AND COLLEGE, PUSA, FOR 1915-16 29 



At the present time in Bihar, the chief direction of pro- 

 gress in tobacco growing is the discovery of some means of 

 lowering the cost of production of this crop. The two chief 

 items in this expenditure are, firstly, the labour involved in 

 the management of the monsoon fallow which precedes 

 tobacco and, secondly, the cost of the manure required. 

 Both these matters have received attention in the Botanical 

 Section. The cost of the monsoon fallow has been reduced 

 by the introduction of the five-tine spring-tooth cultivator 

 Jby which the efficiency of the plough cattle has been 

 increased threefold and by which it has been possible to 

 keep these fallows clean even in wet years. With regard to 

 the cost of manuring, a method has now been discovered by 

 which heavy, well-ripened crops of leaf can be obtained with 

 green-manure alone. The successful use of sanai (C 'ro- 

 tatoria juncea) as a green-manure for tobacco in Bihar has 

 been found to be a matter of soil-aeration. In the decay of 

 the green crop, a vast amount of oxygen is required and a 

 corresponding volume of carbon dioxide is produced in the 

 soil. For this decay to take place with the necessary rapi- 

 dity under monsoon conditions, it has been found necessary 

 to promote aeration by suitable surface drainage and by the 

 provision of a certain amount of broken tile (thikra) in 

 the surface soil. Under such conditions, the tobacco crop 

 does not suffer from want of air during growth and the 

 ripening processes are not delayed as is the case in green- 

 manuring in the ordinary way. Proceeding in this manner, 

 namely, by green-manuring on drained land containing 

 thikra, a crop of cured cigarette tobacco weighing 24 

 maunds to the acre was produced, which was sold to the 

 Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Company at Dalsing 

 Serai for fifteen rupees a maund. The product was cured 

 on the ground in the country fashion, care being taken to use 

 the minimum amount of moisture in the process. The 

 application of this method under estate conditions is 

 naturally a question of the capital involved in the addition 

 of the necessary amount of thikra to the soil. An area of 

 land is now under treatment on the Dholi estate and it is 



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