ALBERT AND GABRIELLE HOWARD. 



179 



for its fibre chiefly, while the seed is a valued cattle food. It is 

 generally believed that only one variety of Sann is grown 

 throughout the Central Provinces and Berar. Retting costs a 

 good deal. A suitable cheap machine to extract the fibre might 

 be advantageous in extending the cultivation. The area in the 

 Central Provinces has been nearly doubled during the last ten 

 years. Sann cultivation is so profitable that the crop has been 

 largely substituted for wheat. The cultivators understand that 

 this crop is a hardy one and improves the condition of the land. 

 It is grown to a small extent as a green manure crop, particularly 

 for irrigated wheat and sugarcane. In the cotton tracts no exten- 

 sion of this crop can be expected, as cotton pays better. In the 

 rice tracts, Sami could probably be profitably grown on much of 

 the land which is planted with other second crops. The total 

 quantity of Sann-hem.^ exported from the Province and the value 

 of the same from 1904 to 1906 are shown below : — 



"In the Punjab there were 57,000 acres under Sann-hem-p 

 in 1906 and 52,400 acres in 1908; the sub-montane tracts showed 

 the greatest area. Very little is grown in the south-west of the 

 Province. Throughout the Punjab, the crop is usually sown in 

 very small plots, and very little is marketed. The crop is sown 

 almost solely for fibre, but in the Hoshiarpur District, it is esti- 

 mated that one-tenth of the crop was grown for green manuring. 

 The practice of green manuring with Sann is, however, rare at 



