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

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In the absence of rain, the trenches are filled with water once a
fortnight.

When the _Putta-putti_ is to be kept for a second crop, the dry leaves
cut off in the crop season are burnt upon the field, and this is dug
over, and trenches filled with water, and during six weeks the plants
watered once in every six or eight days (unless rain falls), and the
digging repeated three times, dung being added at each digging. The
after-culture is the same as for the first crop.

In the Upper Provinces, Dr. Tennant says, if moderate showers occur
after planting, nothing more is done until the shoots from the sets
have attained a height of two or three inches. The soil immediately
around them is then loosened with a small weeding iron, something like
a chisel; but if the season should prove dry, the field is
occasionally watered; the weeding is also continued, and the soil
occasionally loosened about the plants.

In August, small trenches are cut through the field, with small
intervals between them, for the purpose of draining off the water, if
the season is too wet. This is very requisite, for if the canes are
now supplied with too much moisture, the juice is rendered watery and
unprofitable. If the season happens to be dry, the same dikes serve to
conduct the irrigating water through the field, and to carry off what
does not soak into the earth in a few hours. Stagnant water they
consider very injurious to the cane, and on the drains being well
contrived depends in a great measure the future hope of profit.
Immediately after the field is trenched, the canes are propped. They
are now about three feet high, and each set has produced from three to
six canes. The lower leaves of each are first carefully wrapt up
around it, so as to cover it completely in every part; a small strong
bamboo, eight or ten feet long, is then inserted firmly in the middle
of each stool, and the canes tied to it. This secures them in an erect
position, and facilitates the circulation of the air.

Hoeing cannot be repeated too frequently. This is demonstrated by the
practice of the most successful cultivators. In Zilla, N. Mooradabad,
in April, about six weeks after planting, the earth on each side of
the cane-rows is loosened by a sharp-pointed hoe, shaped somewhat like
a bricklayer's trowel. This is repeated six times before the field is
laid out in beds and channels for irrigation. There, likewise, if the
season is unusually dry, the fields in the low ground are watered in
May and June. This supposes there are either nullahs, or ancient pucka
wells, otherwise the canes are allowed to take their chance, for the
cost of making a well on the uplands is from ten to twenty rupees--an
expense too heavy for an individual cultivator, and not many would dig
in partnership, for they would fight for the water.

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."

In Malda, the canes are cut in January and February. In N. Mooradabad,
upon the low land, the canes are ripe in October, and upon the high
lands a month later. The fitness of the cane for cutting may be
ascertained by making an incision across the cane, and observing the
internal grain. If it is soft and moist, like a turnip, it is not yet
ripe; but if the face of the cut is dry, and white particles appear,
it is fit for harvesting.--(_Fitzmaurice on the Culture of the Sugar
Cane_.)

_Injuries_.--1. _A wet season_, either during the very early or in the
concluding period of the cane's vegetation, is one of the worst causes
of injury. In such a season, the absence of the usual intensity of
light and heat causes the sap to be very materially deficient in
saccharine matter. But, on the other hand,

2. _A very dry season_, immediately after the sets are planted, though
the want of rain may in some degree be supplied by artificial means,
causes the produce to be but indifferent. These inconveniences are of
a general nature, and irremediable.

3. _Animals_.--In India not only the incursions of domesticated
animals, but in some districts of the wild elephant, buffalo, and hog,
are frequent sources of injury. Almost every plantation is liable,
also, to the attack of the jackal, and rats are destructive enemies.

4. _White Ants_.--The sets of the sugar cane have to be carefully
watched, to preserve them from the white ant (_Termes fatalis_), to
attacks from which they are liable until they have begun to shoot. To
prevent this injury, the following mixture has been recommended:--

Asafoetida (hing), 8 chittacks.
Mustard-seed cake (sarsum ki khalli), 8 seers.
Putrid fish, 4 seers.
Bruised butch root, 2 seers;
or muddur, 2 seers.

Mix the above together in a large vessel, with water sufficient to
make them into the thickness of curds; then steep each slip of cane in
it for half an hour after planting; and, lastly, water the lines three
times previous to setting the cane, by irrigating the water-course
with water mixed up with bruised butch root, or muddur if the former
be not procurable.[22] A very effectual mode of destroying the white
ant, is by mixing a small quantity of arsenic with a few ounces of
burned bread, pulverised flour, or oatmeal, moistened with molasses,
and placing pieces of the dough thus made, each about the size of a
turkey's egg, on a flat board, and covered over with a wooden bowl, in
several parts of the plantation. The ants soon take possession of
these, and the poison has a continuous effect, for the ants which die
are eaten by those which succeed them.[23] They are said to be driven
from a soil by frequently hoeing it. They are found to prevail most
upon newly broken-up lands.

In Central India, the penetration of the white ants into the interior
of the sets, and the consequent destruction of the latter, is
prevented by dipping each end into buttermilk, asafoetida, and
powdered mustard-seed, mixed into a thick compound.

5. _Storms_.--Unless they are very violent, Dr. Roxburgh observes,
"they do no great harm, because the canes are propped. However, if
they are once laid down, which sometimes happens, they become branchy
and thin, yielding a poor, watery juice."

6. _The Worm_ "is another evil, which generally visits them every few
years. A beetle deposits its eggs in the young canes; the caterpillars
of these remain in the cane, living on its medullary parts, till they
are ready to be metamorphosed into the chrysalis state. Sometimes this
evil is so great as to injure a sixth or an eighth part of the field;
but, what is worse, the disease is commonly general when it
happens--few fields escaping."

7. _The Flowering_ "is the last accident they reckon upon, although it
scarce deserves the name, for it rarely happens, and never but to a
very small proportion of some few fields. Those canes that flower have
very little juice left, and it is by no means so sweet as that of the
rest."

In the Brazils, the fact of the slave trade being at an end must
influence the future produce of sugar, and attention has been lately
chiefly directed to coffee, cotton, and other staples. The exports of
that empire in 1842, were 59,000 tons; in 1843, 54,500; in 1844,
76,400; in 1845, 91,000; average of these four years 69,720. The
exports in the next four years averaged 96,150 tons, viz:--76,100, in
1846; 96,300, in 1847; 112,500, in 1848; and 99,700, in 1849.

_Mode of Cultivation in Brazil_.--The lands in Brazil are never
grubbed up, either for planting the sugar cane, or for any other
agricultural purposes. The inconveniences of this custom are
perceivable more particularly in high lands; because all of these that
are of any value are naturally covered with thick woods. The cane is
planted amongst the numerous stumps of trees, by which means much
ground is lost, and as the sprouts from these stumps almost
immediately spring forth (such is the rapidity of vegetation) the
cleanings are rendered very laborious. These shoots require to be cut
down sometimes, even before the cane has found its way to the surface
of the ground. The labor likewise is great every time a piece of land
is to be put under cultivation, for the wood must be cut down afresh;
and although it cannot have reached the same size which the original
timber had attained, still as several years are allowed to pass
between each period at which the ground is planted, the trees are
generally of considerable thickness. The wood is suffered to remain
upon the land until the leaves become dry; then it is set on fire, and
these are destroyed with the brush wood and the smaller branches of
the trees. Heaps are now made of the remaining timber, which is
likewise burnt. This process is universally practised in preparing
land for the cultivation of any plant. I have often heard the method
much censured as being injurious in the main to the soil, though the
crop immediately succeeding the operation may be rendered more
luxuriant by it. I have observed that the canes which grew upon the
spots where the heaps of timber and large branches of trees had been
burnt, were of a darker and richer green than those around them, and
that they likewise over-topped them. After the plant-canes, or those
of the first year's growth, are taken from the lands, the field-trash,
that is the dried leaves and stems of the canes which remain upon the
ground, are set fire to, with the idea that the ratoons,--that is, the
sprouts from the old roots of the canes,--spring forth with more
luxuriance, and attain a greater size by means of this practice. The
ratoons of the first year are called in Brazil, _socas_; those of the
second year, _resocas_; those of the third year, _terceiras socas_,
and so forth. After the roots are left unencumbered by burning the
field-trash, the mould is raised round about them; indeed, if this was
neglected, many of those roots would remain too much exposed to the
heat of the sun, and would not continue to vegetate.

Some lands will continue to give ratoons for five, or even seven
years; but an average may be made at one crop of good ratoons fit for
grinding, another of inferior ratoons fit for planting, or for making
molasses to be used in the still-house, and a third which affords but
a trifling profit, in return for the trouble which the cleanings give.

I have above spoken more particularly of high lands. The low and
marshy grounds, called in Brazil, _varzeas_, are, however, those which
are the best adapted to the cane; and, indeed, upon the plantations
that do not possess some portions of this description of soil the
crops are very unequal, and sometimes almost entirely fail, according
to the greater or less quantity of rain, which may chance to fall in
the course of the year. The _varzeas_ are usually covered with short
and close brushwood, and as these admit, from their rank nature, of
frequent cultivation, they soon become easy to work. The soil of
these, when it is new, receives the name of _paul_; it trembles under
the pressure of the feet, and easily admits of a pointed stick being
thrust into it; and though dry to appearance requires draining. The
_macape_ marl is often to be met with in all situations; it is of a
greenish white color, and if at all wet, it sticks very much to the
hoe; it becomes soon dry at the surface, but the canes which have been
planted upon it seldom fail to revive after rain, even though a want
of it should have been much felt. The white marl, _barro branco_, is
less frequently found; it is accounted extremely productive. This clay
is used in making bricks and coarse earthenware, and also for claying
the sugar. Red earth is occasionally met with upon sides of hills near
to the coast; but this description of soil belongs properly to the
cotton districts. Black mould is common, and likewise a loose brownish
soil, in which a less or greater proportion of sand is intermixed. It
is, I believe, generally acknowledged that no land can be too rich for
the growth of the sugar cane. One disadvantage, however, attends soil
that is low and quite new, which is, that the canes run up to a great
height without sufficient thickness, and are thus often lodged (or
blown down) before the season for cutting them arrives. I have seen
rice planted upon lands of this kind on the first year to decrease
their rankness, and render them better adapted to the cane on the
succeeding season. Some attempts have been made to plant cane upon the
lands which reach down to the edge of the mangroves, and in a few
instances pieces of land heretofore covered by the salt water at the
flow of the tide, have been laid dry by means of draining for the same
purpose; but the desired success has not attended the plan, for the
canes have been found to be unfit for making sugar; the syrup does not
coagulate, or at least does not attain that consistence which is
requisite, and therefore it can only be used for the distilleries.

The general mode of preparing the land for the cane is by holing it
with hoes. The negroes stand in a row, and each man strikes his hoe
into the ground immediately before him, and forms a trench of five or
six inches in depth; he then falls back, the whole row doing the same,
and they continue this operation from one side of the cleared land to
the other, or from the top of a hill to the bottom. The earth which is
thrown out of the trench remains on the lower side of it. In the
British West India colonies this work is done in a manner nearly
similar, but more systematically. The lands in Brazil are not
measured, and everything is done by the eye. The quantity of cane
which a piece will require for planting is estimated by so many
cart-loads; and nothing can be more vague than this mode of
computation, for the load which a cart can carry depends upon the
condition of the oxen, upon the nature of the road, and upon the
length of the cane. Such is the awkward make of these vehicles, that
much nicety is necessary in packing them, and if two canes will about
fit into a cart lengthways, much more will be conveyed than if the
canes are longer and they double over each other.

The plough is sometimes used in low lands, upon which draining has not
been found necessary; but such is the clumsy construction of the
machine of which they make use, that six oxen are yoked to it. A
plough drawn by two oxen, constructed after a model which was brought
from Cayenne, has been introduced in one or two instances. Upon high
lands the stumps of the trees almost preclude the possibility of thus
relieving the laborers. The trenches being prepared, the cuttings are
laid longitudinally in the bottom of them, and are covered with the
greatest part of the mould which had been taken out of the trench. The
shoots begin to rise above the surface of the ground in the course of
twelve or fourteen days. The canes undergo three cleanings from the
weeds and the sprouts proceeding from the stumps of the trees; and
when the land is poor, and produces a greater quantity of the former,
and contains fewer of the latter, the canes require to be cleaned a
fourth time. The cuttings are usually 12 to 18 inches in length, but
it is judged that the shorter they are the better. If they are short,
and one piece of cane rots, the space which remains vacant is not so
large as when the cuttings are long, and they by any accident fail.
The canes which are used for planting are generally ratoons, if any
exist upon the plantation; but if there are none of these, the
inferior plant canes supply their places. It is accounted more
economical to make use of the ratoons for this purpose; and many
persons say that they are less liable to rot than the plant canes. In
the British sugar islands the cuttings for planting are commonly the
tops of the canes which have been ground for sugar. But in Brazil the
tops of the canes are all thrown to the cattle, for there is usually a
want of grass during the season that the mills are at work. In the
British colonies, the canes are at first covered with only a small
portion of mould, and yet they are as long in forcing their way to the
surface as in Brazil, though in the latter a more considerable
quantity of earth is laid upon them. I suppose that the superior
richness of the Brazilian soil accounts for this. Upon rich soils the
cuttings are laid at a greater distance, and the trenches are dug
farther from each other, than upon those which have undergone more
frequent cultivation, or which are known to possess less power from
their natural composition. The canes which are planted upon the former
throw out great numbers of sprouts, which spread each way; and,
although when they are young, the land may appear to promise but a
scanty crop, they soon close, and no opening is to be seen. It is
often judged proper to thin the canes, by removing some of the suckers
at the time that the last cleaning is given; and some persons
recommend that a portion of the dry leaves should also be stripped off
at the same period, but on other plantations this is not practised.

The proper season for planting is from the middle of July to the
middle of September, upon high lands, and from September to the middle
of November in low lands. Occasionally, the great moisture of the soil
induces the planter to continue his work until the beginning of
December, if his people are sufficiently numerous to answer all the
necessary purposes. The first of the canes are ready to be cut for the
mill in September of the following year, and the crop is finished
usually in January or February. In the British sugar islands the canes
are planted from August to November, and are ripe for the mill in the
beginning of the second year. Thus this plant in Brazil requires from
thirteen to fifteen months to attain its proper state for the mill;
and in the West India islands it remains standing sixteen or seventeen
months.

The Otaheitan, or the Bourbon cane, has been brought from Cayenne to
Pernambuco since the Portuguese obtained possession of that
settlement. I believe the two species of cane are much alike, and I
have not been able to discover which of them it is. Its advantages are
so apparent, that after one trial on each estate, it has superseded
the small cane which was in general use. The Cayenne cane, as it is
called in Pernambuco, is of a much larger size than the common cane;
it branches so very greatly, that the labor in planting a piece of
cane is much decreased, and the returns from it are at the same time
much more considerable. It is not planted in trenches, but holes are
dug at equal distances from each other, in which these cuttings are
laid. This cane bears the dry weather better than the small cane; and
when the leaves of the latter begin to turn brown, those of the former
still preserve their natural color. A planter in the _Varzea_ told me
that he had obtained four crops from one piece of land in three years,
and that the soil in question had been considered by him as nearly
worn out, before he planted the Cayenne cane upon it.--("Koster's
Travels in Brazil," vol. 2.)

Mr. E. Morewood, of Compensation, Natal, who has paid much attention
to sugar culture in that colony, has favored me with the following
details, which will be useful for the guidance of others, as being the
results of his own experience:--

lbs.
Produce of one acre of sugar cane 72,240
Juice expressed, (or 64 per cent.) 46,308
Dry sugar 7,356
Green syrup or molasses 2,829
This syrup carrying with it a good deal of sugar out of the
coolers, contains fully 75 per cent. of crystalizable sugar, or 2,121
Thus the total amount of sugar per acre is 9,477