Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.20

v3.c43.20

Sugar-Cane Cultivation.—There is nothing so uncertain in its results as the cultivation of sugar-cane, which holds out a powerful lure for dishonesty to the collector for the crown, But it is asserted here that the ryot had no option, being compelled to cultivate, in due proportion, cane, opium, and grain, from the same charsa¹ or well. A rough estimate of the expense attending the culture of a charsa, or what may be irrigated by one well, may not be uninteresting. Let us take, first, one bigha of cane, and no more can be watered with one pair of oxen, premising that the cane is planted in the month of Aghan, and reaped in the same month next year; that is, after a whole twelvemonth of labour: