254 



The beds are there a cubit wide, with only four 

 rows of canes planted in each. 



It is deserving of notice that the eastern and 

 north-eastern parts of Bengal are more subject to 

 rain at all seasons of the year, but especially in the 

 hot months, than the western ; which accounts for 

 the land being prepared and the plants set so much 

 earlier in Rungpore than in Beerbhoom. This 

 latter place has also a drier soil generally ; 

 which is another reason why such stress is laid in 

 the report on the necessity of watering there. Land 

 about Benares is also drier than Bengal, and 

 requires more watering in consequence. 



At Malda, ten or fifteen days after the earth is 

 removed from round the roots, and the plants 

 appear, the land is slightly manured, well cleared 

 of weeds, and the removed earth again laid about 

 the canes. Ten or fifteen days after, it is well 

 weeded, and again twenty or twenty -five days 

 after that. It is necessary to follow this mode of 

 cultivation until the month of Joyst. The land is 

 ploughed and manured between the rows of canes 

 in the month of Assar ; fifteen or twenty days 

 after which, the canes are bound, two or three 

 together, with the leaves, the earth about the stems 

 well cleaned, and that which was ploughed up, 

 laid about the roots of the canes, a little raised. 

 In the month of Saubun, twenty or twenty-five 

 days after the preceding operation, the canes are 



