June 2, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



9^5 



GRAM, EICE AND INDIAN CORN. 



Dr. George Watt in his catalogue of Indian food 

 etuft'j and fodder says : — 



Gram is a grain peculiar to India. It has lately been 

 tried in Egypt and with some success, and experiments are 

 being made on the banks of the lower Danube, but the 

 results have never been published. It is a deUcate plant 

 and singularly susceptible to cloudy weather, wliich retards 

 the formation of the grain, and if this weather continues 

 over a particuhir period of fructification, it destroys the 

 grain altogether, leaving the seed capsule perfectly empty. 

 The seed and capsule in a green state is much coveted 

 as an article of diet. The natives use it largely as a veget- 

 able curry. The capsule has a very pleasant acid, 

 like sorrel or the young leaves of the tamarind tree. 

 The cultivated area in the 30 temporarily settled dis- 

 tricts of the N, W. Provinces is stated to be 4,270,(XlO 

 acres, but the plant is very largely grown throughout lower 

 Bengal and Oudh, so the total area cannot be much under 

 10 mUUons of acres. It is a small bushy plant ranging 

 from 15 to 18 inches high, and the jield is much less than 

 that of wheat or barley, being 10 to 13 maunds an acre 

 in irrigated lands, and 5 to 7 maunds an acre in dry 

 lands. The total production of India must be upwards of 

 50 millions of cwts., out of which 313,000 cwt. were ex- 

 ported in 1882 and 1883, and the remainder consumed in 

 the country. It is a very favourite article of food with 

 both mankind and animals, and insects also, as there is 

 no grain so early attacked and so quickly and completely 

 destroyed by insects as gram. 

 Regarding rice ; — 



Dr. Watt puts the area under this cultivation at 60 mil- 

 lions of acres, and the average crop or yield at 20 maunds 

 of paddy, which is about equal to 15 maunds of cleaned 

 rice per acre. If we take the mean consumption of the 

 rice-eating classes at one seer of rice per bead per day, 

 which is the usual allowance made in all such calculations, 

 we find that the total production of this single article of 

 food represents the consumption of 50 millions of the 

 population, but exportation has to be allowed for, as ac- 

 coriling to the trade returns for 1882 and 1883, upwards 

 of 31 millions of cwt. were exported that year, leaving 

 a balance of nearly 621 millions of cwt. for home use. 

 Kice is the principal food ot the millions of Lower Bengal. 

 Except hi the immediate vicinity of largo towns and bazaars, 

 the land in Bengal is one unbroken sea of rice, very pretty to 

 look at when green, and very suggestive of peace and plenty 

 when ripe. There are said to be 5,000 different kinds, 

 in many of which the distinctions are very marked, especially 

 before it is husked, as there is great variety in the colour and 

 shape of the grain of paddy, but the minor and finer dis- 

 tinctions are only distinguishable by an expert In times 

 of great scarcity, such as the Orissa famine, rice has been 

 imported from IJurma, but the Uriyas could hardly be 

 induced to eat it, even to keep themselves alive. 



IVIaize or Indian corn is another of the staple articles 

 of food, and no grain is grown over a larger extent of 

 country than this is. A native of South America, and 

 prefering the moist, nicli soil of the prairies, it can never- 

 theless be grown in tropical climates, and far away up in 

 the hills, 9,000 feet above the sea level. It flourishes from 

 tile warmest climates of the torrid zone to the colder 

 climate of Canada, and its nutritive qualities rank next 

 after wheat. The area under cultivation in the thirty tem- 

 porarily settled districts is given at 718.000 acres, hut this 

 is a very small part of the total area sown. A correct 

 return would be a very difficult statistic to obtain, because 

 if is grown in sucli small patches. There is scarcely a 

 homestead in Bihar and Orissa without a little spot, often 

 not more than ten square yards, of Indian corn attached 

 to it, and although not so general in Lower Bengal, it is 

 nevertheless sufficiently so to aggregate a large breadth of 

 country. Perhaps two millions of acres is not too much 

 for the whole of India. The yield is about 14 maunds an 

 acre! in irrigated, and 10 maunds an aero in dry lands, 

 but the soil must not be too dry, as the plant is 4 to 5 

 feet high, and I'equires a good deal of moisture in order 

 to " cob" at all. It is a common article of daily food over 

 the Northern, Central and Himal.'iyan tracts of India, 

 Bihar, Orissa, Nepaul, Santhalia and ('hutia Nag]iur.-7-Cal- 

 cutta Knylishman, 



TEA IMPORTS AND CONSUJIPTION. 



The imports of tea, according to the Government returns 

 during 1883, amounted to 74,799,919 pounds, against 

 71,409,511 pounds for the previous year, or an increase of 

 4,390,408 pounds. The imports for December were over 

 one million pounds more than the corresponding period 

 of 18S2. AVhile the imports were so much higher than 

 the previous year, the value was only ,§15,348,009, against 

 ."S 17,270,404. The imports for January, however, show a 

 remarkable shrinkage, amounting to §6,386,958, against 

 S;9,629,529 for the same time 1883. 



The imports of tea since 1870 aud the consumption per 

 capita for the statistical year were : — 



Oonsump- 

 Pounds. tion per 



capita. 



1870 40,812,189 1.06 



1871 46,972,788 1.19 



1872 34,224,494 0.84 



1873* ... 106,423,570 2.55 



1874 54,410,055 1.27 



1875 ... ... ... 64,758,079 1.47 



1876 62,744,429 1.38 



1877 .., 58,941,178 1.26 



1878 ... ... ... 65,386,4-18 1.36 



1879 60,182,403 1.22 



1880 72,159,206 1.44 



1881 ... ... ... 81,494,796 1.59 



1882 79,031,854 1.50 



1883 70,771,225 1.31 



* Duty free since July 1st, 1872. 



It will be seen that the consumption of tea per capita 

 rapidly advanced after the duty was removed. While it 

 was only 0.94 pound in 1867 it rose to 1.59 in 1881. Since 

 that date, however there has been a gradual shrinkage 

 in the consumption, last year it amounting to only 1.31 

 pounds. The above years are calculated from July 1st 

 to June 30th of each year. — American Grocer. 



" Krakatoa and the Coffee Plant." — A cor- 

 respondent sends ub an extract from ,a letter in 

 the bst number of Know'edye signed "F. R. C. S. ," who, 

 in connection with the recent discussion aa regards the 

 causes of the coloured suu>ets, writes : — 



'* There is a curious circumstance bearing in the ques- 

 tion of the dust (which is supposed to have caused the 

 ' green sun' which I believe, has not been made known 

 yet. Some of your readers may perhaps have heard of 

 the extensive damage done to coffee in Ceylon and South 

 India during the past six years by a fungus. For this 

 disease the only remedy has been thought to be the ap- 

 plication of sulphur; but to be effective, this must be 

 universal, aud it was impossible to arrange that the cure 

 shoul 1 be applied to a whole district simultaneously. Now, 

 from a private letter from India, I hear, that, after the 

 eruption in Java last year, the peculiar colour of the 

 atmosphere and the greenish appearance of the sun were 

 very marked for some months, and at the same time a 

 decided improvement in the coffee was noticed. As to 

 the disease, could this have beeu a universal application 

 of sulphur vapour ? " 



On which we have to remark, that, in the first place, 

 the volcanic vapour or dust is held to have beeu pro- 

 jected very high into tlie atmosphere ; in the second, 

 that vapnur of sulphur sufJicent to affect the cotfee 

 fungus would be obvious to the senses of human beings 

 in a very marked degree (which has not been the 

 case) ; aud, in the third place, it is unfortunate for a 

 theory, which at first sight seems very plausible, that 

 in Java, where the effects of the Krakatau eruption 

 out;ht to be specially felt^ coffee-leaf disease has re- 

 cently assumpd a condition of unexampled virulence. 

 We suspect, therefore, that the decreased virulence of 

 this fearful plague in India is merely coincident with 

 the outbreak of Krakatau, and scarcely, if at all, due to 

 thevapours or dust it shot into space. We have more 

 hope in the theory of the influence of seasons and cycles. 

 The vital force of Hemileia vantatrix may be we.iring out 

 and becoming exhausted by " effluxion of time," 



