203 



plants were gathered on the 9th June, that is ^^ days from date of 

 planting, and the yield was 4 qts. of seeds which were placed in 

 the tobacco curing house to dry, but were unfortunately destroyed 

 by rats the first night. 



Dr. George Watt in " Economic Products of India" says : — 

 Chemically, a horse diet which consists exclusively of cereals cannot possibly 

 be so good for the animal nor so likely to produce muscular strength as a diet 

 with a liberal admixture of some kind <if peas. Husked gram contains <>f albu- 

 minoids 21-7 per cent., and of starch 590 per cent. Indian corn contain* only 

 9'5 percent to 70.7 per cent of starch. When it is recollected that the albuminoids 

 are the muscle forming constituents of diet, it becomes ippareiit that a diet which 

 contains oat.s and gram, or Indi in corn and gram would be more nutritious and 

 strength- siving ihun the modern Encjlish food for horses, uf oats and Indian corn. 

 To obtain the iadispensably nece sary amount of albuminoids from an English 

 diet, the animal has to eat a greatly excessive and i ijurious amount of starch. 



Prof. Church gives an analysis as follows : — 



Composition of the Chick-Pea. 



It* 100 Parts, 



Husked. With Husk. In lib. Husked. 



Water 



Albuminoids 



Starch 



Oil 



Fibre 



Ash 



"The nutrientratio in the unhusked peas is 1 : :i-3 ; the nutrient value is 84. 



" The unhusked peas are therefore more nutritious than the hu8k3d, a id it may 

 be concluded that the process of steeping them in water before being mixed with 

 the oats or other cereal both softens che pea and removes entirely the dust and 

 mud associated with the pulse. 



" In medicine the seeds are considered antibiliou'. The chief interest medicin- 

 ally is, however, in the acid liquid obtained by collecting the dew-dro,is from the 

 leaves. The fact that the drop.i of deiv are thus chemically changed through con- 

 tact with a living plant is a point of great botanical interest The liquid is 

 found chemic lly to contain oxalic, acetic, and malic acids. This vinegar is men- 

 tionod by the old Sanskrit writers as a useful astringent, which might with ad- 

 vantage be given in dyspepsia, indigestion and costivenes-s. 



"A piece of clean cloth is tied to the end of a stick and the pulse crop is brushed 

 with this in the early morning, so as to jibsorb the dew. This is then wrung out 

 and preserved. 



" It is ustful in diarrhoea and dysentery, and is given as a drink with water in 

 sunstroke. The boiled leaves are applied as a porltica to sprains and disloc ited 

 limbs. The fresh juice of the leaves mixed with crude carbonate of potash is ad- 

 ministered with success in dyspepsia. The acid liquid is employed us a refriger- 

 ant in fever. 



" '1 he .'eeds are greatly used as ai article of food by the natives, being ground 

 into meal, a d either eaten in puddings or made into cakes. They are also 

 toasted or parched, and in this state are coiumonly carrie i for food on long 

 journeys. Rolled in ^ugar-c•^ndy, these toasted peas f(jrm a rough sort of comfits 

 aod gram-flour made up withsestmuin oil and sugar-candy is an Indian sweet- 

 meat. 



* \'\ of Phosphoric Acid, 

 t 0'8 of Phosphoric Acid. 



