Oct. 1, 1 886. J 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



239 



exhibited. This familiar uatne of the gigantic grasses 

 has, like so many other terms, come to us through the 

 Portuguese pioneers of European trade and settlement 

 in India. The I'rophy cousist of a platform raised 12 ft. 

 above the floor on four columns. The steps on either 

 side are covered with split bamboo arranged in geo- 

 metric patterns which are continued on the floor of the 

 platform. The forty steps of the two staircases exhibit 

 forty different designs and ten spf^cies of bamboo. In 

 all, thirty species of bamboo are exhibited in the trophy, 

 for full explanation of which the curious are referred 

 to the index set on the adjacent walls. The number 

 of objet'ts made of bamboo which are hung over 

 the trophy far from exhausts the uses and applications 

 of this, as it may be called, most versatile gift of na- 

 ture to the Indian and Imlo-Ohinese peoples. 

 The solidity of tliis structure has been well tested 

 by the thousands of visitors who have ascended 

 its steps and descended on the other side. The 

 third trophy in the court is the 



Grain Trophy. — All these grains are combined in the 

 structure of the Grain Trophy, the idea of which is 

 taken from the famous tomb of ItnaUl-nd-Dowlah at 

 Agra, the beautiful marble geometric mosaics having 

 been imitate! by glass panels of coloured grains. On 

 the outside elevations there are large panels, two of 

 which are devoted to rice, two to wheat, two to Indian 

 corn, one to barley and oats, and one to millets and 

 Job's tear's a curious grain which is cultivated in Assam 

 and among the Enstern frontier hill-tribes. Sixteen 

 smaller panels are filled with the pulses, and the re- 

 niainder with other edible grains and oil seeds. The in- 

 terior is filled with grains m enr, and Indian corn cobs. 

 In the four corners of the room are shown commercial 

 samples of the grains, and in the centre a group of 

 three women modelled in clay '* grinding at the mill." 

 Near it are cases containing special displays of wheat 

 exhibited by the Bombay Commercial Committee, and 

 collections of rice from Bengal and Burma. 



Near the timber tropliy are specimens of 

 Indian furniture carved from the wood of 

 the Padouk or Adaman (the Official Guide says 

 ' Cinnamon ') red-wood tree, one table being con- 

 structed of a complete section of this enormous 

 tree. The rest of the body of the Court is 

 ocecupied with specimens of fruits and vegetables, 

 nuts, pulses, grains, wheat, sugars, narcotics and 

 stimulants, drugs, tibres (cotton, jute, rhea), paper, 

 oil seeds, oils, extracts and inspissated saps, lac, 

 and models to illustrate the official life and indus- 

 tries of India. From the Official Catalogue I may 

 quote a few extracts regarding some of these :— 

 Fruits and Vejctahles. — A collection, partly of models 

 made at the Botanic Gardens of Sabaranpore, under 

 the supervision of Mr. J. F. Duthie and by the Krish 

 nagnr moddlers emplo3'ed by the Government of India, 

 and partly of actual fruits, such as will bear the trans- 

 port and keep good in the glass cases, is supplemented 

 by a verj' large collection of preserved fruits, jams, and 

 pickles. With regard to the fruits, it will be a surprise 

 to many to bear that the fruits of the East are, it is 

 believed much overrated in Europe. Many of the best 

 of Indian fruits have been introduced from Europe. 

 Ohena, the West Indies, and America. Tlie most char- 

 acteristic modern fruits of India are the mango, guava, 

 litchi, pine-apple and plantain. Of these the mango 

 is far the most popular fruit in India. Colonel Yule 

 in his Glossary says that theroyal fruit, the innnifci-a 

 iiidica, when ot gooil quality is one of the richest and 

 best fruits of the world. The origin of the word is 

 Tamil 3[da-kay, i. 6. man fruit. The Portuguese formed 

 from this manga which we have adopted as mango. 

 Numerous varieties of jams, pickles, and chutneys, pre- 

 pared from this celebrated fruit are to be found anunigst 

 thn exhibits. 



Niiis. — Together with the fruits are samples of mits, 

 a term winch in Iiulia includes ground nut^ an I the 

 seeds of the edible pine. The true almonds, which arc 

 a sacred offering common to the Hindoo and the Jain, 

 as well as a regular ingredient iu cookery, especinlly 

 ill a savoury piUao, are imported by the traders of 

 Afghanistan ^ud Persia. The Afghau traders also 



supply the hazel nut, the walnut, and the pistachio nut, 

 from Afghanistan and Kashmir. 



The Siugara nut (G47) which is grown on an aquatic 

 weed, forms in some parts of the country an import- 

 ant article of food. It is stated that in Kashmir 30,000 

 persons are dependent upon this wild plant for food, 

 during certain months. 



Coconut — Near the bamboo trophy is a most inter- 

 esting coll'ctiuu of objects made from the common 

 coconut palm (properly called coco and vulgarly coker), 

 exhibited by Mr. Pereira of Bombay. Eighty-three 

 articles are enumerated. The origin of the name of 

 this well-known and useful palm, which to the early 

 travellers and mediieval writers was known as the Indian 

 nut, is suggested to be the old Spanish com, a shell, al- 

 though the Portuguese and Spaniards say that it was 

 called coc'x because it looks like the face of a monkey or 

 some other animal. 



I'et/etxibles.—The vegetables met with in India are 

 readily divided into two sections of indigenous 

 and introduced. Of the latter it may be said that 

 European fruits and vegetables, though often growing 

 luxuriantly, rarely attain the same flavour as their 

 European congeners. Of these, however, the cabbage, 

 the cauliflower, and radish, alone are eaten by the 

 natives of India, but not until they are over-grown and 

 coarse. From America, the potato and the egg-apple 

 or ?)ri;(/a?, have been introduced. As to the indigenous 

 vegetables, India may be viewed as the region of the 

 cucumber and the melon, with a large series of allied 

 plants, all of which yield valuable fruits and vegetables, 

 and furnish a great proportion of the food of the peo- 

 ple. It is almost impossible to arrive at any definite 

 idea as to the extent of the internal trade in vegetables. 

 Nothing is more characteristic of the Indian village 

 than its bazaar or market-place, and it would be difllcult 

 to find a bazaar where the egg-apple, the melon, the 

 cucumber, the pumpkin, and the radish were not of- 

 fered for sale alongside of rice, plantains and chillies. 

 The foreign trade in vegetables has increased in the 

 last five years from about £20,460 to £21,963 ; the bulk 

 of these exports go from Bombay. Nearly the whole 

 of the pot-herbs are wild plants which reipiire no 

 cultivation, and they illustrate one of the most striking 

 features of India, for in few countries in the world are 

 so many edible products to be procured for the trouble 

 of collecting, edible products too which enter largely 

 into the dietary of the mass of the people. 



Fuhes. — By themselves under the head of "Pulses" 

 will be found the various leguminous seeds which under 

 the uameofrfc'i a,nd ff ram, the lentils (which furnish 

 the vaunted and really beneficial food for invalids known 

 as revalenta), and others occupy an area of cultivation of 

 forty-eight millions of acres. Ttie grain merchant's 

 shop, in which the varieties of this collection are shown, 

 reproduces one of the most curious and interesting fea- 

 tures of an Indian bazaar. 



Grains. — One of the most important co'lections is 

 that of the grains, which may be popularly described 

 as rice, wheat, barley, oats, Indian corn and the vari- 

 ous forms of millet. Of these, rice is the most valuable 

 of all the cereals to the inhabitants of India. It is 

 the principal food iu Bengal, Burma, Orissa and the 

 eastern portion of Central India, the southern parts of 

 Madras, and the western districts of Bombay. In the 

 Punjab, the North West Provinces, and Oudh, B •bar 

 and the northern parts of the Central Provinces, and 

 Gujerat, the poorer classes live chiefly on millets, sup- 

 plemented by barley and gram, while the rich only use 

 wheat and rice. In the southern part of the Central 

 Provinces, Bernr to Bonibaj', Deccan and th(! northern 

 part of Madras, the juar and /lajra are the staple foods, 

 and in Mysore the small millet known as raggy or raffi, 

 furnishes the i)rincipal provision. In Assam rice is the 

 staple with the addition of Indian Corn and Job's Tears. 

 'J'he estimate of the total area of land annually under 

 cereals is 119 400,000 acres, (jf which nearly sixt3' mil- 

 lions are devoted to rice. As there are many forms, so 

 thi'reare several crops of this essential grain which is, 

 in truth, the staff of life to at least one-third of the 

 Indian population. For the Foreign trade, whicli, how- 

 ever, may be said to have been almost ruined within 

 the past few years, the chief supply comes from the 



