174 



inches of the surface are taken off, and thrown without the enclo- 

 sure. The ground is ploughed to the depth of nine inches more. The 

 clods are broken, and the eartli made hue. In ^lEaug or Eaugun 

 (January, February) the sugar cane is planted; a month after- 

 wards earth is raised about the plants ; after another month this 

 is repeated. _ The crop is cat in Poous and jiaug (December, 

 January). If the ground be not waste, but cultivated, the sur- 

 face is not taken oli'. After cutting the crop, it is not usual again 

 to groY\' sugar cane on the same ground for eighteen months, on 

 account of the indifferent produce afibrded by a more early 

 planting. 



In the Zillah, Xorth jlooradabad, the land is broken up at the 

 end of June. After the rains have ceased it is manured, and has 

 eight or ten ploughings. This clears it of weeds. In February 

 it is again manured and ploughed four or live times, and just 

 before the sets are planted, some dung, four cart-loads to each 

 cutcha beegah of low land, and five cart-loads to high land, are 

 added. The land is well rolled after the four last ploughings, and 

 again after the cuttings are set. 



About Eenares and the neighbotiring districts, Mr. Haines says, 

 that owing to the hot winds which prevail from March until the 

 setting in of the annual rains in June or July, the lands remain fal- 

 low till that period. In the mean time, those fields that are selected 

 for sugar cane are partiallymanured by throwing upon them aU man- 

 ner of rubbish they can collect, and by herding their bufialoes 

 and cattle upon them at night, though most of the manure from 

 the latter source is again collected and dried for fuel. 



"When the annual rains have faudy set in, and the Assarree crops 

 sown (in some instances I have seen an Assarree crop taken from 

 the lands intended for sugar cane), they commence ploughing the 

 cane lands, and continue to do so fotir or five times monthly (as 

 they consider the greater number of times the fields are turned up 

 at this period of the season, the better the crop of cane will be), 

 till the end of October, continuing to throw on the little manure 

 they can collect. 



Towards the end of October, and in INTovember, theii' ploughs 

 are much engaged m sowing their T,vinter (or rubbee) crops of 

 wheat, barley, gram, &c, ; and at this period they make arrange- 

 ments with the shepherds who have large flocks of sheep, to fold 

 them upon the fielcls at night, for which they pay so much per 

 beegah m £Tain. 



Duidng the latter part of Is ovember, and early in December, the 

 fields are agahi ploughed well, and all grass, vreeds, &c., removed 

 with the hoe ; then the surface of the field is made as smooth as 

 possible by putting the hengah (a piece of wood eight to ten feet 

 in leng-th, and five to six inches in breadth, and three or four inches 

 in thickness, drawn by two pairs of btdlocks, and the man standing 

 upon the wood to give it weight), over several times for three or 

 four days in succession. This makes the surface of the field very 

 even and somewhat hard; which preyents the sun and dry west 



