Crushed bones would unquestionably be of the greatest benefit if applied to the sugar cane crop. Not only would their animal matter serve as food for the plants, but the phosphate of lime of the bones is one of the chief saline constituents of the sugar cane.
Salt is another valuable manure for this crop. Dr. Nugent, in a Report made to the Agricultural Society of Antigua, observes that salt has been found a valuable auxiliary in cultivating the sugar cane. Many trials of it, he says, have been made during successive seasons, applied generally to the extent of about nine or ten bushels per acre. It destroys grubs and other insects, and gives the canes an increased vigor and ability to resist drought. It is a singular remark of the intelligent traveller, M. de Humboldt, while speaking of the practice adopted in the Missions of the Orinoco, when a coco-nut plantation is made, of throwing a certain quantity of salt into the hole which receives the nut; that of all the plants cultivated by man there are only the sugar cane, the plantain, the mammee, and the Avocado pear, which endure equally irrigation with fresh and salt water.
In the West Indies, when the cane is affected by what is called there the blast, which is a withering or drying up of the plants, an unfailing remedy is found to be watering them with an infusion of dung in salt water.[21] Preparation of soil.—In the Rajahmundry district, during the months of April and May, the ground is frequently ploughed, until brought into a very fine tilth. About the end of May, or beginning of June, the rains usually commence, and the canes are then to be planted. If the rains do not set in so early, the land is flooded artificially, and when converted into a soft mud, whether by the rain or by flooding, the canes are planted.
In Mysore the ground is watered for three days, and then, after drying for the same period, ploughing commences, this operation being repeated five times during the following eight days. The clods during this time are broken small by an instrument called colkudali. The field is then manured and ploughed a sixth time. After fifteen days it is ploughed again, twice in the course of one or two days. After a lapse of eight days it is ploughed a ninth time. Altogether these operations occupy about forty-four days.
For planting, which is done six days, an implement called yella kudali is employed.
In Dinajpoor, "the field, from about the middle of October until about the 10th of January, receives ten or twelve double ploughings, and after each is smoothed with the moyi. During the last three months of this time it is manured with cow-dung and mud from ponds and ditches. On this account, the land fit for sugar cane is generally divided into fields by wide ditches, into which much mud is washed by the rain, and is again thrown on the fields when the country dries, and leaves it enriched by innumerable aquatic vegetables and animals that have died as the water left them. When the ploughing has been completed, the field is manured with ashes and oil-cake."
About Malda, "the land is first ploughed in the month of Cartick, length and breadth ways, and harrowed in like manner; four or five days after it is again ploughed and harrowed, as before, twice. In the month of Aghun, the whole land is covered with fresh earth, again twice ploughed, and harrowed in different directions, and then manured with dung. Fifteen or twenty days afterwards it is to be twice ploughed, as before; eight or ten days after which, it is to be slightly manured with dung, and the refuse of oil, mixed together; then twice ploughed and harrowed in different directions, so that the clods of earth brought be well mixed together with the land. This preparation continues until the 20th or 25th of the month Pows."
In the vicinity of Dacca, during "Cautic or Augun (October, November) the Ryots begin to prepare their ground. They first dig a trench round their fields, and raise a mound of about three feet in height. If the ground to be cultivated is waste, about nine inches of the surface are taken off, and thrown without the enclosure. The ground is ploughed to the depth of nine inches more. The clods are broken, and the earth made fine. In Maug or Faugun (January, February) the sugar cane is planted; a month afterwards earth is raised about the plants; after another month this is repeated. The crop is cut in Poous and Maug (December, January). If the ground be not waste, but cultivated, the surface is not taken off. After cutting the crop, it is not usual again to grow sugar cane on the same ground for eighteen months, on account of the indifferent produce afforded by a more early planting.
In the Zillah, North Mooradabad, the land is broken up at the end of June. After the rains have ceased it is manured, and has eight or ten ploughings. This clears it of weeds. In February it is again manured and ploughed four or five times, and just before the sets are planted, some dung, four cart-loads to each cutcha beegah of low land, and five cart-loads to high land, are added. The land is well rolled after the four last ploughings, and again after the cuttings are set.
About Benares and the neighbouring districts, Mr. Haines says, that owing to the hot winds which prevail "from March until the setting in of the annual rains in June or July, the lands remain fallow till that period. In the mean time, those fields that are selected for sugar cane are partially manured by throwing upon them all manner of rubbish they can collect, and by herding their buffaloes and cattle upon them at night, though most of the manure from the latter source is again collected and dried for fuel.