The general practice in India is to plant the cane each year, and ratooning is seldom met with outside of the Poonah district. For fertilization, stable manure, town refuse and crushed oil cake are used. The cane is planted from February to April and harvested from the middle of January to the middle of March of the year following. Water for irrigation purposes is taken from rivers and wells. Climatic conditions are frequently unfavorable. There are long dry spells, the low-lying lands are subject to floods in the rainy season, and in certain sections frost plays havoc with the cane.
Not only was India the original home of sugar cane, but, according to recognized authorities, the secret of preparing sugar from cane juice, which dates from the seventh century, also came from there. Today modern methods are employed to a certain extent, but the original processes predominate, and a word or two concerning the latter will no doubt prove interesting.
The cane is cut into short lengths, placed in a kind of mortar and crushed with a large pestle, worked by oxen. The juice runs through a hole in the side of the mortar into a vessel placed to receive it. The practice in former days was to saw off a good-sized tamarind tree about three feet above the ground and then scoop out the stump. Later, logs were sunk deep in the ground and hollowed out in the same manner. Stone mortars followed, meeting with great favor, so that the advent of iron roller mills was delayed for many years.
In the mortar-and-pestle operation of cane grinding, the pestle consists of a lever with two arms. The crushing end of the principal arm rests on the side of the mortar and the cane is ground between the pestle and the mortar wall. The apparatus is driven by oxen.
WOODEN MILL FROM GORAKHPUR, INDIA
This method was improved upon by the introduction of the mill with two-geared wooden rolls set vertically, the core of the taller one projecting upward through a frame and attached to a horizontal lever to which the oxen are harnessed. When the mill is started the cane is fed between the wooden gears and the juice expressed in this manner. A further development brought in geared iron cylinders or drums, in sets of two and three. The extraction by these means is extremely poor, ranging from 50 per cent to 62 per cent.
BOILING BY OLD METHOD, INDIA
