128 SUGAR 



United Provinces, appears to be unrepresented in the 

 east of these provinces and in Bihar. The Pansahi group 

 extends throughout the cane-growing region, being 

 perhaps at its best in Bihar, and becoming less abundant 

 towards the north-west, until it leads a struggling exist- 

 ence in the Punjab, occasionally being wiped out by frost 

 there and reintroduced with difficulty. The canes of this 

 group are thicker than the others, and its members are 

 more or less intermediate between the thinner, indigenous 

 canes and the thick, introduced ones. They are delicate, 

 require plenty of water, and are liable to attacks of 

 red rot. 



It would be interesting, if time permitted, to trace the 

 changes in the size and luxuriance of the canes as we 

 pass from Madras to Calcutta, and along the sugar-cane 

 tract of North India to the Punjab. The canes of Bengal, 

 Assam, and Bihar are often not far behind those of 

 Madras in thickness, and large crops are sometimes 

 reaped. As we proceed north-west the luxuriance con- 

 stantly diminishes until, in the frost-visited region of the 

 Punjab, the canes are probably the thinnest and hardiest 

 in the world, often under j in. in diameter. The rind 

 of these canes is extremely tough and the proportion 

 of fibre very high. In certain districts of the Punjab this 

 is taken into account for the manufacture of ropes and 

 mats, and the prices obtained for these is sufficiently high 

 to make the extraction of fibre of equal or greater import- 

 ance to the cultivator than that of gur. As the modern 

 iron mill breaks up the fibre very effectively, we have in 

 these districts the survival of one of the primitive mills 

 of India, called the " belna." The thin canes are tied 

 together into bundles of about 100 each, and are then 

 passed backwards and forwards between wooden rollers, 

 by men on each side, for the best part of an hour. The 

 residual bundles of coarse fibre find a ready market for 

 the manufacture of ropes for mhotes for lifting water, and 

 their price has risen considerably during recent years. 



The canes of the Punjab are of special interest because 

 of their primitive character, and show very clear relation- 

 ship with one of the wild Saccharums of the neighbour- 

 hood. Most of these canes are of the Katha variety, a 



