are ope,
The shoreless deluge stem? The Muse hath seen
The pillared flame, whose top hath reached the stars;

Seen rocky, molten fragments, flung in air
From Etna's vext abyss; seen burning streams
Pour down its channelled sides; tremendous
scenes! -

Yet not vext Etna's pillared flames, that strike
The stars; nor molten mountains hurled on high;
Nor ponderous rapid deluges, that burn
Its deeply-channelled sides, cause such dismay,
Such desolation, hurricane, as thou,
When the Almighty gives thy rage to blow,
And all the battles of thy winds engage.

PREPARATION FOR THE HURRICANE SEASON.

Soon as the Virgin's charms engross the sun,
And till his weaker flame the Scorpion feels,
But chief while Libra weighs the unsteady year,
Planter, with mighty props thy dome support ;
Each flaw repair; and well, with massy bars,
Thy doors and windows guard; securely lodge
Thy stocks and mill-points.

PRELUDES TO THE HURRICANE; CALMS, SEA-SWELL, CLOUDS,
BIRDS, SHIFTING WINDS, THE HERDS.

Then, or calms obtain ;
Breathless the royal palm-tree's airiest van;
While, o'er the panting isle, the demon heat
High hurls his flaming brand; vast, distant waves
The main drives furious in, and heaps the shore
With strange productions: or, the blue serene

| Assumes a low'ring aspect, as the clouds
Fly, wild-careering, through the vault of heaven ;
Then transient birds, of various kinds, frequent
Each stagnant pool; some hover o'er thy roof;
Then Eurus reigns no more; but each bold wind,
By turns, usurps the empire of the air
With quick inconstancy;

Thy herds, as sapient of the coming storm
(For beasts partake some portion of the sky),
In troops associate; and, in cold sweats bathed,
Wild-bellowing, eye the pole.

SIGNS OF THE COMING HURRICANE; THE MOON; SUN; STARS;
POOLS; FORESTS; MOUNTAINS.

[glows:

Ye seamen, now,
Ply to the southward, if the changeful moon,
Or, in her interlunar palace hid,
Shuns night; or, full-orbed, in night's forehead
For, see the mists, that late involved the hill,
Disperse; the mid-day sun looks red; strange burs
Surround the stars, which vaster fill the eye.

A horrid stench the pools, the main emits ;
Fearful the genius of the forest sighs;

The mountains moan; deep groans the caverned cliff.
A night of vapor, closing fast around,
Snatches the golden moon.

THE HURRICANE DESCRIBED; NORTH, WEST, SOUTH; CONFLAGRATION; TORRENTS; EAST; NIGHT.

Each wind appeased, The North flies forth, and hurls the frighted air: Not all the brazen engineries of man,

At once exploded, the wild burst surpass.
Yet thunder, yoked with lightning and with rain,

Water with fire, increase the infernal din :
Canes, shrubs, trees, huts, are whirled aloft in air.
The wind is spent ; and all the isle below
Is hush as death.'

Soon issues forth the West, with sudden burst,
And blasts more rapid, more resistless drives :
Rushes the headlong sky; the city rocks;
The good man throws him on the trembling ground,
And dies the murderer in his inmost soul.
Sullen the West withdraws his eager storms.
Will not the tempest now his furies chain?
Ah, no! as when in Indian forests, wild,
Barbaric armies suddenly retire
After some furious onset, and behind
Vast rocks and trees their horrid forms conceal,
Brooding on slaughter, not repulsed; for soon
Their growing yell the affrighted welkin rends,
And bloodier carnage mows th' ensanguined plain :
So the South, sallying from his iron caves
With mightier force, renews the aërial war;
Sleep, frighted, flies; and see! yon lofty palm,
Fair Nature's triumph, pride of Indian groves,
Cleft by the sulphurous bolt! See yonder dome,
Where grandeur with propriety combined,
And Theodorus with devotion dwelt,
Involved in smouldering flames. From every rock
Dashes the turbid torrent; through each street
A river foams, which sweeps, with untamed might,
Men, oxen, cane-lands, to the billowy main.
Pauses the wind. -Anon the savage East
Bids his winged tempests more relentless rave;
Now brighter, vaster coruscations flash;
Deepens the deluge; nearer thunders roll;
Earth trembles; ocean reels; and, in her fangs,
Grim desolation tears the shrieking isle,
Ere rosy Morn possess the ethereal plain,
To pour on darkness the full flood of day.

SULTRY CALMS OF THE WEST INDIES DESCRIBED; EFFECTS
ON THE CANE.

Nor does the hurricane's all-wasting wrath
Alone bring ruin on its sounding wing:
Even calms are dreadful, and the fiery South
Oft reigns a tyrant in those fervid isles;
For, from its burning furnace when it breathes,
Europe and Asia's vegetable sons,
Touched by its tainted vapor, shrivelled, die.
The hardiest children of the rocks repine :
And all the upland tropic-plants hang down
Their drooping heads; show arid, coiled, adust.
The main itself seems parted into streams,
Clear as a mirror; and with deadly scents
Annoys the rower, who, faint-hearted, eyes
The sails hang idly, noiseless, from the mast.
Thrice hapless he whom thus the hand of fate
Compels to risk the insufferable beam!
A fiend, the worst the angry skies ordain
To punish sinful man, shall fatal seize
His wretched life, and to the tomb consign.

When such the ravage of the burning calm
On the stout, sunny children of the hill, [sprouts
What must thy cane-lands feel? Thy late green

Nor bunch, nor joint; but, sapless, arid, pine:
Those who have manhood reached, of yellow hue
(Symptom of health and strength), soon ruddy show;
While the rich juice that circled in their veins,
Acescent, watery, poor, unwholesome tastes.
EARTHQUAKES OF THE WEST INDIES DESCRIBED; FLAMES;
BEASTS OCEAN LIGHTNING.

Nor only, planter, are thy cane-groves burnt;
Thy life is threatened. Muse, the manner sing.
Then earthquakes, Nature's agonizing pangs,
Oft shake the astonished isles: the solfaterre
Or sends forth thick, blue, suffocating steams,
Or shoots to temporary flame. A din,
Wild, through the mountain's quivering rocky caves,
Like the dread crash of tumbling planets, roars.
When tremble thus the pillars of the globe,,
Like the tall coco by the fierce North blown,
Can the poor, brittle tenements of man
Withstand the dread convulsion? Their dear homes,
Which shaking, tottering, crashing, bursting, fall,
The boldest fly; and, on the open plain
Appalled, in agony the moment wait,
When, with disrupture vast, the waving earth
Shall whelm them in her sea-disgorging womb.
Nor less affrighted are the bestial kind.
The bold steed quivers in each panting vein,
And staggers, bathed in deluges of sweat :
Thy lowing herds forsake their grassy food,
And send forth frighted, woful, hollow sounds;
The dog, thy trusty sentinel of night,
Deserts his post assigned, and, piteous, howls. -
Wide ocean feels: -

The mountain-waves, passing their customed bounds,
Make direful, loud incursions on the land,
All overwhelming: sudden they retreat,
With their whole troubled waters; but, anon,
Sudden return, with louder, mightier force
(The black rocks whiten, the vext shores resound);
And yet, more rapid, distant they retire.
Vast coruscations lighten all the sky,
With volumed flames; while thunder's awful voice,
From forth his shrine, by night and horror girt,
Astounds the guilty, and appalls the good.
For oft the best, smote by the bolt of heaven,
Wrapt in ethereal flame, forget to live:
Else, fair Theana.- Muse, her fate deplore.

STORY OF JUNIO AND THEANA.

Soon as young reason dawned in Junio's breast,
His father sent him from these genial isles,
To where old Thames, with conscious pride, surveys
Green Eton, soft abode of every muse.

Each classic beauty soon he made his own;
And soon famed Isis saw him woo the Nine,
On her inspiring banks: love tuned his song;
For fair Theana was his only theme,
Acasto's daughter, whom, in early youth,
He oft distinguished; and for whom he oft
Had climbed the bending coco's airy height,
To rob it of its nectar; which the maid,
When he presented, more nectareous deemed, -

The sweetest sappadillas oft he brought;
From him more sweet ripe sappadillas seemed.
Nor had long absence yet effaced her form;
Her charms still triumphed o'er Britannia's fair.
One morn he met her in Sheen's' royal walks;
Nor knew, till then, sweet Sheen contained his all.
His taste mature approved his infant choice.
In color, form, expression, and in grace,
She shone all perfect; while each pleasing art,
And each soft virtue that the sex adorns,
Adorned the woman. My imperfect strain,
Which Percy's happier pencil would demand,
Can ill describe the transports Junio felt
At this discovery: he declared his love;
She owned his merit, nor refused his hand.

And shall not Hymen light his brightest torch
For this delighted pair? Ah, Junio knew,
His sire detested his Theana's house! -
Thus duty, reverence, gratitude, conspired
To check their happy union. He resolved
(And many a sigh that resolution cost)
To pass the time, till death his sire removed,
In visiting old Europe's lettered climes :
While she (and many a tear that parting drew)
Embarked, reluctant, for her native isle.

Though learned, curious, and though nobly bent
With each rare talent to adorn his mind,
His native land to serve, no joys he found.
Yet sprightly Gaul; yet Belgium, Saturn's reign;
Yet Greece, of old the seat of every muse,
Of freedom, courage; yet Ausonia's 3 clime,
His steps explored; where painting, music's strains,
Where arts, where laws (Philosophy's best child),
With rival beauties, his attention claimed.
To his just-judging, his instructed eye,
The all-perfect Medicean Venus 4 seemed
A perfect semblance of his Indian fair:

But when she spake of love, her voice surpassed
The harmonious warblings of Italian song.

Twice one long year elapsed, when letters came,
Which briefly told him of his father's death.
Afflicted, filial, yet to Heaven resigned,
Soon he reached Albion, and as soon embarked,
Eager to clasp the object of his love.

Blow, prosperous breezes ! swiftly sail, thou Po! Swift sailed the Po, and happy breezes blew.

In Biscay's stormy seas an armed ship,
Of force superior, from loud Charente's wave,
Clapt them on board. The frighted flying crew
Their colors strike; when dauntless Junio, fired
With noble indignation, killed the chief,
Who on the bloody deck dealt slaughter round.
The Gauls retreat; the Britains loud huzza;
And, touched with shame, with emulation stung,

So plied their cannon, plied their missile fires,
That soon in air the hapless Thunderer blew.
Blow, prosperous breezes! swiftly sail, thou Po!
May no more dangerous fights retard thy way!
Soon Porto Santo's rocky heights they spy,
Like clouds dim rising in the distant air.
Glad Eurus whistles; laugh the sportive crew;
Each sail is set to catch the favoring gale,
While on the yard-arm the harpooner sits,
Strikes the boneta, or the shark ensnares.
The fringed urtica spreads her purple form
To catch the gale, and dances o'er the waves :
Small winged fishes on the shrouds alight,
And beauteous dolphins gently played around.

Though faster than the tropic-bird they flew,
Oft Junio cried, Ah! when shall we see land?
Soon land they made: and now in thought he claspt
His Indian bride, and deemed his toils o'erpaid.
She, no less amorous, every evening walked
On the cool margin of the purple main,
Intent her Junio's vessel to descry.

One eve, faint calms for many a day had raged, The wingéd demons of the tempest rose ; Thunder, and rain, and lightning's awful power. She fled could innocence, could beauty, claim Exemption from the grave, the ethereal bolt, That stretched her speechless, o'er her lovely head Had innocently rolled.

Meanwhile, impatient, Junio leapt ashore, Regardless of the demons of the storm. Ah, youth what woes, too great for man to bear, Are ready to burst on thee! Urge not so Thy flying courser. Soon Theana's porch Received him: at his sight, the ancient slaves Affrighted shriek, and to the chamber point. Confounded, yet unknowing what they meant, He entered hasty

Ah! what a sight for one who loved so well! All pale and cold, in every feature death, Theana lay; and yet a glimpse of joy Played on her face, while with faint, faltering voice, She thus addressed the youth, whom yet she knew. Welcome, my Junio, to thy native shore! Thy sight repays this summons of my fate: Live, and live happy; sometimes think of me : By night, by day, you still engaged my care; And, next to God, you now my thoughts employ: Accept of this. my little all I give ; Would it were larger!'- Nature could no more; She looked, embraced him, with a groan expired.

But say, what strains, what language can ex

press,

The thousand pangs which tore the lover's breast?
Upon her breathless corse himself he threw,
And to her clay-cold lips, with trembling haste,
Ten thousand kisses gave. He strove to speak;
Nor words he found; he clasped her in his arms;
He sighed, he swooned, looked up, and died away.

One grave contains this hapless, faithful pair; And still the cane-isles tell their matchless love!

BOOK III.

ARGUMENT.

Hymn to the month of January, when crop begins. Address. Planters have employment all the year round. Planters should be pious. A ripe cane-piece on fire at midnight. Crop begun. Cane-cutting described. Effects of music. Great care requisite in feeding the mill. Humanity towards the maimed recommended. The tainted cane should not be ground. Their use. How to preserve the laths and mill-points from sudden squalls. Address to the sun, and praise of Antigua. A cattle-mill described. Care of mules, etc. Diseases to which they are subject. A water-mill the least liable to interruption. Common in Guadaloupe and Martinico. Praise of Lord Romney. The necessity of a strong, clear fire, in boiling. Planters should always have a spare set of vessels, because the iron furnaces are apt to crack, and copper vessels to melt. The danger of throwing cold water into a thorough-heated furnace. Cleanliness, and skimming well, recommended. A boiling-house should be lofty, and open at top, to the leeward. Constituent parts of vegetables. Sugar an essential salt. What retards its granulation. How to forward it. Dumb cane. Effects of it. Bristol lime the best temper. Various uses of Bristol lime. Good muscovado described. Bermudas lime recommended. The Negroes should not be hindered from drinking the hot liquor. The cheerfulness and healthiness of the Negroes in crop-time. Boilers to be encouraged. They should neither boil the sugar too little, nor too much. When the sugar is of too loose a grain, and about to boil over the teache, or last copper, a little grease settles it, and makes it boil closer. The French often mix sand with their sugars. This practice not followed by the English. A character. Of the skimmings. Their various uses. rum. Its praise. A West India prospect, when crop is finished. An address to the Creoles, to live more upon their estates than they do. The reasons.

Of

HARVESTING AND SUGAR-BOILING. THE NEW YEAR.-SIMILE OF THE PILGRIM.

From scenes of deep distress the heavenly Muse, Emerging joyous, claps her dewy wings. As when a pilgrim in the howling waste Hath long time wandered, fearful at each step Of tumbling cliffs, fell serpents, whelming bogs; At last, from some long eminence, descries Fair haunts of social life; wide-cultured plains, O'er which glad reapers pour; he cheerly sings: So she to sprightlier notes her pipe attunes, Than e'er these mountains heard; to gratulate, With duteous carols, the beginning year.

WINTER UNKNOWN IN THE WEST INDIES.

Hail, eldest birth of time! in other climes, In the old world, with tempests ushered in ; While rifled Nature thine appearance wails, And savage Winter wields his iron mace: But not the rockiest verge of these green isles, Though mountains heaped on mountains brave the Dares Winter by his residence profane. At times the ruffian, wrapt in murky state, Inroads will, sly, attempt; but soon the sun, Benign protector of the cane-land isles, Repels the invader, and his rude mace breaks.

JANUARY WELCOMED.

[sky,

Here, every mountain, every winding dell (Haunt of the Dryads; where, beneath the shade Of broad-leafed china, idly they repose, Charmed with the murmur of the tinkling rill, Charmed with the hummings of the neighboring hive),

Welcome thy glad approach: but chief the cane, Whose juice now longs to murmur down the spout, Hails thy loved coming; January, hail!

DEDICATION TO M.

OM- -! thou, whose polished mind contains Each science useful to thy native isle ! Philosopher, without the hermit's spleen! Polite, yet learned; and, though solid, gay! Critic, whose head each beauty, fond, admires ; Whose heart each error flings in friendly shade! Planter, whose youth sage cultivation taught Each secret lesson of her sylvan school: To thee the Muse a grateful tribute pays; She owes to thee the precepts of her song: Nor wilt thou, sour, refuse, though other cares, The public welfare, claim thy busy hour, With her to roam (thrice-pleasing devious walk) The ripened cane-piece, and with her to taste (Delicious draught!) the nectar of the mill!

PLANTERS SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGE THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

The planter's labor in a round revolves! Ends with the year, and with the year begins. Ye swains, to Heaven bend low in grateful

prayer,

Worship the Almighty; whose kind-fostering hand
Hath blest your labor, and hath given the cane
To rise superior to each menaced ill.

Nor less, ye planters, in devotion, sue,
That nor the heavenly bolt, nor casual spark,
Nor hand of malice, may the crop destroy.

A CANE-FIELD ON FIRE;

VAIN EFFORTS; DESTRUCTION 07
THE CROP.

Ah me what numerous, deafening bells re-
What cries of horror startle the dull steep? [sound?
What gleaming brightness makes, at midnight, day,
By its portentous glare? Too well I see
Palæmon's fate, the virtuous and the wise!
Where were ye, watches, when the flame burst forth?
A little care had then the hydra quelled:
But, now, what clouds of white smoke load the sky!
How strong, how rapid, the combustion pours!
Aid not, ye winds! with your destroying breath,
The spreading vengeance. They contemn my

prayer.

Roused by the deafening bells, the cries, the From every quarter, in tumultuous bands, [blaze, The Negroes rush, and 'mid the crackling flames Plunge, demon-like! All, all, urge every nerve : This way, tear up those canes; dash the fire out, Which sweeps, with serpent-orror, o'er the ground. There, hew these down; their topmost branches And here bid all thy watry engines play; [burn; For here the wind the burning deluge drives. In vain. More wide the blazing torrent rolls; More loud it roars, more bright it fires the pole ! And toward thy mansion, see, it bends its way. Haste! far, O far, your infant throng remove : Quick from your stables drag your steeds and mules:

With well-wet blankets guard your cypress-roofs;
And where thy dried canes in large stacks are
Efforts but serve to irritate the flames : [piled.
Naught but thy ruin can their wrath appease.
Ah, my Palæmon! what availed thy care,
Oft to prevent the earliest dawn of day,
And walk thy ranges at the noon of night?
What though no ills assailed thy bunching sprouts,
And seasons poured obedient to thy will:
All, all must perish; nor shalt thou preserve
Wherewith to feed thy little orphan throng.

THE RIPE CROP; COPPERS, NEGROES, MILLS.
O, may the cane-isles know few nights like this!
For now the sail-clad points, impatient, wait
The hour of sweet release, to court the gale.
The late-hung coppers wish to feel the warmth
Which well-dried fuel from the cane imparts:
The Negro-train, with placid look, survey
Thy fields, which full perfection have attained,
And pant to wield the bill (no surly watch
Dare now deprive them of the luscious cane):
Nor thou, my friend, their willing ardor check;
Encourage rather; cheerful toil is light.
So from no field shall slow-paced oxen draw
More frequent loaded wains; which many a day,
And many a night, shall feed thy crackling mills
With richest offerings while thy far-seen flames,
Bursting through many a chimney, bright emblaze
The Ethiop-brow of night. And see, they pour
(Ere Phosphor his pale circlet yet withdraws,
What time gray dawn stands tip-toe on the hill)
O'er the rich cane-grove: Muse, their labor sing.

CANE-CUTTING; VARIOUS MODES; LEAVES, TOPS, STALK HARVESTING.

Some, bending, of their sapless burden ease
The yellow-jointed canes (whose height exceeds
A mounted trooper, and whose clammy round
Measures two inches full); and near the root
Lop the stem off, which quivers in their hand
With fond impatience soon its branchy spires
(Food to thy cattle) it resigns; and soon
Its tender prickly tops, with eyes thick set,
To load with future crops thy long-hoed land.
These with their green, their pliant branches bound
(For not a part of this amazing plant

But serves some useful purpose), charge the young:
Not laziness declines this easy toil;
Even lameness from its leafy pallet crawls,
To join the favored gang. What of the cane
Remains and much the largest part remains-
Cut into junks a yard in length, and tied [wain,
In small light bundles, load the broad-wheeled
The mules crook-harnessed, and the sturdier crew,
With sweet abundance.

THE LINCOLN SHEEP-SHEARINGS.

As on Lincoln plains (Ye plains of Lincoln, sound your Dyer's praise!) When the laved snow-white flocks are numerous penned,

The senior swains, with sharpened shears, cut off
The fleecy vestment; others stir the tar;
And some impress upon their captive's sides
Their master's cipher; while the infant throng
Strive by the horns to hold the struggling ram,
Proud of their prowess. Nor meanwhile the jest
Light-bandied round, but innocent of ill;
Nor choral song are wanting: echo rings.

THE LASH NOT NEEDED.

Nor need the driver, Æthiop authorized, Thence more inhuman, crack his horrid whip; From such dire sounds the indignant Muse averts Her virgin ear, where music loves to dwell: "Tis malice now, 't is wantonness of power, To lash the laughing, laboring, singing throng.

HARVEST-SONGS. EFFECTS OF SONG.— SCOTCH SHEPHERDS.

What cannot song? all nature feels its power : The hind's blithe whistle, as through stubborn soils He drives the shining share, more than the goad His tardy steers impels. The Muse hath seen, When health danced frolic in her youthful veins, And vacant gambols winged the laughing hoursThe Muse hath seen on Annan's pastoral hills, Of theft and slaughter erst the fell retreat, But now the shepherd's best beloved walkHath seen the shepherd, with his sylvan pipe, Lead on his flock o'er crags, through bogs, and A tedious journey; yet not weary they, [streams, Drawn by the enchantment of his artless song. What cannot music? - When brown Ceres asks The reaper's sickle, what like magic sound, Puffed from sonorous bellows by the squeeze Of tuneful artist, can the rage disarm Of the swart dog-star, and make harvest light?

FEEDING THE CANE-MILL. THE MAIMED SLAVE.

And now thy mills dance eager in the gale; Feed well their eagerness: but, 0, beware; Nor trust between the steel-cased cylinders The hand incautious: off the member snapt Thou 'lt ever rue, sad spectacle of woe! Are there the Muse can scarce believe the taleAre there, who, lost to every feeling sense, To reason, interest, lost, their slaves desert, And manumit themgenerous boon!-to starve, Maimed by imprudence, or the hand of Heaven? The good man feeds his blind, his aged steed, That in his service spent his vigorous prime : And dares a mortal to his fellow-man (For, spite of vanity, thy slaves are men) Deny protection? Muse, suppress the tale!

CULLING THE CANES. DISTILLING. USE OF BAD STALKS.

Ye, who in bundles bind the lopt-off canes,
But chiefly ye who feed the tight-braced mill,
In separate parcels far the infected fling:
Of bad cane-juice the least admixture spoils
The richest, soundest; thus, in pastoral walks,
One tainted sheep contaminates the fold.