ugar; it also produces the best _Bella_ or _Jaggery_. It can be
planted at the same season as the other, as well as at the end of July
and beginning of August. It is fourteen months in completing its
growth; but the stools produce a second crop, like the ratoons of the
West Indies, which ripen in twelve months.

_Maracabo_, _Cuttaycabo_.--These two are very small, seldom exceeding
half an inch in diameter; yet in some districts of Mysore, as about
Colar, the last-named is the variety usually cultivated; but this
arises from its requiring less water than the larger varieties.

The best varieties are those introduced from the Islands of Otaheite
and Bourbon. Hindostan is indebted for their introduction to Captain
Sleeman, who brought them hither from the Mauritius in 1827. He
committed them to Dr. Wallich, under whose care, at the Botanic
Garden, they have flourished, and been the source from whence the
benefit has been generally diffused. Their superiority over those
which have been usually cultivated by the natives has been completely
established. The largest of the Hindostan canes, ripe and trimmed
ready for the mill, has never been found to exceed five pounds; but it
is not uncommon for an Otaheite cane,[19] under similar circumstances,
to weigh seven pounds. The extra weight arises proportionately from an
increased secretion of superior sap. The sugar is more abundant,
granulates more readily, and has less scum. Other superior qualities
are, that the canes ripen earlier, and are less injured by the
occurrence of protracted dry weather.

Of the history of the sugar cane a popular tradition obtains amongst
the natives, that, in very ancient times, a vessel belonging to their
country chanced by accident to leave one of her crew, under a
desperate fit of sickness, at a desert island, at a considerable
distance in the Eastern Seas, and that, returning by the same route,
curiosity prompted them to inquire after the fate of their companion,
when, to their utter astonishment, the man presented himself to their
view, completely recovered from his sickness, and even in a state of
more than common health. With anxiety they inquired for the physic he
had so successfully applied, and were conducted by him to the sugar
cane, on which he acquainted them he had solely subsisted from the
time of their departure. Attracted by such powerful recommendation,
every care and attention was bestowed, we may suppose, to convey such
an inva