Cultivation of Sugar and Cotton in the East Indies [pp. 511-543]

EAST INDIA SUGAR CULTURE.
c-l has been expressed. At Radnagore, when the time of cutting the
canes arrives, their tops are taken off, and these are placed upright
in a bed of mud for thirty or forty days, and covere# with leaves or
straw. The leaves are then stripped from them, and they are cut
into pieces, not having less than two, nor more than four joints each.
These sets are kept for ten or fifteen days in a bed prepared for them,
from whence they are taken anl planted in rows twvo or three together,
eighteen inches or two feet intervening between each stool. The
number of sets planted varies from 7,500 to 10,240 per beegah.
Planting.-The time and mode of planting vary. In the Rajahmtundrv Circar, Dr. Roxburgh says, that "during the months of April
and M,ay the land is repeatedly plowed with the common Hindoo
plowv, which soon brings this loose rich soil (speaking of the Delta
of the Godavery) into very excellent order. About the end of May
and beginning of June, the rains generally set in, in frequent heavy
showers. Now is the time to plant the cane; but should the rains
hold back, the prepared field is watered, flooded from the river, and,
while perfectly wet, like soft mud, whether from the rain or the river,
the cane is planted.
"The method is most simple. Laborers with baskets of the cuttings, of one or two joints each, arrange themselves along one side
of thie field. They walk side by side, in as straight a line as their
eve and judgment enable them, dropping tile sets at the distance of
about eighteen inches asunder in the rows, and about four feet row
from row. Other laborers follow, and with the toot press the set
about two inches into the soft, mud-like soil, which, with a sweep or
two with the sole of the foot, they most easily andl readily cover."
About MIalda, in the month of Maug (January, February), the land
is to be twice plowed, and harrowed repeatedly, length and breadth
ways; after which it is furrowed, in furrows half a cubit apart, in
which the plants are to be set at about four fingers' distance from
each other, when the furrows are filled up with the land that lay upon
its ridges. The plants being thus set, the land is then harrowed
twice in different directions; fifteen or twenty days afterward the
cane begins to grow, when the weeds which appear with it must be
taken up; ten or twelve days after this the weeds will again appear.
They must again be taken up, and the earth at the roots of the canes
be removed, when all the plants which have grown will appear.
At Ghazepore the rains set in at the beginning of March, and plant ing then commences.
Near Calcutta the planting takes place in May and June. In Di najpoor and Rungpore the planting time is February.
About Commercolly it is performed in January. The field is
divided into beds six cubits broad, separated from each other by small
trenches fourteen inches wide and eight inches deep. In every second
trench are small wells, about two feet deep. The irrigating water
flowing along the trenches fills the wells, and is taken thence andi
applied to the canes by hand.
Each bed has five rows of canes. The sets are planted in holes
about six inches in diameter and three deep; two sets, each having
three joints, are laid horizontally in every hole covered slightly with
earth, and over this is a little dung.
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