369 
CULTIVATION OF SUGAR CANE IN INDIA. 
country cane will be completely displaced — 
a prospect the most encouraging to our com - 
mercial community here. We shall there- 
fore, with the ample materials in our posses- 
sion, proceed to consider the cultivation of 
sugar cane in India. Mr. Fitzmaurice, who 
was many years a planter in the island of 
Jamaica previous to his coming to the East, 
observes that the groundintended for the cul- 
tivation of sugar cane must first be cleared 
of all shrubbery and grass, the roots carefully 
stocked up with hand-hoes, ploughed over 
once or twice, and levelled for laying out the 
whole into pieces of thirty, fifty, and seventy 
biggahs ; along these pieces it will be re- 
quisite, for the purpose of draining, to form a 
strait commodious trench on each side, at 
least four feet wide at top, 
“ Four feet deep, and proportionably narrow 
at bottom, that the banks may be sloped so as 
to prevent injury to the sides of the trenches 
in the heavy rains, which would, if the sides 
were du^ perpendicular, occasion the banks 
to fall in, thereby obstruct the passage of the 
water, and require continual labor in repair- 
ing them. 
The mold dug from the trenches will help to 
ra’se the internals, and make paths which 
should be formed, for ease, convenience, and 
dispatch, in carrying the cane to the wmrks. 
The main trenches must be eight hundred 
yards from each other, and thro’ the centre 
of the plantation, accoi'ding to its extent, there 
should be cross trenches of the same dimen- 
sions as those on the sides of the pieces, into 
which the latter should lead ; and as the 
water will find its own level, its direction 
should govern the line of the main trenches, 
to -which the inclination would be easily 
found or made by the same means. 
When the ground is thus prepared, it 
shouhi be laid out in beds of twenty feet 
wide ; or, if it is high ground, thirty feet beds 
will be preferable ; from a trench of two feet 
in width and depth between each bed, the 
mold of the trenches will raise the cane beds 
in the middle, and the rubbish collected in 
them taken out from time to time in hoeing 
and weeding the cane, will contribute to ma- 
nure and raise the beds, so that they will be 
found sufficient to convey all the superabun- 
dant water to the main trenches, as will be 
required when the rainy seasons are severe. 
The soil of Bengal being low, it is very 
requisite that the ground should be carefully 
drained, some time before it is planted ; for 
that purpose, therefore, a gang of sixty 
laborers ought to be hired to do this ; they 
may in a fortnight, dig and lay out all the 
trenches and intervals of a plantation of five 
hundred biggahs ; but this should be com- 
pleted some considerable time before the 
heavy rains set in, or the commencement of 
the regular planting season, in order that 
the trenches may be strengthened, harden- 
ed, and durable ; if this is done in time, the 
drains will afterwards continue in good 
repair, by cleaning out as often as the plan- 
tations are weeded ; and at the sarne time 
the manure acquired in the drains will raise 
the beds in the centre, nourish the'cane roots, 
and render the soil productive to a degree 
that cannot be withoixt expei'ience easily 
conceived or credited. 
When the plantation is thus far prepared, 
have it ploughed, the trenches cleaned, and 
the pieces marked olf, from one end to the 
other in the following manner prepare a 
line of a sufficientdength, and affix thereto, 
at every seven or eight feet distance, a piece 
of colored cloth, like a surveyor’s line ; 
stretch this across the beds as strait as pos - 
sible, so as to square with the sides, and 
ends of the beds ; be prepared with a number 
of pegs of about two feet long, place one in 
the earth at each of the cloth marks on the 
line ; this work may be performed by hoys, 
and girls ; when the first row is lined out, 
let the liners retreat about three and half 
feet, and line and mark another row, like the 
first ; still retiring three and half feet, till 
they have lined the whole piece ; when the 
liners have marked olf the first-row, the 
laborers may commence the digging of that 
row; four smart boys or girls may line, 
without fatigue, three biggahs per day ; with 
two or three more to collect the pegs, as fast 
as the holes and hanks are formed by the 
laborers. 
Much care and some pains are required, on 
the first laying out the ground, for trenching 
and holeing ; it ought to be carefully drain- 
ed, the beds shaped, and planted in such a 
manner, as that the superabundant rain 
water may drain from the cane beds, into the 
trenches, so that the canes may not be chilled, 
or injured by stagnant water, or too great a 
quantity of it, as it will contribute to the 
excellence and quantity of the crop, if the 
ground retains only an equal share of mois- 
ture throughout, to promote the spreading of 
the plants in vegetation ; each stock planted 
in this manner properly managed, will give 
twenty or more canes ; a single cane alone is 
produced from the root pianted ^ after the 
careless and improvident method of culture in 
Bengal. 
Should the land be high, let the liners be- 
gin at the top, and line it in an oblique or 
winding direction, gradually to the base ; the 
farmer who feels the spirit of cultivation, who 
will see his ground carefully prepared and 
planted, in his yielding, will find himself am- 
ply compensated for his trouble ; three big- 
gahs will contain about three thousand five 
hundred holes, three feet and half wide, the 
canes from which will yield on a fair average 
properly manufactured a ton and half of su- 
gar ; but it cannot be too much attended to in 
this branch, that the ground must be well 
ploughed, the earth pulverised, and carefully 
planted; fifty coolies can with ease, even in 
their mode of working, turn up three biggahs 
