y 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