STJaAE 



171 



ing the most fayorable soils about G-azepore as " light clays,'^ 

 called there Jfbo^i?i!!ree, ovdoansa, according as there is more or less 

 sand in their composition. — Trails. Agri-Hort. Sgc. i. 121. 



Mr. Peddington seems to think that calcareous matter, andiron 

 in the state of peroxide, are essential to be present in a soil for the 

 production of the superior sugar cane. There can be no doubt 

 that the calcareous matter is necessary, but experience is opposed 

 to his opinion relative to the peroxide. 



The soil preferred at Eadnagore is there distinguished as the 

 soil of "two quahties," being a mixture of rich clay and sand, 

 and which Mr. Touchet believed to be known in England as a 

 light brick mould. 



About Eungpore, Dinajpoor, and other places where the ground 

 is low, they raise the beds where the cane is to be planted four 

 or five feet above the level of the land adjacent. 



The experience of Dr. Eoxburgh agrees with the preceding 

 statements. He says, " The soil that suits the cane best in this 

 cHmate is a rich vegetable earth, which on exposure to the air 

 readily crumbles down into very fine mould. It is also necessary 

 for it to be of such a level as allows of its being watered from the 

 river by simply damming it up (which almost the whole of the 

 land adjoining to this river, the Grodavery, admits of), and yet so 

 high as to be easily drained during hea^y rains. Such a soil, and 

 in such a situation, having been well meliorated by various crops 

 of leguminous plants, or fallowing, for tAvo or three years, is 

 slightly manured, or has had for some tune cattle pent upon it. 

 A favourite manure for the cane with the Hindoo farmer is the 

 rotten straw of green and black pessaloo (Phaseohcs Mungo 

 max)''* 



Many accordant opinions might be added to the preceding, but 

 it seems only necessary to observe further, that " the sugar cane 

 requires a soil sufiiciently elevated to be entirely free from inun- 

 dation, but not so high as to be deprived of moisture, or as to 

 encourage the production of white ants (termes).'" 



The sugar cane is an exhausting crop, and it is seldom culti- 

 vated by the ryot more frequently than once in three or four 

 years on the same land. During the intermediate period, such 

 plants are grown as are found to improve the soil, of which, says 

 Dr. Tennant, the Indian farmer is a perfect judge. They find the 

 leguminous tribe the best for the purpose. Such long intervals of 

 repose from the cane would not be requisite if a better system of 

 manuring were adopted. 



Mr. J. Prinsep has recorded the following analysis of three 

 soils distiiaguished for producing sugar. They were all a soft, 

 fine-grained aUuvium, without pebbles. JSTo. 1 was from a village 

 called Mothe, on the Sarjee, about ten miles north of the Granges, 

 at Buxar, and the others from the south bank of the Granges, near 



* RoxljurgL. on the Culture of Sugar and Jaggaiy in tlie Eajahmundry Cir- 

 car ; Thkd Ap. to Report on East India Sugar, p. 2. 



