Abstract

Manuring, irrigation and provision of proper facilities for good drainage are considered to be essential factors that determine cane yields. Formerly, when the hardy types of cane seedlings, that are now available, were soarce and the ryots had to cultivate some of the old Barbados and Mauritius varieties like B. 208 and purple Mauritius, irriga- tion and drainage played the most important part with regard to yield of sugarcane. These canes were 'Noble' in lineage and wanted a truly royal trealment. They needed irrigation at very short intervals and could not tolerate any water stagnation. They came up best on rich, well drained loamy soils commanding good irrigation facilities. In Madras, which grows about 3 per cent of the total area under cane in India, sugarcane is mostly grown in wet lands or lands which usually grow rice under swamp conditions. Once in every two to four years cane is grown in the same land, rice being the rotation crop. The cultivators select, as far as possible, lands that are comparatively at a higher level than the surrounding fields for growing sugarcane. They have at times, to dig deep trenches all round the field to prevent seepage of water from the paddy lands round about To see which of the numerous cane seedlings now available from the Sugarcane Breeding Station, Coimbatore, suits lands liable for submersion in the monsoon months, as a consequence of wet cultivation in the surrounding fields, trials were conducted in some of the important cane research stations of this province, viz., Anakapalle, Samalkot and Palur. Results achieved at these places during the past decade are summarised in this article.

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