148 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1883. 



AGEICULTUEE IN INDIA. 



Fi^d and Garden Crops of ike Xoi'th- Western Provinces 

 and Oiiilli. Part I. "With Ulustratious. By J. F. Duthie, 

 B.A., Siipeiiutendent of tlie Sahaianpur Botanic Gardens, 

 and J. B. Fuller, Assistant Director of Agriculture and 

 Commerce, North-West Proraiccs and Oudh. 



This hrocUnre is the first of a short series in which it 

 is proposed to describe the cultivated products of the 

 North- West Provinces of India. ^\'ith the e.f ception of an 

 iut .'oduction of considerable length, treating generally of 

 the physical, social, and agricultural pecularities of the 

 North- Western Provinces, the volume is chiefly devoted to 

 a description of farm crops. Many of these, such as wheat, 

 barley, oats, maize, hemp, tobacco, millet, and poppy, 

 are as familiar to Em'opean cultivators as to Asiatics. 

 Others, such as opium, rice, sugarcane, and cotton, betoken 

 the tropical natiue of at least a portion of the season. 



The text is not free from remarks betokening a want 

 of knowledge as to the progress of research on certain 

 points. When, for example, treating of the enemies which 

 affect the wheat crop, the author (presumably Mr-. Fuller) 

 writes as follows; — "But by far the most extraordinary 

 lUsease to which wheat is liable is sthivan. in which the 

 young wheat-grains are found to be filled with minute 

 worms. . . . The most extraonlinary fact connected ^vith 

 this disease is, however, that the worms can retain their 

 Wtality for a long time," &c. A footnote is then added 

 as follows : — " Since the above was written, the worms 

 have been identified as belonging to the order Xemnioidea, 

 and are ajjparently of the genus Tylcixchus" \ This is 

 really too gross and wilful ignoraftce. The wellknown and 

 often-described '' pepper brand "' or *' ear-cockle " attribut- 

 able to the I'ibrio tritici. now kno^vlr as the Ti/lenchv.s 

 tritici, is paraded as a "most extraordinary" disea-se, the 

 precise natm-e of which has been ascertained " since the 

 above was wTitteu." If such is the fact, the figures 

 1882 should be withdi-awu from the title-page, and 1828 

 be substituted in their place. Neither do the authors ap- 

 pear to be at home in treating of the varieties of the 

 cultivated plants. The varieties of rice, we are told, are 

 more numerous ami more strongly marked than those of 

 any other crop. Forty-seven distinct varieties are announced, 

 in support of this statement, as existing in Bareilly, al- 

 though the writer proceeds somewhat naively to add " Prob- 

 ably in the Provinces their number considerably exceeds 

 100." Now, as 300 varieties of wheat have been propag- 

 ated by one naturahst, the forty-seven varieties of rice 

 do not strike us as bearing out the statement as to the 

 extraordinary variabihty of the plant. 



An alluvial soU and a cUmate by which the year is di- 

 vided into two complete seasons certainly are conditions 

 highly favoirrable to vegetation and to agriculture. In the 

 colder season, wheat, barley, and oats are brought to per- 

 fection, while in the kharif, or hot season, rice, cotton, 

 sugarcane, and maize thrive. Not only do these highly- 

 favgm'ed provinces enjoy a temjjerate and a tropical clim- 

 ate, but each half of tlie year is again divided into two 

 definite sub-seasons fitted for producing crops peciUiar to 

 it. We cannot but wonder whether the strange climatal 

 vagaries to winch the western world has latterly been ex- 

 posed have disturbed the pleasant din.sion of the year 

 into kharif and rati in theNorth-West Provinces of India : 

 but on this point oui' authors are silent. 

 — A'atiire, July 13. John Wbigutsok. 



THE COIR YARN INDUSTRY IN TRAV.ANCORE. 

 We are not specialists in the coir yarn trade, and don't 

 know the difference by miles between fair Alapat and 

 middling Vyome, but we claim to note a remarkable in- 

 novation in this branch of industry, which is calculated 

 to work some influence on the local and home markets. 

 Dm-ing the last sixteen years, we have been much up and 

 down the Travancore and Cochin backwaters, and in the 

 course of om- joui ueys we noticed one thing remarkable; 

 and that was, while Anjengo produced the best coir yarn 

 known to the commercial world, Trevandrura, but 2.5 miles 

 south of this noted con- yai-n market, produced liardly a 

 skein. In Trevandrum, for the last sixteen years, so blind 

 have the people been to the importance of an industry 

 that might have been pursued with golden results, that 

 they have actually all along used the crude coconut fibre 



as fuel. Trevandrum posse.sses milhons and millions o^ 

 coconut trees standing in compounds of varied dimensions, 

 but beyond using the nut for oil and the leaves for thatch- 

 ing, the fibre and the shells are put to no other use but 

 fuel. We search the list of Trevandrum tradesmen in 

 vain for an exporter of oil or a manufacturer of yarn. 

 All these years, lakhs and lakhs of rupees worth of valu- 

 able fibre has simply been wasted in smoke. We noticed 

 this lamentable caliou-sness on the part of the benighted 

 Trevanch-umites, and suggested to some of our mercantile 

 friends that engagements in the coir yam trade at Ti-evau- 

 drum would probably be a profitable undertaking ; but our 

 shrewd friends turned up their eyes, and seemed to think 

 that the fact that the Trevandrum people burned their 

 filri for fuel sufficiently proved that any attempt in 

 bringing the fibre to marketable use must prove delusive 

 and a failure. We are glad, however, to note that within 

 a few — very few — months this branch of trade has actually 

 atti'acted the attention of that shrewd and euterprizing 

 merchant, Mr. James Darragh, of Cochin and AUeppey. 

 That melancholv litigation between Dow & Sons and Archer 

 & Bull took Mr. Darragh oftener to Trevandrum, we ex- 

 pect, than he at fii-st liked ; but he is a man, who is not 

 accustomed to letting the grass grow under his feet, and 

 he kept his e3'es well open to such commercial attractions 

 as might present themselves to him in his journeys up and 

 down. A week or two ago we noticed what to us was an 

 undoubted phenomenon, hundreds and hundreds of carts 

 laden with green coir fibre travelling towards the ( 'hakay 

 lauding place and emptying their contents into the large 

 cargo boats which have aheady begim to jjy freely between 

 Quilon and Trevandrum, On enquiry, we" were "told that 

 the fibre was being conveyed to Anjengo to be converted 

 into yarn to supply the requirements of Sir. Dai-ragh's 

 firms at AUeppey and Cochin. It may not be a fact that 

 Mr. Darragh has himself any interest in the exportation 

 of the fibre fi-om Ti-evandrum ; but the significant fact 

 remains that at last the coir fibre of Trevandrum is to be 

 converted into something marketable instead of being con- 

 signed to the flames as in times of yore. There are many 

 spots in Trevandrum, where we are sm"e the coir yarn in- 

 dustry might be opened w-ith splendid results, say, for in- 

 stance Valley, Covellum, Poonnora, Valiathoray, .Shereinkil, 

 Vellenjum and a host of other places. All these pkces 

 enjoy exactly the advantages which Anjengo possesses, 

 and with Trevaniirum, as the head quarters of an estab- 

 lishment, the Anjengo manufacturers would easily be at- 

 tracted to give their labour for the development of a really 

 enormous scheme. The sleepy owners of coconut gardens 

 thereabouts might be induced" for a mere song to part with 

 the fibre, which they now fling into the fire ; the monopoly 

 of all the available fibre could easily be so cured by any 

 one merchant : and we leave it to our long-headed mer- 

 cantile friends here to calculate what might be the eventual 

 harvest of an enterprize such as we iucUcate. The Scottish 

 India Coffee Company is nearest the scene ; it is aheady 

 on the track of the coir yai'n trade ; and it might be 

 profitable if this enterprizing body of investors put out their 

 hands at once in the du-ectiou which we have pointed out. 

 — Madras Mail. 



PALMS IN TRAVANCORE. 

 Some recent notes from ludia state that the cultivation 

 of the cocoa-nut extends over the whole of Ti'avancore, 

 which has hence been facetiously called "Cocoa-nut Core." 

 Forty-four j'ears ago the total number of cocoa-nut trees 

 was 11,100,000, and the increase since has been so con- 

 siderable, much waste land having been planted with this 

 valuable palm, that the preseut number cannot be estimated 

 at less than 15,000,000. These are almost invariably too 

 closely planted to obtain full advantage of sun and air ; 

 but suppose they stood at the moderate dist^auce of 20 feet 

 apart (which is 109 to the acre), the area covered would 

 amount to 137,000 acres. It is well-known that the situations 

 best suiteil for cocoa-nut cultivation is near the seashore, 

 the banks and alluvium of rivers, and level lands exposed 

 to the sea breezes, which conditions abound in Ti-avancore. 

 Inland, on the mountains, the cocoa-nut grows, but does 

 not bear fruit. The 3'oung plants generally require water- 

 ing for the first two or three years, and must be protected 

 from the inroads of cattle luitil they rise some feet .above 

 the gi-ouud. Ashes are applied as manure at the beginning 



