C. A, BARBER 77 



reproduced from the matured cane sets, but such exceptions are comparatively 

 rare. When the Samalkota farm was started in the Godavari District, it was 

 the local practice to plant 25,000 to 30,000 sets per acre, and the cultivators 

 were quite content to put aside Rs. 30 to Rs. 40 for the purchase of seed per 

 acre. A series of experiments was therefore initiated with the number of sets 

 planted, varying from 4,000 to 30,000 per acre. The numbers of canes produced 

 at harvest were counted and the amount of jaggery produced was estimated. 

 These figures are now unfortunately lost, but the general conclusion arrived 

 at was that, with proper treatment, each piece of land would produce the same 

 weight of canes within comparatively wide limits, but that, when thick canes 

 were sown at the rate of 12,000 sets to the acre, the maximum yield might be 

 counted on, and that closer planting merely led to unnecessary expense in the 

 purchase of sets. A similar series of experiments was made with Reora of 

 Benares in Partabgarh in North India, ^ varying numbers of sets being 

 planted per acre and the resulting yield of gur compared. Here, too, 12,000 

 sets per acre were found to produce the most satisfactory results, and the 

 larger number of sets usually planted by the ryots did not give any increased 

 yield. At first it strikes one as rather curious that thick and thin varieties, 

 with their greatly differing tillering power, would require the same amount of 

 space for their best development. But it must be remembered that the number 

 of buds p3r set was considerably greater in Reora because of its short-jointed 

 character. The number of sets planted per acre on different farms in North 

 India appears, however, to differ very considerably {of. Table on p. 63a), and 

 it is not known whether these numbers are the result of series of spacin<T 

 experiments, such as those made at Samalkota and Partabgarh, or are merely 

 an adoption of the local ryots' practice until such experiments can be 

 conducted. 



Stubbs- quotes a certain Mr. 8keete, who speaks of sets planted six 

 feet apart, with the result that often 50-100 canes were reaped from one hole. 

 We have been unable to verify this reference or to discover what country is 

 spoken of, but it appears to be not at all unlikely, for Prinsen Geerligs^ states, 

 of San Domingo, in the West Indies, that the canes are occasionally j^lanted 

 nine feet, apart each way, which would mean only 538 sets to the acre, and 

 presumably the tillering in such cases would be great enough to make up the 

 requisite number of canes at harvest time. It is the custom at the 



* Clarke, Amiott and Hussaiii, ttc. Experiments on the cultivation of sugarcane at tlic 

 Partabgarh E.xpcrimcntal Station, 191U-11. Bulletin No. 27, Agr. Res. Inst., Pusa, 1911. 



2 Ibid, p. 95. 



3 Geeriigs, H. C. Prinsen. The World's Cane Swjar lndu4nj. Past and Pres., j). 193, 10J2. 



