Mr. Peddington seems to think that calcareous matter, and iron in the state of peroxide, are essential to be present in a soil for the production of the superior sugar cane. There can be no doubt that the calcareous matter is necessary, but experience is opposed to his opinion relative to the peroxide.
The soil preferred at Radnagore is there distinguished as the soil of "two qualities," being a mixture of rich clay and sand, and which Mr. Touchet believed to be known in England as a light brick mould.
About Rungpore, Dinajpoor, and other places where the ground is low, they raise the beds where the cane is to be planted four or five feet above the level of the land adjacent.
The experience of Dr. Roxburgh agrees with the preceding statements. He says, "The soil that suits the cane best in this climate is, a rich vegetable earth, which on exposure to the air readily crumbles down into very fine mould. It is also necessary for it to be of such a level as allows of its being watered from the river by simply damming it up (which almost the whole of the land adjoining to this river, the Godavery, admits of), and yet so high as to be easily drained during heavy rains. Such a soil, and in such a situation, having been well meliorated by various crops of leguminous plants, or fallowing, for two or three years, is slightly manured, or has had for some time cattle pent upon it. A favourite manure for the cane with the Hindoo farmer is the rotten straw of green and black pessaloo (Phaseolus Mungo max)."[20] Many accordant opinions might be added to the preceding, but it seems only necessary to observe further, that "the sugar cane requires a soil sufficiently elevated to be entirely free from inundation, but not so high as to be deprived of moisture, or as to encourage the production of white ants (termes)."
The sugar cane is an exhausting crop, and it is seldom cultivated by the ryot more frequently than once in three or four years on the same land. During the intermediate period, such plants are grown as are found to improve the soil, of which, says Dr. Tennant, the Indian farmer is a perfect judge. They find the leguminous tribe the best for the purpose. Such long intervals of repose from the cane would not be requisite if a better system of manuring were adopted.
Mr. J. Prinsep has recorded the following analysis of three soils distinguished for producing sugar. They were all a soft, fine-grained alluvium, without pebbles. No. 1 was from a village called Mothe, on the Sarjee, about ten miles north of the Ganges, at Buxar, and the others from the south bank of the Ganges, near the same place. There is a substratum of kunkar throughout the whole of that part of the country, and to some mixture of this earth with the surface soil the fertility of the latter is ascribed:—
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Hygrometric moisture, on drying at 212 deg. | 2.5 | 2.1 | 3.6 |
| Carbonaceous and vegetable matter, on calcination | 1.8 | 2.1 | 4.0 |
| Carbonate of lime (No. 3 effervesced) | 1.6 | 0.6 | 3.9 |
| Alkaline salt, soluble | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.3 |
| Silex and alumina | 94.1 | 94.1 | 88.2 |
| 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
The earths unfortunately were not separated. Mr. Prinsep says the two first were chiefly of sand, and the third somewhat argillaceous. The former required irrigation, but the other was sufficiently retentive of moisture to render it unnecessary.—(Journ. Asiatic Soc., ii. 435.)
Manures.—The sugar cane being one of the most valued crops of the ryot, he always devotes to it a portion of the fertilising matters he has at command, though in every instance this is too small.
In the Rajahmundry district, previously to planting, the soil is slightly manured, either by having cattle folded upon it, or by a light covering of the rotten straw of the green and black pessalloo, which is here a favourite fertiliser. In some parts of Mysore the mud from the bottom of tanks is employed, and this practice is more generally adopted in other places. Thus the fields being divided by deep ditches in Dinajpoor, the mud from which is enriched by the remains of decayed aquatic plants and animals, forms an excellent manure for the sugar cane, and of this the ryots make use, spreading it over the surface before the ploughing is commenced; and when that operation is completed, the soil is further fertilised by a dressing of oil-cake and ashes.