<P> The slaves working the sugar plantation were caught in an unceasing rhythm of arduous labor year after year . Sugarcane is harvested about 18 months after planting and the plantations usually divided their land for efficiency . One plot was lying fallow, one plot was growing cane, and the final plot was being harvested . During the December--May rainy season, slaves planted, fertilized with animal dung, and weeded . From January to June, they harvested the cane by chopping the plants off close to the ground, stripping the leaves and then cutting them into shorter strips to be bundled off to be sent to the sugar cane mill . </P> <P> In the mill, the cane was crushed using a three - roller mill . The juice from the crushing of the cane was then boiled or clarified until it crystallized into sugar . Some plantations also went a step further and distilled the molasses, the liquid left after the sugar is boiled or clarified, to make rum . The sugar was then shipped back to Europe . For the slave laborer, the routine started all over again . </P> <P> With the 19th - century abolition of slavery, plantations continued to grow sugar cane, but sugar beets, which can be grown in temperate climates, increased their share of the sugar market . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs expansion . You can help by adding to it . (February 2013) </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Upon what did the economy of the southern colonies largely depend