SACCHARUM 



OPFICINARUM 



Madras 



THE SUGAK-CANE PLANT 



Propagation. 



Support. 



Cost. 



Yield 



Samalkota 

 Station. 



Too much Water. 



Selection of Seed. 



Nursery 

 Cultivation. 



Burma. 



Areas. 

 Districts. 



with crowbars and by heavily manuring with whatever manure he can obtain. 

 The crop is always propagated by cuttings. The top of the cane is commonly 

 used, but some cultivators leave a few canes growing in the fields from the previous 

 year, and cut them up into lengths of one or two joints. These tops or cuttings 

 are placed horizontally in the wet soil about 18 inches from each other, in 

 rows about 4 feet apart. Six days afterwards the field is again watered, and 

 about the twentieth day, four or six shoots sprout from each cutting. In Ganjam 

 and Vizagapatam some raiyats plant the cuttings in nurseries and afterwards 

 transplant the shoots into the fields. After the shoots appear, the ground is 

 weeded and hoed, and when they are about a month old, chaff, weeds, or some 

 such manure is thrown around them. The soil is kept moist by occasional irri- 

 gation, and when about three months old the shoots ought to be 3 feet high. 

 After this stage it often becomes necessary to give the canes support. This is 

 done by fixing bamboos or saplings into the ground in the middle of each group 

 of canes, the leaves being tied round so as to bind them together. Ten months 

 from planting, the crop is ready for cutting. The cost of cultivation in the 

 Presidency generally has been estimated at Us. 150 per acre and the outturn at 

 22| tons of stripped cane, yielding 45 cwt. of jaggery worth Rs. 250. Nicholson 

 states the outturn of cane to be 25 to 30 tons, worth Rs. 150 to Rs. 200, and of 

 jaggery 2 tons to 2 tons, worth Rs. 210 to Rs. 240. 



The growing of sugar-cane in the Godavari district, which was in former years 

 a profitable undertaking, has in recent times suffered considerably from a disease 

 which has attacked the canes, and a special Government station has been opened 

 at Samalkota for the particular study of the disease and of cane cultivation 

 generally. The objects of this experiment are laid down by Mr. Barber, Govern- 

 ment botanist, Madras, in a note published in 1904 (Exp. Sugar-cane Stat. Samal- 

 kota, Mad. Bull., ii., No. 48). The experiments carried on have made several 

 points clear. Barber maintains that the quantity of water given to sugar-cane 

 must be very carefully regulated, and that hitherto the cultivator has been in 

 the habit of giving too much water. After each watering the land must be 

 thoroughly and quickly drained. The highest and driest places must be chosen 

 for the plantation and deep drains dug to throw the water oft as quickly as 

 possible, after the ground has been thoroughly soaked. Another important 

 point is the selection of seed to safeguard the propagation from diseased stocks, 

 and also to secure the introduction of new varieties exempt from disease from 

 other parts of India and the world. Still another point that seems likely to 

 assume the form of a radical departure is the cultivation of the sets in a nursery, 

 preparatory to their being placed in the field. This is not a new principle to 

 India, but has never been applied to any great extent. It has been recently 

 decided that the farm shall be made permanent, and thirty-six acres of land 

 have been acquired for the purpose. Further details regarding the work done 

 will be found in an article by Barber in the Indian Agricultural Journal (1906, 

 i., pt. i., 44-8 ; ii., pt. i., 33-41). \Cf. Proc. Agri.-Hort. Soc. Mad., 1890, 

 44-60, etc. ; Sturrock, Man. S. Canara Dist., 1894, i., 207-8 ; 1895, ii., 139-40 ; 

 Cox, Man. N. Arcot, 1895, i., 262-5 ; Sugar-cane in Goddvari and Ganjam Dis- 

 tricts ; Nicholson, Man. Coimbatore Dist., 1898, 235-7 ; Dept. Land Bee. and 

 Agri. Mad. Bull., 1899, ii., No. 36 ; 1901, ii., No. 43 ; Benson, Sugar-cane of 

 Mad., Bull., 1902, No. 46, 235 ; Subba Rao, Sugar-cane in Deccan Dial., Bull., 

 1904, No. 50, 289-300 ; Rept. of Agri. Chemist, Mysore, 1904-5, 8-38 ; 1905, 1-10 ; 

 Dept. Agri. Mad. Bull., Nos. 39, 43, 46, 48, 50-1 ; Eepts. Samalkota Sugar Farm, 

 Agri. Journ. 2nd., 1906, i., pt. i., 44-8 ; pt. iii, 226-9 ; 1907, ii., pt. i., 33-41 ; 

 Lehmann, Improvement of Sugar-cane Indust. in Mysore, in Agri. Journ. Ind., 

 1907, ii., pt. i., 54-63.] 



Burma. The area under sugar-cane for 1905-6 was 2,281 acres in 

 Upper Burma, and 10,429 acres in Lower Burma. In Lower Burma the 

 largest areas are Thaton, 4,291 acres ; Toungoo, 1,368 acres ; Sandoway, 

 705 acres ; Amherst, 688 acres ; Kyaukpyu, 603 acres ; Tharawaddi, 557 

 acres ; Myaungmya, 447 acres, etc. In Upper Burma, Yamethin, 1,587 

 acres ; Kyaukse, 381 acres. These returns may be accepted as relatively 

 correct for normal years. 



The cultivation of sugar-cane in Burma was fully described (in 1885) by 

 Mr. J. E. Bridges. We Team that the cane-producing lands may be roughly 

 divided into two tracts : (1) that of shifting cane cultivation, where the cane is 



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