of cultivating the Sugar Cane. 271 



2d. Storms, unless they are very violent, do no great 

 harm, because the canes are propped ; however, if they are 

 once laid down, which sometimes happens, they become 

 branchy and thin, \ielding a poor watery juice. 



3d, The worm is another evil, which generally visits them 

 every few years. A beetle deposits its eggs in the young 

 cane; the caterpillars of these remain in the cane, living on 

 its medullary parts, till they are ready to be metamorphosed 

 into the chrysalis state. Sometimes this evil is so great as 

 to injure a sixth or an eighth part of the field : but, what 

 is worse, the disease is commonly general when it happens, 

 few fields escaping. 



4th. The flowering is the last accident they reckon upon, 

 although it scarcely deserves the name ; for it rarely hap- 

 pens, and never but to a very small proportion of some very 

 few fields: those canes that flower have very little juice 

 left, and it is by no means so sweet as that of the rest. 



Say the average quantity of land employed for the gro\vth 

 of sugar canes in these parts, the zemindaries of Peddapore 

 and Pettaporc, independent of what is made on or about 

 the islands formed by the mouths of the Godavary, is 550 

 vissums, equal to 110 acres, and to produce at the rate of 

 10 candy, or about 44 cwt., equal to G-i- hogsheads per 

 acre : the whole produce in hogsheads will annually be 

 27,500 of 18 cwt. each, which is fullv one-fourlh part of 

 sugar produced in the island of Jamaica; and I know well, 

 that the quantity might, with advantage to government, I 

 was going to say, — but that must be left to be determined 

 hereafter, — I will therefore say, with advantage to the ze- 

 mindar, farmer, and labourer, be increased to any extent. 

 All the security the planter wants, is a strict adherence to 

 the agreement he makes with the zemindar for the land, 

 and a certain market for his su;;"ar, at even the lowest price 

 stated. I ol)serve that the farmer would require to have the 

 agreement he makes for the rent of the land strictly adhered 

 to, because the zemindar raises his demand if the crop is 

 good; so that he will often, in a favourable season, make 

 farmers of ail denominations pay probably a fourth more 

 than the original agreement. Such injustice thev are 

 obliged to put up with, as custom has rendered it connnon, 

 and they have no idea of applying for redress ; vet it no 

 doubt danq-js tlic spirit of industry, and prevents the soil 

 from any iurther improvement than the bountiful hand of 

 Nature has bestowed on it, which, in these parts, is great 

 indeed. 



The planters in these parts very rarely take a second, or 



what 



