SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM. 



be assumed as 9^ lakhs of acres, amounting to 2 '5 per cent, on the total cropped area, 

 and 4'8 per cent, on the area under kharif crops. Its cultivation is greatly restricted to 

 certain well marked localities. The natural home, so to speak, of the cane is the strip 

 of damp country underlying the hills which comprises a large portion of Eohilkhand, 

 Oudh and the Benares Division. Here it is often grown without irrigation. But 

 the increased facility for irrigation afforded by canals has led to a great extension of its 

 cultivation in the drier districts of the Ganges- Jumna Doab, notably in the upper portion 

 of the Meerut Division, where it now forms one of the principal staples. It is also 

 grown very largely in the Districts of the Benares Division which lie between the 

 Gogra and Ganges, where water is near the surface and irrigation from wells and tanks 

 is much practised. South of the Jumna its cultivation is almost unknown, although 

 the occurrence of numerous disused stone sugar-mills in the villages of this tract gives 

 some ground for supposing that it was once one of the local crops. The percentage of 

 sugar-cane to the total cropped area in the temporarily settled Districts of the N.-W. 

 Provinces is shown by Divisions below : — 





Meerut 

 Division. 



Rohilkhand 

 Division. 



Agra 

 Division. 



Allahabad 

 Division, 

 excluding 

 Jaunpur 

 District. 



Benares Divi- 

 sion, including 

 Azamgarh, 

 Basti and 

 Gorakhpur 

 Districts only. 



Jhansi 

 Division. 



Kumaun 

 Division, 

 including 



Tarai 

 District 



only. 



Percentage of area 

 under cane to to- 

 tal cropped area, 



3-4 



4-4 



1-2 



•5 



3-4 



■1 



1-6 



A striking fact in connection with the extension of sugar cultivation in the Meerut 

 Division is its restriction to the three Northern Districts of Saharanpur, MuzafiFarnagar 

 and Meerut, although canal irrigation is equally abundant in the two southern Districts 

 of Bulandshahr and Aligarh. The explanation lies in the large extent of indigo cultiva- 

 tion in these two latter Districts, which has as yet kept the sugar-cane completely in 

 the background. 



This is shown below : — 





Saharanpur. 



MuzafEarnagar. 



Meerut. 



Bulandshahr. 



Aligarh. 



Percentage on total cropped 

 area of— 













Area under cane, 



3-5 



6-4 



6-3 



1-1 



•2^ 



„ „ indigo, 



•1 



•2 



•8 



4-5 



4-4* 



The sugar-cane season comprises, roughly speaking, a whole year. Sowing com- 

 mences in February, and the harvesting of the previous j^ear's cane is not concluded 

 till very shortly before this. If, however, cane is to be classified with other crops it must 

 be ranked with those produced in the kharif season, since it is on the warmth of the 

 summer months that its growth principally depends. 



