EDGEWORTH'S ACCOUNT OF THE SIKH STATES. 273 
. after the young plants begin to sprout (in the end of March 
or April) the caked surface of the ground is broken either by 
means of a wooden mallet or small hoe. The Canes are sel- 
dom irrigated, never unless when a small canal (khdl) from 
one of the torrents or ogals, passes near them and consequent- 
ly the crop is almost entirely dependent on the rains. It is 
seldom fit for cutting before the end of December, by which 
time the frost sets in and materially deteriorates the quality 
of the juice, often even entirely destroying the cane and render- 
ing it useless for any thing but indifferent fodder for the cattle 
and bad seed for the ensuing year. "The cane is even in the 
best years very poor, and seldom is more than six or seven 
feet long and three fingers thick; but as the very worst is 
always kept for seed it is not surprizing that it should have 
deteriorated. : The only wonder is, that it should be con- 
sidered worth the trouble of cultivating at all in such a way. 
€ cane is cut from the field by sickles and carried entire to 
the holt or sugar-mill, which is generally situated in the gohar 
or space surrounding the village, (I have here never observed 
It at a distance from the village as is usual in some parts of 
the country, except when a river intervenes,) there it is chop- 
Ped into little bits and pressed in the kolú; the mash from 
Which the juice has been expressed, with the leaves, being 
used as fuel to heat the sugar-boilers. The village cattle are 
allowed however to help themselves ad libitum from the heap. 
The tall column of dark smoke from the kolús with the deli- 
cious- fragrance of the boiling juice, greet one in almost - 
every village, from. the end of December to the middle of 
February, by which time the work is generally quite over, 
h sometimes it is continued till late in March, when the _ 
crop has been unusually abundant. 
“In garden-fields near town, species of the Cucurbitacee 
and Arums, with the sweet-potatoe and baigan, capsicum, methi — 
made of the young pods and for its oil) are generally culti- a 
Y tnt: “adtame ims! att dive Deuces muB dio | pow — 
Vol, aie a N 
