176 SUOAK. 



from them, and they are cut into pieces, not having less than t\vo 

 nor more than four joints each. These sets are kept for ten or 

 fifteen days in a bed prepared for them, from whence thcv arc 

 taken and planted in rows two or three together, eighteen inches 

 or two feet intervening between each stool. 



Planting. The time and mode of planting vary. In the Rnjah- 

 mundry Circar, Dr. Roxburgh says, that " during the months of 

 April and May the land is repeatedly ploughed with the common 

 Hindoo plough, which soon brings the loose rich soil (speaking of 

 the Delta of the Grodavery) into very excellent order. About the 

 end of May and beginning of June, the rains generally set in, in 

 frequent heavy showers. Now is the time to plant the cane ; but 

 should the rains hold back, the prepared field is watered or flooded 

 from the river, and, while perfectly wet, like soft mud, the cane 

 is planted. 



" The method is most simple. Laborers with baskets of the 

 cuttings, of one or two joints each, arrange themselves along one 

 side of the field. They walk side by side, in as straight a line as 

 their eye and judgment enable them, dropping the sets at the 

 distance of about eighteen inches asunder in rows, and about four 

 feet from row to row. Other laborers follow, and with the foot 

 press the set about two inches into the soft, mud-like soil, which, 

 with a sweep or two with the sole of the foot, they most easily 

 and readily cover." (Roxburgh on the Culture of Sugar.) 



About Malda, in the month of Maug (January, February), the 

 land is to be twice ploughed, and harrowed repeatedly, length and 

 breadth ways ; after which it is furrowed, the furrows half a cubit 

 apart, in which the plants are to be set at about four fingers' dis- 

 tance from each other, when the furrows are filled up with the 

 land that lay upon its ridges. The plants being thus set, the land 

 is harrowed twice in different directions ; fifteen or twenty 

 days afterwards the cane begins to grow, when the weeds which 

 appear with it must be taken up ; ten or twelve days after this 

 the weeds will again appear. They must again be taken up, and 

 the earth at the roots of the canes be removed, when all the 

 plants which have grown will appear. 



At Ghazepore the rains set in at the beginning of March, and 

 planting then commences. Near Calcutta the planting takes place 

 in May and June. In Dinajpoor and Rungpore the planting time 

 is February. 



About Commercolly it is performed in January. The field is 

 divided into beds six cubits broad, separated from each other by 

 small trenches fourteen inches wide and eight inches deep. In 

 every second trench are small w r ells, about two feet deep. The 

 irrigating water flowing along the trenches fills the wells, and is 

 taken thence and applied to the canes by hand. 



Each bed has five rows of canes. The sets are planted in holes 

 about six inches in diameter, and three deep; two sets, each 

 having three joints, are laid horizontally in every hole, covered 

 slightly with earth, and over this is a little dung. 



