Various particular locusts, without wings, such as the Gryllus verrucivorus, Viridissimus, and some others, had also increased in the last year far beyond their ordinary numbers; but they did not travel in company with the former, though they like wise greatly damaged the vineyards, and often bit off the stalks of the grapes. It was remarkable, that in the same years when these vermin became so numerous, the large erratic locust, from the banks of the Dniepr, together with the small locust, also overspread the whole government of New Russia, and a part of Little Russia, in countless swarms; they did not, however, visit the Crimea.

The Hindoo Method of cultivating the Sugar Cane. From Tennant's "Indian Recreations."

R. ROXBURGH, whose pur

ledge are now so well known, has given an ample account of this branch of Indian husbandry; and in the district where he resided little can be added to his remarks in elucidating the present practice.

"Among the natives of India," he observes," the transitions from one stage of improvement to another are so exceedingly slow, as scarce to deserve the name, except it be the few who have benefited by the example of Europeans. They naturally possess a strong disinclination to depart from the beaten path established from time immemorial; however, when they see a certain prospect of gain, with little additional trouble, they have frequently been known to adopt our practices. We ourselves ought now ge

nerally to keep in view, and to instil into their minds this maxim, that every new proposition, merely on account of its novelty, must not be rejected, otherwise our knowledge would no longer be progressive, and every kind of improvement must cease.

"At a period, like the present, when the importation of East India has become so much an object of importance to Britain, in consequence of the present state of some of the best of the West India sugar islands, every inquiry that may tend to open new sources from whence that wholesome commodity may be procured, at the cheapest rate, is of national importance.

"I believe there are few districts in the company's extensive dominions where there will not be found large tracts of land fit for the culture of the sugar cane: yet I know, from experience, the introduction of a new branch of agriculture,

with infinite trouble; therefore, where we find a province or district, in which the culture of the cane, and the working of sugar has been in practice from time immemorial, there we may expect, without much exertion, to be able to increase the culture, and improve, if necessary, the quality.

"In the northern provinces, as well as in Bengal, Codapah, &c. large quantities of sugar and jagary are made it is only in the Rajamundry and Ganjam districts of these northern parts, where the cane is cultivated for making sugars. I will confine my observations to the first, where I have resided between ten and eleven years.

"This branch of agriculture, in the above-mentioned Sircar, is chief3 G 3 ly

ly carried on in the Peddapore, and Pettapore, along the banks of the Elyseram river, which, though small, has a constant flow of water in it the whole year round, sufficiently large, not only to water the sugar plantations during the dry est seasons, but also a great variety of other productions; such as paddy, ginger, turmeric, yams, chillies. This stream of water, during the dryest season, -renders the lands adjoining, I presume, more fertile than almost any other in India, and particularly fit for the growth of the sugar cane.

In these two zemindaries, from -350 to 700 Fissums; or from 700 to 1400 acres of land, (the vissum being two acres), is annually employed for rearing the sugar cane, more or less, according to the demand for sugar: for they could, and would with pleasure, if they were certain of a market, grow and manufacture more than ten times the usual quantity. It is very profitable; and there is abundance of very proper land; all they want is a certain market for their sugar.

Besides the above-mentioned, a third more may be made on the Delta of Godavery.

. From the same spot they do not attempt to raise a second crop, oftener than every third or fourth year. The cane impoverishes it so much, that it must rest, or be employed during the two or three intermediate years, for the growth of such plants as are found to improve the soil, of which the Indian farmer is a perfect judge. They find the leguminous tribe the best for that purpose.

The method of cultivating the cane, and manufacturing the sugar by the natives, hereabouts, is like all their other works, exceedingly simple. The whole apparatus, a few

pair of bullocks excepted, does not amount to more than fifteen or twenty pagodas; as many thousand pounds is generally, I believe, necessary to set out the West India planter.

The soil that suits the cane best, in this climate, is a rich vegetable earth, which, on exposure to the air, crumbles down into a very fine mould: it is also necessary for it to be of such a level as allows it to be watered from the river, by simply damming it up, which almost the whole land adjoining to this river 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 cattle pent upon it. A favourite manure with the Hindoo farmer is, the rotten straw of the green and black pessaloo. and black pessaloo. During the months of April and May, it is repeatedly stirred with the common Hindoo plough, which soon brings this rich loose soil into very excel lent order. About the end of May or beginning of June, the rains usually set in, by frequent heavy show. ers. Now is the time to plant the cane: but should the rains hold back, the prepared field is watered by flooding from the river, and when perfectly wet is like soft mud, whether from the rain, or from the river, the cane is planted.

The method is most simple: labourers with baskets, of the cuttings, with 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 or judgment enables them, dropping the sets at the distance. of about

eighteen

Eighteen inches in the rows, and four feet asunder from row to row; other labourers follow, and, with the foot, press the set about two inches in the soft mud-like soil: this, with a sweep or two with the sole of the foot, they most easily and readily cover: nothing more is done, if the weather is moderately showery, till the young shoots are some two or three inches high; the earth is then loosened a few inches around them, with a small weeding iron, something like a carpenter's chissel should the season prove dry, the field is occasionally watered from the river, continuing to weed, and to keep the earth loose about 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 drain off the water, should the season prove too wet for the canes, which is frequently 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 time of the violent rains. Should the season prove too dry, these drains serve to conduct the water from the river, through the field, and also to carry off what does not soak into the earth in a few hours; for, say they, if water is permitted to remain upon the field for a greater length of time, the cane would suffer by it, so that they reckon these drains indispensibly necessary; and, on their being wellcontrived, depends, in a great measure, their future hopes of profit. Immediately after the field is trenched, the canes are all propped; this is an operation I do not remember

to have seen mentioned by any wri ter on the subject, and is, perhaps, peculiar to these parts. It is done as follows: The canes are now about three feet high, and generally from three to six from each set that has taken root, and from what we may: call the stool; the lower leaves of each cane are first carefully wrapt up round it, so as to cover it com pletely in every part; a small strong bamboo, eight or ten feet long, is then stuck into the earth in the middle of each stool, and the canes are tied to it; this secures them in an erect position, and gives the air free access round every part. As thes canes advance in size, they continue wrapping them round with the lower leaves, as they begin to wither, and to tie them to the prop bamboos higher up, during which time, if the weather is wet, they keep the trenches open; and if a drought prevails, they water them occasion ally from the river, cleaning and loosening the ground every five or six weeks. Tying the leaves so care fully round the cane, they say, prevents them from cracking and splitting with the sun, helps to render. the juice richer, and prevents their branching out round the sides; it is certain that you never see a branchy cane here.

In January and February the canes are ready to cut, which is about nine months from the time of planting; of course I need not des scribe it. Their height when standing in the field, will now be from eight to ten feet, foliage included and the naked cane from an inch to an inch and a quarter in diame

A mill or two, or even more, ac cording to the size of the field, is erected, when wanted, in the open

air; generally under the shade of large mango trees, of which there are great abundance hereabouts. The mill is small, exceedingly simple, and at the same time efficacious. The juice, as fast as expressed, is received into common earthen pots, strained, and put into boilers, which are, in general, of an oval form, composed of ill-made thick plates, of country iron, rivetted. These boilers hold from eighty to one hundred gallons; in each they put from twenty-four to thirty gallons of the strained juice: the boiler is placed over a draft furnace, which makes the fire burn with great violence, being supplied with a strong draught of air through a large subterranean passage, which also serves for an ash-pit. At first the fire is moderate, but as the scum is taken off, a point they are not very nice about in these parts, as they look to quantity more than quality, the fire is by degrees increased, so as to make the liquor boil very smartly; nothing whatever is added to make the scum to rise, or the sugar to train, except when the planter wants a small quantity for his own or a friend's use; in this case he adds ten or twelve pints of sweet milk to every twenty-four or thirty gallons, or each boiler of juice, which no noubt improves the quality of the sugar; the scum, with this addition, comes up more abundantly, and is more carefully removed.

This liquor is never here removed into a second boiler, but is in the same boiled down to a proper consistence, which they guess by the eye, and by the touch; the fire is then withdrawn, and, in the same vessel, allowed to cool a little. When it becomes pretty thick, they stir it about with stirring sticks, till it

begins to take the form of sugar; it is then taken out and put upon mats, made of the leaves of the palmira tree, (Borassus flabelliformis), when the stirring is continued till it is cold: it is then put up in pots, baskets, &c. till a merchant appears to buy it.

The Hindoo name of this sugar is Pansadurry; its colour is fairer than most of the raw sugars made in our West India islands; but it is of a clammy unctuous nature, absorbing much moisture in wet weather, sometimes sufficient to melt a great deal of it, if not carefully stowed in some dry place, where smoke has access to it.

Many of the planters prefer that sort of sugar which they call Bellum, and Europeans Jagary, because it keeps well during the wet weather, if laid up in a dry place. It generally bears a lower price; yet, they say, this disadvantage is often overbalanced, by their being able to keep it, with only a trifling wastage, till a market occurs-for the farmer has often to wait for a market for his sugar; besides, canes of inferior quality answer for jagary, when unfit for sugar.

The process for making jagary differs from those above described, in having a quantity of quick lime thrown into the boiler, with the cane juice, about a spoonful and a half for every six or seven gallons of the juice. Here they do not remove the scum, but let it mix with the liquor; and when of a proper consistence, about four or five ounces of Gengeley (oil of Sesamum orientale) are added to each boiler of liquor, now ready to be removed from the fire; these are well mixed, and then poured into shallow pits dug in the ground. They are gene.

rally

rally about three feet long, half a foot broad, and three inches deep, with a mat spread at the bottom, which is slightly strewed with quick lime. In a short time the liquor incorporates into a thick solid mass; these large cakes they wrap in dry leaves, and lay by for sale.

Their jagary is of a darker colour than the sugar, and contains more impurities, owing to the careless manner they prepare it, by allowing all the scum to incorporate with the liquor.

The hall vissum, or one acre of sugar cane, in a tolerable season, yields about ten candy of sugar, or rather more, if made into jagary: each candy weighs about five hundred pounds, and is worth, on the spot, from sixteen to twenty-four rupees. In the West Indies, so far as my information goes, the cane yields from fourteen to twenty hundred weight of their raw sugar, worth, on the island, about twenty pounds of their currency. Here

the produce is more than double; but, on account of its inferior quality, and the low price it bears on the spot, the produce does not yield a great deal more money than in the West Indies. However, as the labour is incomparably cheaper, the Indian planter must make much larger profits.

The situation of all the lands hereabouts is exactly alike, being in the middle of an extensive plain adjoining the river: the soil is also much alike, so that the produce is nearly equal in all, when no unfavourable circumstances happen. The same result is farther established by the quantity of sugar a measure of juice will yield. Here it is almost always, except in a very

rainy season, or in lodged or wormy canes, about one sixth, part; or six pounds of juice yield one pound of sugar. In Jamaica, Mr. Beckford says, that, on an average, eighteen hundred gallons of juice may be reckoned to yield an hogshead of sugar, or sixteen hundred weight, that is, one of sugar to eight of juice. This proves our juice to be one fourth richer than theirs.

From the above calculation, it is evident that all the lands in this neighbourhood are better adapted to this culture than the lands of Jamaica; for here they not only yield a larger crop of canes, but the juice is also richer; and were our planters here to bring the molasses into account, employed in the West Indies for the distillation of rum, their profits would be still greater. At present this refuse is given to cattle, or carried away by labourers, for whatever they think proper. It is thus productive of more real benefit than if converted into ardent spirits. The natives, in other parts of India, are, however, well acquainted with the method of making both rum and arrack, nor have they learned this pernicious process from Europeans, as some have supposed.

In this country, the canes, while growing, are subject to fewer accidents than in the West Indies. I will mention them briefly.

1. A very hot season is the worst; it injures the canes greatly, render, ing them of a reddish colour, yielding a poor, unprofitable juice: here they reckon the small, heavy, pale yellow cane the best.

2. Storms, unless they are very violent, do no great harm, because the canes are propped; however, if they are once laid down, they be

come