IN \i [!:<! i rm.\ 



ARACHI6 



HYPOO^EA 



Cultivation 





Icker, ./urn. Itoy. Agri. & <. ivrj. ui.. 727-30; Sabba Rao, 



(A- or Pea-nu*, Jfod. .!/'< H< i>t. Bull., 1893, No. 28; Robertson, 



. is'.Ci, i\ ., 648-51 ; 7mp. /rw<. Handbook, 1893; 



//I//.-*, //ir> Culture and Uses, U.S. Dept. Agri. Farmer's Bull., 1896, 



M.-II. Queensland Journ. Agri. Dei>t., \ >p. Agritt., June 1, 



,,-r. 7 Vi. Vu< Crops near i'mint/i, N. ,4rco, Mud. Agri. 



Hull.. I'.MIO, No. 38; Leather and Benson, T/ie Qround-Nut Crop, Rept. 



tnin Anal, and Exper., Mad. Agri. Dept. Bull., 1900, No. 41; Leather, 



!. nn-l Rec. and Agri. Mad., 1900; Imp. Inst. Tech. Rept*., 1903, 126, 130; 



ml Memo. Earth'Nut Crop 2nd. (issued by the Director-General 



: Siati>tic8), 1899-1904; Freeman, Qround-Nuta W. Ind., Imp. Dept. 



|Mni|.lil. Ber., No. 25; Rept. Disease of Ground-Nuts, Mad. Board 



In I..- l!'(i4. No. 615; Barber, Sc. Rept. Dept. Agri. Mad., 1905-6; 



CULTIVATION. Although grown here and there all over India as a Cultiva- 

 i'ii and even an occasional field crop, it is only in Madras and Bombay tion. 

 that the pea-nut is produced on a commercial scale. The remarks that ^du^^ 

 follow will, therefore, be restricted very largely to an abstract of the 

 available particulars regarding these two Presidencies. 



Area. In most provinces the area under the crop is not returned 

 separately from other pulses or other oil-seeds, so that a complete statement 

 cannot be furnished. O'Conor tells us that in 1879 there were in all 

 India 112,000 acres under the crop, of which 70,350 acres were in Bombay 

 and 34,630 acres in Madras. Ten years later (1889-90) Madras alone was Madras Area. 

 returned as having had 279,355 acres, of which 185,876 were in South Arcot, 

 the chief seat of South Indian production. From that date the popularity 

 of the crop steadily declined up to 1897-8, from which date it improved. 

 Omitting the last three figures, the areas in Madras were as follows : 

 258 in 1890-1 ; 201 in 1891-2 ; 226 in 1892-3 ; 247 in 1893-4 ; 226 in 

 1894-5 ; 243 in 1895-6 ; 157 in 1896-7 ; 94 in 1897-8 ; 116 in 1898-9 ; 

 102 in 1899-1900 ; 229 in 1900-1 ; 337 in 1901-2 ; 421 in 1902-3; 384 in 

 1903-4 ; 366 in 1904-5 ; 393 in 1905-6, and the estimate for 1906-7 shows 

 the Madras area as 507,600 acres, while that of Bombay is only 93,800 

 acres. The explanation of this decline and subsequent expansion will be 

 found below viz. the improvement rapidly accomplished by the intro- 

 luction of a new stock. The experience of Bombay (including its Native Bombay Area. 

 States, mainly Kolhapur) has been somewhat similar, except that pro- 

 duction has not recovered. The acreage under the crop in 1891-2 stood 

 at 145,468, and in the succeeding years, expressed in hundreds, was as 

 follows : 142 in 1892-3 ; 184 in 1893-4 ; 159 in 1894-5 ; 164 in 1895-6 ; 

 148 in 1896-7 ; 120 in 1897-8 ; 101 in 1898-9 ; 71 in 1899-1900 ; 64 in 

 1900-1 ; 96 in 1901-2 ; 69 in 1902-3 ; 89 in 1903-4 ; 93 in 1904-5 ; and Ded . ne 

 95 in 1905-6. Bombay cultivation may be said to be confined to the Production. 

 Deccan and the Karnatak with Sholapur and Satara as the most Chief Districts. 

 important districts. 



Varieties and Races, also Deterioration of Stock. From the early Varieties. 

 imported stock there had gradually developed certain races of the plant 

 that within the past few years came to be spoken of collectively as 

 the " Indigenous Variety." Some of the so-called indigenous races 

 are grown purely and simply on garden soil and eaten as nuts, Edible and 

 others are specially adapted for field cultivation and vary greatly in 

 the amount of oil they contain. Although doubtless inferior, India 

 thus possesses a series of races that correspond to the large edible 

 forms produced in perfection in America, and to the special smaller oil- 

 yielding nuts of Africa. In the Madras Bulletin (No. 37) mention is made 



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