STUDIES IN INDIAN FIBRE PLANTS. 



No. I. ON TWO VARIETIES OF SANN, 

 CROTALARIA JUNCEA, L. 



BY 



ALBEI'vT HOWARD, m.a., a.h.c.s., f.l.s., 



[mpcrinl Ec'inaiiuf iJotan/sf, 

 AND 



GABRTELLE L. C. HOWARD, ma., 

 As.oQcinfe mul forma- Fi-llow of Nfirnliam Cdli'f/f-. Camhiidgc. 



One of the most important and most widely distributed 

 annual fibre-yielding plants cultivated in India is Sann or Sann- 

 hemp — Crotalaria juncea, L. It is grown in all the Provinces 

 including Burma, but appears to be most widely cultivated in 

 Madras, the United Provinces and in the Central Provinces. The 

 extent to which it is cultivated as a fibre plant, for green 

 manuring and for fodder purposes in all the Provinces of British 

 India, except Bengal,' will be evident from the following extract 

 from the Proceedings of (he Board of Agriculture in India of 1909, 

 pages 56 and 57, which gives the latest information on the subject. 



" Crotalaria juncea. — The fibre of this crop does not compete 

 with jute as does that of Hibiscus cannabinus, but in market 

 value it is superior to both. ^«im-liemp can best be grown in dis- 

 tricts of moderate rainfall, and, therefore, does not compete with 

 rice. It is, in some parts of India, frequently grown as a green 

 manure crop before rice, and in others as a second crop in the same 

 year after early rice for fibre. This rotation is advantageous, 

 because Sann is a leguminous crop. 



I Statistic-; ot tlie area and production of Sann in bengal are not at present available. 



