August i, 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 97 
a most picturesque outline four thousand feet above 
the plains. In the distance is seen a foaming cascade 
making a fearful leap from a gorge halfway up the 
highest mountains. Green forests are diversified with 
rugged rocks, while here and there a whitened 
pagoda lifts its conical head above the summit of 
an isolated hill, or the smoke of a solitary hamlet 
is seen curling upwards on the still air. It is oeauti- 
ful, when seen on the coast, with the picturesque 
beauty of Scottish hills ; but it is still more beautiful 
when seen around its mountain streams. The traveller’s 
path often made up the middle of one of these streams, 
and every turn reveals something new and pleasing 
to the eye : 
“ Ferns, flowers, and grasses creep, 
Fantastically tangled ; The green paths 
Are clothed with early blossoms ; through the grass 
The quick eyed lizard rustles, and the bills 
Of summer birds sing welcome as ye pass ; 
Flowers fresh in hue, and many in their class, 
Implore the pausing stepsj and with their dyes. 
Dance in the soft breeze in a fairy mass; 
At every door the odorous jasmines rise. 
Kissed by the breath of heaven, seem fragrant for 
the skies. 
—Englishman’s Overland Mail. 
EAST AND WEST INDIAN SUGAR MAKING. 
There is much scope for the establishment of large 
Sugar plantations in this country in places where the 
soil is good, labour cheap, and an ample and certain 
supply of water available. Land in Northern India, 
in the vicinity of the canals, would, I should say, be 
admirably adapted for this purpose. There the soil 
is good, with a perennial supply of water for irriga- 
tion, and a redundant population. 
The soil and climate of certain portions of the 
Central Provinces where there is, or could be, con- 
siderable irrigation from tanks, as in the Sambalpur 
and Bhandara districts, and in some of the Feudatory 
States of Chattisgarh, would also be suitable. The 
former would probably be more suitable than the latter, 
for while the Canes might occasionally suffer from 
frost in Northern India, in the Central Provinces the 
supply of tank water might fail in years of iusulBcient 
rainfall. 
For the formation of a plantation after the model 
of those in the Mauritius and in the West Indies, 
the action of Government will, at any rate, in the 
first instance be necessary. 
The small cultivators of India have neither the 
means nor the inclination for undei taking such a 
task. It would never occur to a large landholder in 
this country to make money by growing 8ugar on a 
large scale by new and improved methods, and by 
the expenditure of a considerable capital. By the 
trading classes the whole thing would be regarded 
as entirely beyond their sphere of action. The only 
persons who would perhaps have the requisite enter- 
prise and means to undertake such an industry on a 
large scale are European planters, who can command 
the necessary land and capital, but they have already 
profitable crops, like indigo, which do not involve the 
same expenditure, and which can be carried on without 
extensive irrigation. It would be impossible for a 
West Indian planter, supposing he could command the 
necessary capital, and was prepared to make the venture, 
to provide himself with the requisite land. There are, 
it is true, extensive waste lands in this country, but 
they are quite unsuited for such an undertakiug. 
They are either far removed from inhabited tracts, 
or are situated _ in unhealthy countries, where no 
European could live, and even if accessible, they are 
rocky and barren. The natives of this country are 
only too ready to appropriate all land, which is at the 
same time fit for cultivation and fairly accessible, and 
they have already absorbed all such land as is avail- 
able or worth appropriating. No native will willingly 
part with the land he cultivates, and if the whole area 
of an ordinary village could be purchased, a large 
portion of it would be in the cultivation of ryots, 
with occupancy and other beneficial intereats in their 
fields, who could not, in the ordinary course of law, 
be rejected to make room for Sugar cultivators. Umier 
these circumstances, a Sugar-planter, who, whether he 
came from Barbados or the Mauritius, would be a 
.stranger in this country, would find it difficult, if not 
impossible, to make satisfactory arrangements for the 
establishment of a plantation. 
It will be neces.sary, therefore, for Goveroment to 
take the initiative in this matter, and by means of the 
Land Acquisition Act, or other approjiriate procedure, 
to acquire land sufficient for the establishment of a 
Sugar plantation of 500 or 600 acres. This might be 
offered rent-free or on easy terms to a practical planter 
under certain conditions for a term of years, and he 
might also be given a subvention to aid him in pro- 
viding the necessary machinery for the manufacture 
of Sugar. 
There must be many enterprising planters in the 
Mauritius accustomed to Indian coolies who would be 
glad to accept an offer of this kind. By making suc- 
cess dependent on the efforts of the person chiefly 
interested in the project, there would be a guarantee 
that everything would be done to make the scheme a 
success. But in the event of no practical Sugar-planter 
being willing to undertake the responsibility of a 
Sugar plantation on the above terms, it would be well 
for Government to establish a few model plantations 
of its own in different parts of India. I understand 
that some years ago the services of a Sugar-planter 
were obtained from the West Indies for the diara 
lands of the Khedive, and that a vast improvement 
followed the introduction in that country of the West 
Indian method of growing and manufacturing Sugar. 
With a plentiful supply of water, such as would be 
afforded by our canals and large tanks, a good soil 
and cheap labour, no great difficulties would be en- 
countered in the establishment of a Sugar plantation. 
If the scheme were once shown to be successful, it 
is probable that many persons who can command large 
areas for Sugar Oane cultivation and the necessary 
capital would adopt if. The greatest difficulty to be 
encountered would be the securing of an adequate 
supply of manure. Much of the eowdung of this 
country is used for fuel, and consequently, good farm- 
yard manure in large quantities is not readily obtain- 
able. But if Sugar cultivation by the West Indian 
method were shown to be profitable, mineral and arti- 
ficial manures would be available in India as they are 
in Barbados and in the Blauritius. 
The value of such a plantation would not be con- 
fined to improving the production of Sugar. It has 
often occurred to me that in establishing model farms 
and placing at their head men trained in England and 
having a practical knowledge of the agricultural 
methods only of countries with a temperate climato, 
that we have somewhat overlooked the fact that the 
conditions of agriculture in the greater portion of 
India resemble those of the West Indies or the 
Southern States of America much more closely than 
they do those of Europe, and that it is in these former 
countries that those Indian crops which are most 
susceptible of improvement, such as rice, cotton, tobacco, 
Indian-corn, Sugar, tropical roots, vegetables, and fodder 
crops, are cultivated with the greatest success. 
The West Indies, like Mauritius, import the grerater 
portion of their food, but a good deal of Indiam-com 
and vegetables are also grown in these islands. A 
plantation is generally divided into two portions ; one 
is under Oane and the other is under preparation for 
Oane, and is in the interval used for growing short 
crops, sweet potatoes, yams, Indian and guinea-corn 
(juari)— the two latter, with guiuea-grass, supplying 
the necessary fodder for the farm cattle. Ali of the- 
above crops are capable of great improvement, and 
extension in India. While in this country a few yams 
are to be found in pan baris, the plant i& i^red in 
the West Indies in large open fields. Tbe diffeienee 
between the sweet potato of India and that of the 
West Indies is striking. Tbs former is generally an 
elongated tuber, five inches long and three inches in 
diameter, and is grown on a flat surface. In the West 
Indies it is ordinarily an ellipsoid, with axes of ten 
and seven inches, and grown in tows on banks asd 
