SUCrA.R. 



170 



In the vicinity of Benares, as the canes advance in growth, they 

 continue to wrap the leaves as they begin to wither up round the 

 advancing stem, and to tie this to the bamboo higher up. If the 

 weather continue wet, the trenches are carefully kept open ; and, 

 on the other hand, if dry weather occurs, water is occasionally sup- 

 plied. Hoeing is also performed every five or six weeks. Wrapping 

 the leaves around the cane is found to prevent them cracking by 

 the heat of the sun, and hinders their throwing out lateral 

 branches. 



In January and February the canes are ready for cutting. The 

 average height of the cane is about nine feet, foliage included, 

 and the naked cane from one inch to one inch and a quarter in 

 diameter. 



Near Maduna, the hand- watering is facilitated by cutting a small 

 trench down the centre of each bed. The beds are there a cubit 

 wide, but only four rows of canes are planted in each, 



It is deserving of notice, that the eastern and north-eastern parts 

 of Bengal are more subject to rain at every season 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. 

 Eungpore than in Beerbhoom. This latter country has also a 

 dryer soil generally ; for this reason, so much is said in the report 

 from thence of the necessity of watering. 



The Benares country is also dryer than Bengal, therefore more 

 waterings are requisite. 



At Malda, ten or fifteen days after the earth has been removed 

 from the roots of the canes and the plants have appeared, the land 

 is to be slightly manured, well cleared of weeds, and the earth that 

 was removed again laid about the canes ; after which, ten or fifteen 

 days, it must be well weeded, and again twenty or twenty-five 

 days afterwards. This mode of cultivation it is necessary to follow 

 until the month of Joystee. The land must be ploughed and ma- 

 nured between the rows of canes in the month of Assaar ; after 

 which, fifteen or twenty days, the canes are to be tied two or three 

 together with the leaves, the earth about them well cleaned, and 

 the earth that was ploughed up laid about the roots of the canes 

 something raised. In the month of Saubun, twenty or twenty-five 

 days from the preceding operation, the canes are tied as before, 

 and again ten or fifteen days afterwards ; which done, nine or 

 ten clumps are then to be tied together. 



In the llojalimiuidry Circar, on the Delta of the Godavery, Dr. 

 Roxburgh states, " that nothing more is done after the cane is 

 planted, if the weather be moderately showery, till the young shoots 

 are some two or three inches high ; the earth is then loosened for 

 a few inches round them with the weeding iron. Should 

 the season prove dry, the field is occasionally watered from 

 the river, continuing to weed and to keep the ground loose 

 round the stools. In August, two or three months from 

 the time of planting, small trenches are cut through the field 

 at short distances, and so contrived as to serve to drain oft' 



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