s 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 hi