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.Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Science
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.
Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Botany, Economic
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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