C. A. BARBER 53 



November, and indeed seems to be greatly influenced in its profusion by the 

 amount of rain falling during the year, while the cane is harvested when the 

 juice is richest, and this occurs in February and March, after the cold season, 

 when the air becomes hot and dry. 



The formation of new shoots at th.e base of the cane plant proceeds during 

 the whole of the growing period, but there is no doubt that it is much more 

 active at the commencement of growth, for the rap'd foimation of canes is not 

 really taken up until the plant is six or seven months o^d {cf p. 108). And this 

 separation of the branching and lengthening periods of the plant is in certain 

 cases emphasized by local conditions of growth. In South India the sets are 

 planted at the commencement of the hot, dry weather, when the harvest is 

 reaped, sugarcane being everywhere an irrigated crop. In the Godavari Dis- 

 trict, the 3'oung plants, after growing for a few months, receive a severe check, 

 in that the irrigation channels are closed every year in May for cleaning, and, 

 for some six weeks, irrigation is in abeyance, and the plants depend on such 

 scanty showers as fall at this time. During this period, the branching of the 

 underground parts goes on steadily, although little is added to the height of 

 the plants. In fact the plants often appear to grow shorter, in that they are 

 attacked by shoot-borer and many of the shoots are destroyed. But the ryot 

 views the matter with equanimity, because he knows that this pest merely 

 causes the lateral branches to be developed in larger numbers, and he asserts 

 that he gets a better stand of canes when there is an attack of moth borer. 

 It is probably of no great disadvantage for the shoots to be checked when there 

 is no water to continue their growth ; but cases are also met with where whole 

 fields are destroyed by the pest, or ugly gaps are seen in the plantations. The 

 branching period is lengthened and made more pronounced in this case which, 

 in some respects, is analogous to winter-soAvn wheat in Europe. 



A similar lengthening of the branching period is to be noted as the result 

 of certain diseases of the cane. In tlie neighbourhood of Coimbatore, where 

 many of the wells contain brackish water, sometimes the plants, especially 

 • ratoons, never reach the cane-forming period, but continue throughout the 

 season to develop new shoots with narrow leaves, which do not grow in length 

 but branch again, until, at crop time, nothing is seen but a number of low, 

 dense, grassy bushes. A case was met with by the author on new, rough 

 land, near the emergence of the Amravati river from the hills, where, in a 

 couple of acres fourteen months old, only a few canes were observable, and the 

 field closely resembled one of Guinea grass. It is needless to point out the 

 similaritv of this crowth to that induced hx sereh in Java and certain diseased 



