The infection of the fungus can be carried by the air; but it seems likely that water, either flowing from infected fields or into which diseased canes and refuse have been thrown, is the chief agent for its diffusion. The water-logged condition of the ground, the lack of rotation, and the consequent exhaustion of the soil, are among other contributing causes.
A number of interesting results bearing upon defects in the present methods of sugar-cane cultivation have been obtained at the Samalkot farm by employing different manures, growing different varieties and raising selected canes under different systems. These are detailed in G.O. No. 1020, Revenue, dated 14th September 1904, pp. 20 ff. The chief conclusions arrived at are briefly: (l) that it is important to tread in the cuttings properly, (2) that they should be planted in rows so as to facilitate weeding, supervision and irrigation, (3) that they are best put out in trenches, (4) that the use of a rake to supplement two thorough weedings with the tolika would be easier and much less expensive than the use of the tolika throughout, (5) that green dressing is good, but that the plants usually employed by the ryots are leguminous and suffer from insect and other pests, and (6) that the use of cane trash as a mulch in the first instance and its burial in the fields after the canals are reopened has several advantages.
Other matters are under investigation; among them the best number of cuttings per acre, the quantity of water required, the abolition of the expensive bamboo supports, the advantages of ratooning, and the improvement of the methods of making jaggery.
The commonest dry crops are gingelly (núgu or nuvvu), cholam (jonna), horse-gram (ulava), ragi (tsódi), green gram (pesara), sunn hemp (janumu), castor (ámuda), cambu (gante), black gram (minumu), tobacco (pogáku), and Bengal gram (salaga or sanaga). Gingelly, horse-gram and ragi are most widely grown in Peddápuram and Rajahmundry. Cholam is chiefly raised in Bhadráchalam in the Agency, in all the upland taluks and in Amalápuram in the delta. Castor is popular in Pólavaram; cambu in Peddápuram; Bengal gram in Amalápuram, Peddápuram and Rámachandrapuram; and sunn hemp in Amalápuram, Nagaram and Cocanada. Tobacco grows best in the Gódávari lankas and in Yellavaram.
The two seasons of dry cultivation are known respectively as the tolakari or punása panta and the sítakattu or payiru panta. The former begins any time between May and July inclusive, and the latter between the beginning of September and the middle of December. With local exceptions, ragi, gingelly and cambu are grown in the first season; and horse-gram,
