370 ON PREPARING THE LAND FOR THE CULTIVATION OF SUGAR. 
per day, and half that number will prepare an 
equal quantity, when familiarized to the use 
of a mold plough, wherewith they can form 
the cane furrows and afterwards it will re- 
quire only a few hands to shape the banks, 
clean out the furrows, and preserve the 
whole in an orderly condition. 
When forming the banks, and furrows for 
planting, the earth must be dug in rows about 
six or eight inches deep, until they each 
shew an even pretty bank from one end to 
the other; then let the laborers fall back to 
the second row of pags, and so on till the 
whole piece is dug into narrow ridges, and 
strait and even trenches, which will appear, if 
properly attended to, square, parallel, and 
regular. 
It is recommended with the foregoing me- 
thod to have the laborers employed by daily 
task-work ; the employer, or a steady well 
tempered servant as overseer, or steward, to 
visit them often, and the owner as frequently 
as he can, to see that the work in every de- 
partment is well, neatly, and exactly per- 
formed. 
The soil, if newly turned up for cultivation, 
will require no manure, but if in any degree 
impoverished by repeated tillage, it will be 
found more productive if slightly manured 
for the growth of the sugar cane ; this part 
ot the planting business in Bengal will be 
found very easy, on account of cheapness of 
stock, and of labor; and as that best and 
most productive method of enriching a soil, 
\yill be so easily effected here, the construc- 
tion and use of moveable penns are worthy of 
adoption ; — with bamboo posts and rails 
form a number of light frames, which may be 
bound to each other as a fence, sufficient to 
enclose about two biggahs of ground at a 
time ; by removing the penns at the end of 
one week, one side of the penn to stand, and 
the two sides and the other end to be carried 
forward, and forming the penn on the outer 
or opposite ground of the standing part of 
the fence : thus the planter can go gradually 
thro’ his whole estate feeding, manuring, 
exercising his cattle, and following all up 
with turning up his soil for tillage. 
The stock should be fed every night with 
grass, or vines, and in crop time with cane 
tops, which are then plentiful, an hundred 
head of cattle will amply manure, with their 
dung and urine, be the soil ever so impover- 
ished, an estate of five hundred biggahs. 
The plantation should be divided into three 
separate parts, the first to be in manure and 
preparing for the/aZZjp/an^; by ploughing up 
the penns as they are so manured, the earth 
will be duly pulverised and in proper order, 
against the rainy season in time for planting ; 
the second division should be under cane to 
cut for the succeeding crop ; and the third 
division under rattoons, or roots of canes, 
which if moulded up, and hoe-ploughed be- 
tween the roots when young, will produce 
nearly as much sugar as the plants ; but 
should the soil be too poor to support rat- 
toons, let one-third lay over as fallow, and the 
other two-thirds under fall and spring plants 
for the ensuing crop ; if the rattoons are |i 
moulded up, and manured with rich earth I 
from tanks and ditches, as they spring up , 
after cutting, they certainly will be found de- !j 
serving the attention and care of the culti- 
vator ; the juices of rattoons are much richer 
than the juices of luxuriant plants, and on 
that account, both are mixed in crop in order ji 
to improve the sugar. j 
IVl oveable cattle penns afford the most easy, ; 
and certain mode of enriching, and nourish- ji 
ing the soil for the growth and culture of 
sugar ; repeated experience in Jamaica has I 
proved it ; and the farmers of Wiltshire who 
manure their fields by forming sheep-walks 
before ploughing in that manner, which they ; 
call flying penns, improve their crops very i 
considerably ; but whether the soil is poor or i 
not, it is recommended to the Bengal farmer [ 
to collect all the cleaning of his tanks, as well 
as all the manure about his yard, and heap it i 
up at or near the centre of the plantation, so | 
thatitmaybe convenient whenever it is re- | 
quired ; the manure heaped up should be 
covered from the sun with rich mold, to pre- 
vent the exhalation of its richness, and to 
keep the salts with which it is charged alive, ' 
the ricks or heaps should be at times mixed ’ 
and chopped up wdth hoes. 
As the seasons are usually regular in 
Bengal, the ryots may begin to put the 
canes in the ground a w'eek or ten days before 
the time the rains usually fall, and they will 
experience and derive from this practice con- 
siderable advantage, as the young plants will 
immediatly shoot up with the first showers. 
The part of the canes that ought to be pre- 
served for plants, and indeed the only part 
fit to plant, is the green watery cane top, 
with a few joints, which is unfit for manxxfac- 
turing ; if the ground is in want of manure, 
which the farmer will be the most competent 
judge of, from the appearance and stunted 
growth of his canes, or if his land is exhaust- 
ed from frequent cultivation, recourse must be 
had to his'heaps of manure; laying it slightly in 
small quantities in the holes as he plants the 
cane, or round the cane roots as they come up ; 
about twenty weight or about two Bengal 
bullock loads dung to every hundred feet of 
rich mold taken out of ditches or tanks wdll 
be found a salutary and nourishing manure. 
Should any white ants be observed in the 
ground under preparation for planting, or 
should they make their appearance after the 
canes have begun to vegetate, the most effec- 
tual mode of destroying them will be by poi- 
son, — in this manner, take a small quantity 
of arsenic, and mix it up with a few ounces 
of burned and pulverized ship bread, oatmeal, 
flour, or ripe plaintain, let this be mellowed 
with a little molasses, avoiding cautiously 
while handling it the noxious effects by breath- 
ing too near it when mixing ; or lest the 
wind should blow it into the eyes ; place the 
size of a turkey egg of this composition up- 
on a flat board, covered with a wooden bowd, 
and place several of those bowls with the 
mixture in different parts of the plantation ; 
the ants will soon take possession of the 
