The experimental design was fully randomized, with three treatments and twenty replications. Sugarcane treatments consisted of the harvesting systems with trash burning (sugarcane with burn) and mechanized harvesting without trash burn (sugarcane without burn). The areas have been established with these treatments since 1992, therefore for 17 years, when the samples were taken, in 2008. In the area with burning, sugarcane was burned every year from the second year, therefore 16 times when the soil sampling from this study were taken. The mechanized harvesting without trash burn started after the burning in 2002; therefore, a six year period without burning was accumulated at the time of soil sampling. The adjacent savanna native forest (NF) was used as a reference for the initial condition of the soil before it was turned over to farming. Areas with or without burning were located side by side, and the remaining native forest was located perpendicular to both areas. Declivity of the area ranged from 3% to a maximum of 8%.