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The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

P >> P. L. Simmonds >> The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom




Besides the foregoing, several kinds are now known to the Indian
planter. One of them, the China sugar cane, was considered by Dr.
Roxburgh to be a distinct species, and distinguished by him as
_Saccharum sinensis_. It was introduced into India in 1796, by Earl
Cornwallis, as being superior to the native kinds. It is characterised
by a hardness which effectually resists most of the country rude
mills; but this hardness is importantly beneficial, inasmuch as that
it withstands the attack of the white ants, hogs, and jackals, which
destroy annually a large portion of the common cane.[18] Dr. Buchanan
found that four kinds are known in Mysore. Two of these are evidently
the purple and white generally known; but as this is not distinctly
stated, I have retained the form in which he notices them. _Restali_,
the native sugar of the Mysore, can only be planted in the last two
weeks of March and two first of April. It completes its growth in
twelve months, and does not survive for a second crop. Its cultivation
has been superseded by the other.

_Putta-putti_.--This was introduced from Arcot, during the reign of
Hyder Ali. It is the only one from which the natives can extract
sugar; it also produces the best _Bella_ or _Jaggery_. It can be
planted at the same season as the other, as well as at the end of July
and beginning of August. It is fourteen months in completing its
growth; but the stools produce a second crop, like the ratoons of the
West Indies, which ripen in twelve months.

_Maracabo_, _Cuttaycabo_.--These two are very small, seldom exceeding
half an inch in diameter; yet in some districts of Mysore, as about
Colar, the last-named is the variety usually cultivated; but this
arises from its requiring less water than the larger varieties.

The best varieties are those introduced from the Islands of Otaheite
and Bourbon. Hindostan is indebted for their introduction to Captain
Sleeman, who brought them hither from the Mauritius in 1827. He
committed them to Dr. Wallich, under whose care, at the Botanic
Garden, they have flourished, and been the source from whence the
benefit has been generally diffused. Their superiority over those
which have been usually cultivated by the natives has been completely
established. The largest of the Hindostan canes, ripe and trimmed
ready for the mill, has never been found to exceed five pounds; but it
is not uncommon for an Otaheite cane,[19] under similar circumstances,
to weigh seven pounds. The extra weight arises proportionately from an
increased secretion of superior sap. The sugar is more abundant,
granulates more readily, and has less scum. Other superior qualities
are, that the canes ripen earlier, and are less injured by the
occurrence of protracted dry weather.

Of the history of the sugar cane a popular tradition obtains amongst
the natives, that, in very ancient times, a vessel belonging to their
country chanced by accident to leave one of her crew, under a
desperate fit of sickness, at a desert island, at a considerable
distance in the Eastern Seas, and that, returning by the same route,
curiosity prompted them to inquire after the fate of their companion,
when, to their utter astonishment, the man presented himself to their
view, completely recovered from his sickness, and even in a state of
more than common health. With anxiety they inquired for the physic he
had so successfully applied, and were conducted by him to the sugar
cane, on which he acquainted them he had solely subsisted from the
time of their departure. Attracted by such powerful recommendation,
every care and attention was bestowed, we may suppose, to convey such
an invaluable acquisition to their own lands, where the soil and
climate have mutually since contributed to its present prosperity.

_Soil_.--The soil best suiting the sugar cane is aluminous rather than
the contrary, tenacious without being heavy, readily allowing
excessive moisture to drain away, yet not light. One gentleman, Mr.
Ballard, has endeavoured to make this point clear by describing the
most favorable soils about Gazepore as "_light clays_," called there
_Mootearee_, or _doansa_, according as there is more or less sand in
their composition.--_Trans. Agri-Hort. Soc._ i. 121.

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.

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.

When the annual rains have fairly set in, and the Assarree crops sown
(in some instances I have seen an Assarree crop taken from the lands
intended for sugar cane), they commence ploughing the cane lands, and
continue to do so four or five times monthly (as they consider the
greater number of times the fields are turned up at this period of the
season, the better the crop of cane will be), till the end of October,
continuing to throw on the little manure they can collect.

Towards the end of October, and in November, their ploughs are much
engaged in sowing their winter (or rubbee) crops of wheat, barley,
grain, &c.; and at this period they make arrangements with the
shepherds who have large flocks of sheep, to fold them upon the fields
at night, for which they pay so much per beegah in grain.

During the latter part of November, and early in December, the fields
are again ploughed well, and all grass, weeds, &c., removed with the
hoe; then the surface of the field is made as smooth as possible by
putting the hengah (a piece of wood eight to ten feet in length, and
five to six inches in breadth, and three or four inches in thickness,
drawn by two pairs of bullocks, and the man standing upon the wood to
give it weight), over several times for three or four days in
succession. This makes the surface of the field very even and somewhat
hard, which prevents the sun and dry west wind from abstracting the
moisture, which is of great importance at this period of the season,
for, should there be no rain, there would not be sufficient moisture
at the time of planting the cane to cause vegetation.

In this state the land remains till the time of planting the cane
cuttings, which is generally the 1st to the 15th of February; but
should there have been a fall of rain in the mean time, or excess of
moisture appear, the field is again ploughed, and the hengah put over
as before.

A day or two previous to planting the cane, the field is ploughed and
the hengah lightly put over."--(Trans. Agri-Hort. Soc. vi. 4, 5.)

_Sets_.--When the canes are cut at harvest time, twelve or eighteen
inches of their tops are usually taken off, and stored, to be employed
for sets. Each top has several joints, from each of which a shoot
rises, but seldom more than one or two arrive at a proper growth.

When first cut from the stem, the tops intended for plants are tied in
bundles of forty or fifty each, and are carefully kept moist. In a few
days they put forth new leaves: they are then cleared of the old
leaves, and separately dipped into a mixture of cow-dung, pressed
mustard seed, and water. A dry spot is prepared, and rich loose mould
and a small quantity of pressed mustard-seed; the plants are
separately placed therein, a small quantity of earth strewed amongst
them, and then covered with leaves and grass to preserve them from
heat. Ten or twelve days afterwards they are planted in the fields.

In Burdwan, the tops, before they are planted, are cut into pieces
from four to six inches long, so that there are not more than four
knots in each. Two or three of these plant tops are put together in
the ground, and a beegah requires from 7,500 to 10,240 plants.

In Rungpore and Dinajpoor, about 9,000 plants are required for a
beegah, each being about a foot in length.

In Beerbhoom, 3,000 plants are said to be requisite for a beegah, each
cane top being about fifteen inches long.

Near Calcutta, from 3,000 to 8,000 plants are required for a beegah,
according to the goodness of the soil, the worst soil needing most
plants. In Mysore an acre contains 2,420 stools, and yields about
11,000 ripe canes.

Near Rajahmundry, about 400 cuttings are planted on a cutcha beegah
(one-eighth of an acre). In Zilla, North Mooradabad, 4,200 sets, each
eight inches long, are inserted upon each cutcha beegah of low land,
and 5,250 upon high land.

In the district of Gollagore the Ryots cut a ripe cane into several
pieces, preserving two or three joints to each, and put them into a
small bed of rich mould, dung, and mustard-seed from which the oil has
been expressed. At Radnagore, when the time of cutting the canes
arrives, their tops are taken off, and these are placed upright in a
bed of mud for thirty or forty days, and covered with leaves or straw.
The leaves are then stripped from them, and they are cut into pieces,
not having less than two nor more than four joints each. These sets
are kept for ten or fifteen days in a bed prepared for them, from
whence they are taken and planted in rows two or three together,
eighteen inches or two feet intervening between each stool.

_Planting_.--The time and mode of planting vary. In the Rajahmundry
Circar, Dr. Roxburgh says, that "during the months of April and May
the land is repeatedly ploughed with the common Hindoo plough, which
soon brings the loose rich soil (speaking of the Delta of the
Godavery) into very excellent order. About the end of May and
beginning of June, the rains generally set in, in frequent heavy
showers. Now is the time to plant the cane; but should the rains hold
back, the prepared field is watered or flooded from the river, and,
while perfectly wet, like soft mud, the cane is planted.

"The method is most simple. Laborers with baskets of the cuttings, of
one or two joints each, arrange themselves along one side of the
field. They walk side by side, in as straight a line as their eye and
judgment enable them, dropping the sets at the distance of about
eighteen inches asunder in rows, and about four feet from row to row.
Other laborers follow, and with the foot press the set about two
inches into the soft, mud-like soil, which, with a sweep or two with
the sole of the foot, they most easily and readily cover."--(Roxburgh
on the Culture of Sugar.)

About Malda, in the month of Maug (January, February), the land is to
be twice ploughed, and harrowed repeatedly, length and breadth ways;
after which it is furrowed, the furrows half a cubit apart, in which
the plants are to be set at about four fingers' distance from each
other, when the furrows are filled up with the land that lay upon its
ridges. The plants being thus set, the land is harrowed twice in
different directions; fifteen or twenty days afterwards the cane
begins to grow, when the weeds which appear with it must be taken up;
ten or twelve days after this the weeds will again appear. They must
again be taken up, and the earth at the roots of the canes be removed,
when all the plants which have grown will appear.

At Ghazepore the rains set in at the beginning of March, and planting
then commences. Near Calcutta the planting takes place in May and
June. In Dinajpoor and Rungpore the planting time is February.

About Commercolly it is performed in January. The field is divided
into beds six cubits broad, separated from each other by small
trenches fourteen inches wide and eight inches deep. In every second
trench are small wells, about two feet deep. The irrigating water
flowing along the trenches fills the wells, and is taken thence and
applied to the canes by hand.

Each bed has five rows of canes. The sets are planted in holes about
six inches in diameter, and three deep; two sets, each having three
joints, are laid horizontally in every hole, covered slightly with
earth, and over this is a little dung.

When, the canes are planted in the spring, the trenches must be
filled with water, and some poured into every hole. At the other
season of planting the trenches are full, it being rainy weather; but
even then the sets must be watered for the first month.

Mr. Haines says that in Mirzapore and the neighbouring districts, "in
planting the cane they commence a furrow round the field, in which
they drop the cuttings. The second furrow is left empty; cuttings
again in the third; so they continue dropping cuttings in every second
furrow till the whole field is completed, finishing in the centre of
the field. The field remains in this state till the second or third
day, when for two or three days in succession it is made even and hard
upon the surface with the hengah, as before stated."--(Trans.
Agri-Hort. Soc. vi. 5.)

Mr. Vaupell, in describing the most successful mode of cultivating the
Mauritius sugar cane in Bombay, says, that "after the ground is
levelled with the small plough, called 'paur,' in the manner of the
cultivators, pits of two feet in diameter, and two feet in depth,
should be dug throughout the field at the distance of five feet apart,
and filled with manure and soil to about three inches of the surface.
Set in these pits your canes, cut in pieces about a foot and a half
long, laying them down in a triangular from, thus /\. Keep as much of
the eyes or shoots of the cane uppermost as you can; then cover them
with manure and soil; beds should next be formed to retain water,
having four pits in each bed, leaving passages for watering them. The
cutting should be watered every third day during hot weather, and the
field should always be kept in a moist state."--(Ibid. iii. 43.)

About Benares, the sets require, after planting, from four to six
waterings, until the rains commence, and as many hoeings to loosen the
surface, which becomes caked after every watering. The moister nature
of the soil renders these operations generally unnecessary in Bengal.

_After-culture._--In Mysore, the surface of the earth in the hollows
in which the sets are planted is stirred with a stick as soon as the
shoots appear, and a little dung is added. Next month the daily
watering is continued, and then the whole field dug over with the hoe,
a cavity being made round each stool, and a little dung added. In the
third month water is given every second day: at its close, if the
canes are luxuriant, the ground is again dug; but if weakly, the
watering is continued during the fourth month, before the digging is
given. At this time the earth is drawn up about the canes, so as to
leave the hollows between the rows at right angles with the trenches.
No more water is given to the plants, but the trenches between the
beds are kept full for three days. It is then left off for a week, and
if rain occurs, no further water is requisite; but if the weather is
dry, water is admitted once a week during the next month. The digging
is then repeated, and the earth levelled with the hand about the
stools.

The stems of each stool are ten or twelve in number, which are
reduced to five or six by the most weakly of them being now removed.
The healthy canes are to be tied with one of their own leaves, two or
three together, to check their spreading; and this binding is repeated
as required by their increased growth.

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A Stephen King fan has published an 80-page version of the book which novelist Jack Torrance obsessively writes during King's The Shining, where his descent into madness is revealed when his wife discovers that his work consists of just one phrase, endlessly repeated.

Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in terrifying form in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film, is a frustrated writer who goes with his wife and son to spend the winter in the isolated Overlook Hotel in an attempt to get the novel he has always wanted to write started. But the hotel's grisly past and unquiet ghosts have their way with him, and his wife Wendy eventually finds that the manuscript he has been working on actually only contains the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", typed over and over again.

Now New York artist Phil Buehler, who describes himself as "a big fan of Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King", has self-published a book credited to Torrance, repeating the phrase throughout but formatting each page differently, using the words to create different shapes from zigzags to spirals.

"The idea has probably been marinating for years, because I loved the movie and the Stephen King book," said Buehler. "I'd just finished my own obsessive art project [and] it was an idea I had over the Christmas holidays."

He said he decided to stick to type and formatting that could have been created on a typewriter, with the first ten pages duplicating shots of Torrance's work from the film. "I thought 'if he continues to get crazier, what would those pages look like?'" he said. "I hit writer's block about 60 pages in, and I had to get to 80 - that went on for about a week." His fiancée, who had neither read the book nor seen the film, became a little concerned about his actions. "I finally showed her the movie, and she realised I wasn't really losing it," said Buehler.

He's included a spoof review from the blog OverThinkingIt.com on the book's back jacket, which compares it to "the best of Beckett" in its "lack of forward momentum", and considers the struggles of the author, "heroically pitting himself against the Sisyphusean sentence". "It's that metatextual struggle of Man vs. Typewriter that gives this book its spellbinding power," the review says. "Some will dismiss it as simplistic; that's like dismissing a Pollack canvas as mere splatters of paint."

So far, Buehler says that around 1,000 people have viewed the book, for sale on Blurb.com for $8.95 in paperback, or $22.95 in hardback, and he's sold "a few" copies, with sales now starting to pick up steam. "A few people have asked me to sign it - they're looking it as a piece of art rather than a funny thing to give to a Kubrick fan," he said. "If you're not a Kubrick or King fan, you might not even get it."

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