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.

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 shower