The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom / Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.

by P. L. Simmonds

In the vicinity of Benares, as the canes advance in growth, they continue to wrap the leaves as they begin to wither up round the advancing stem, and to tie this to the bamboo higher up. If the weather continue wet, the trenches are carefully kept open; and, on the other hand, if dry weather occurs, water is occasionally supplied. Hoeing is also performed every five or six weeks. Wrapping the leaves around the cane is found to prevent them cracking by the heat of the sun, and hinders their throwing out lateral branches.

In January and February the canes are ready for cutting. The average height of the cane is about nine feet, foliage included, and the naked cane from one inch to one inch and a quarter in diameter.

Near Maduna, the hand-watering is facilitated by cutting a small trench down the centre of each bed. The beds are there a cubit wide, but only four rows of canes are planted in each.

It is deserving of notice, that the eastern and north-eastern parts of Bengal are more subject to rain at every season of the year, but especially in the hot months, than the western; which accounts for the land being prepared and the plants set so much earlier in Rungpore than in Beerbhoom. This latter country has also a dryer soil generally; for this reason, so much is said in the report from thence of the necessity of watering.

The Benares country is also dryer than Bengal, therefore more waterings are requisite.

At Malda, ten or fifteen days after the earth has been removed from the roots of the canes and the plants have appeared, the land is to be slightly manured, well cleared of weeds, and the earth that was removed again laid about the canes; after which, ten or fifteen days, it must be well weeded, and again twenty or twenty-five days afterwards. This mode of cultivation it is necessary to follow until the month of Joystee. The land must be ploughed and manured between the rows of canes in the month of Assaar; after which, fifteen or twenty days, the canes are to be tied two or three together with the leaves, the earth about them well cleaned, and the earth that was ploughed up laid about the roots of the canes something raised. In the month of Saubun, twenty or twenty-five days from the preceding operation, the canes are tied as before, and again ten or fifteen days afterwards; which done, nine or ten clumps are then to be tied together.

In the Rojahmundry Circar, on the Delta of the Godavery, Dr. Roxburgh states, "that nothing more is done after the cane is planted, if the weather be moderately showery, till the young shoots are some two or three inches high; the earth is then loosened for a few inches round them with the weeding iron. Should the season prove dry, the field is occasionally watered from the river, continuing to weed and to keep the ground loose round the stools. In August, two or three months from the time of planting, small trenches are cut through the field at short distances, and so contrived as to serve to drain off the water, should the season prove too wet for the canes, which is often the case, and would render their juices weak and unprofitable. The farmer, therefore, never fails to have his field plentifully and judiciously intersected with drains while the cane is small, and before the usual time for the violent rains. Immediately after the field is trenched, the canes are all propped; this is an operation which seems peculiar to these parts.

In Dinajpoor, in about a month after planting, "the young plants are two or three inches high; the earth is then raised from the cuttings by means of a spade, and the dry leaves by which they are surrounded are removed. For a day or two they remain exposed to the air, and are then manured with ashes and oil-cake, and covered with earth. Weeds must be removed as they spring; and when the plants are about a cubit high, the field must be ploughed. When they have grown a cubit higher, which is between the 13th of June and 14th of July, they are tied together in bundles of three or four, by wrapping them round with their own leaves. This is done partly to prevent them from being laid down by the wind, and partly to prevent them from being eaten by jackals. During the next month three or four of these bunches are tied together; and about the end of September, when the canes grow rank, they are supported by bamboo stakes driven in the ground. They are cut between the middle of December and the end of March."

If the canes grow too vigorously, developing a superabundance of leaves, it is a good practice to remove those leaves which are decayed, that the stems may be exposed fully to the sun. In the West Indies, this is called trashing the canes. It requires discretion; for in dry soils or seasons, or if the leaves are removed before sufficiently dead, more injury than benefit will be occasioned.

Harvesting.—The season in which the canes become ripe in various districts has already been noticed when considering their cultivation. In addition I may state, that in the Rajahmundry Circar, about the mouth of the Godavery, Dr. Roxburgh adds, "that in January and February the canes begin to be ready to cut, which is about nine months from the time of planting. This operation is the same as in other sugar countries—of course I need not describe it. Their height, when standing on the field, will be from eight to ten feet (foliage included), and the naked cane from an inch to an inch and a quarter in diameter."