THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 101 



and hard. Sugar-cane is propagated by layers or cuttings, 

 long enough to include two internodes, i.e. two nodes or 

 joints. The young canes are produced from buds, which 

 spring from the nodes under artificial stimulation, by 

 burying them for several days in damp earth, and soaking 

 in water for twelve hours before planting. In Bareilly, an 

 ordinary plough, which has been appeased with sacrificial 

 offerings of turmeric and rice, and decorated with the 

 ' tika ' in red earth, strikes the first furrow. This is 

 followed in the same furrow by a second, with mould- 

 board attached to widen and deepen the furrow. Behind 

 this conies the sower, wearing silver ornaments, with a 

 necklace of flowers round his neck and a red tika on his 

 forehead. He is usually fed with ghi and sweetmeats 

 before commencing. He is called the hathi or elephant. 

 He throws the bits of cane into the furrow immediately 

 behind the second plough, at intervals of about a foot. 

 Behind the elephant comes a second man, called the 

 kawa or crow, who picks up the bits that have not 

 fallen into the furrow, and puts them in properly ; and 

 occasionally the gudha or donkey, a third man, accom- 

 panies^ the elephant, carrying a basket of cuttings, which 

 he supplies as needed. 



Sugar-cane, in the North- Western Provinces, suffers at 

 times from the attacks of caterpillars, one of them, called 

 ' kanswa ' in the Meerut district, attacking the young 

 shoots, and another, the ' silai,' the full-grown plants. 

 The most serious injury to cane grown on low lands 

 results from being flooded in the rainy season. It is a 

 costly plant to grow, occupying the ground for many 

 months, requiring a rich soil, abundant manure, and 

 careful irrigation. The Animal Parasites of the Sugar- 

 cane, by H. Ling Eotli (London, Trlibner & Co., 1885), 



