1837.] Transactions of the Agri-Horticultural Society of Indicu 332 



has secured a number of plants of the Casalpinea corearia, or Ameri- 

 can sumach, raised from seed presented by Mr. Hamilton." 



Sugar and Sugar-cane culture. —There are six papers connected 

 with these subjects in the volume. The first, Mr. Piddington's account 

 of the best soils for the cultivation of the sugar cane, has been reprinted 

 in this Journal* ; of the remaining five, three are occupied with accounts 

 of the rapid progress now making in the introduction of the Otaheitan 

 or Mauritius sugar-cane, and its great superiority over indigenous and 

 Chinese sorts now generally in use ; a superiority so self-evident that, 

 wherever they have been tried, the ryots have immediately adopted it. 

 The following extracts from a letter (page 73) of Captain Sleeman, 

 general Superintendent in the Sagour and Nerbudda territory, will 

 show the estimation in which it is held in these districts. 41 A portion 

 of the cane at Jabulpoor is every season sold in the bazar to cover the 

 expenses of the plantation, and those of experiments in the manufac- 

 ture of sugar ; and the funds have hitherto been found fully sufficient 

 for the purpose/' {Proceedings page 39 and 40). 44 Proved by success- 

 ful experiments that sugar of excellent quality can be made in the 

 valley of the Nerbudda, a thing never believed by the inhabitants be- 

 fore this plantation was established. The sugar, made by the aid of 

 men from the sugar districts in Oude, bore the same price in the bazars, 

 as that brought from Mirzapore. 2d, that the sugar made from the 

 Otabeite cane is rather better in quality than that made from the small 

 straw coloured cane of the country, and far superior to that made from 

 the large purple cane. 3d, That the cane, after eight years planting, 

 was last season as fine in its beautiful straw-colour, in its size and in 

 the quality of its juice, as when gathered for me in the manufacture by 

 the present secretary of that colony (Mauritius), Captain Hick, in 

 1827. The plants I brought with me were deposited in the Botanic 

 Garden in Calcutta March 1827, and, in the following season, I was 

 supplied at Jabulpoor with cuttings from these plants. These canes 

 now sent into the bazar as they are cut and sold, fetch about four times 

 as much as the largest cane of the country, being much longer and the 

 juice much finer." 



Our notice of this work has already extended to so great a length, 

 that we J feel ourselves constrained to defer, till our next number, the 

 consideration of the remaining portion (comprising the whole of the 

 commercial branch of our arrangement) ; on which occasion we hope 

 to present our readers with a comprehensive account of the numerous 

 papers, forming the bulk of the volume, on the cultivation of cotton 

 and tobacco. B. W. 



* Fide No. 13, p. 483. 



