ARACHIS 



HYPOCUEA 



Ground-nut 



A Facile Theory. 



Soil-exhaustion. 



Percentage 

 of Oil. 



Wood-ashes 

 as Manure. 



Food. 



Inquiry. 



No Deterioration 

 in Bombay. 



New Seed 

 Imported. 



Eevolution in 

 Production. 



THE EARTH OE PEA NUT 



of a communication from the Madras Chamber of Commerce attributing the 

 decline in the production of the nut to a deterioration in the quality of the 

 Indian stock. In reference to that opinion, Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, 

 then Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, addressed the Under-Secretary 

 of State for India on February 23, 1899. The following passages may here 

 be given from that letter : "I may say at once that deterioration of 

 seed is a facile theory which is continually advanced when the produce 

 of a crop is disappointing. It is one in which I have very little belief. 

 The real explanation of the falling off is to be found usually in the ex- 

 haustion of some constituent of the soil. Madras ground-nuts have long 

 been known to be poorest in quality of any to be found in commerce. 

 The percentage of oil in shelled kernels is given in the United States Con- 

 sular Report (April 1, 1894, 683-9) as follows : Senegal, 51 ; East African, 

 49 ; American, 42 ; Madras, 43. From these figures it does not appear 

 that any advantage would arise from introducing American seed. As to 

 Japan ground-nuts I have no information. The oil from the American 

 seed again appears to command an inferior price to that of Africa." 



" The problem is one which should be taken up on an experimental 

 farm. It is not improbable that want of potash is the cause of this dimin- 

 ished yield, if the diminution be a fact. Manuring with wood-ashes would 

 be a simple means of testing this." " Formerly the cake or residue after 

 the expression of the oil was only used for cattle food. It is now converted 

 into various palatable forms of human food, the use of which has been 

 tried with success in the German army." 



The reference to American and Japanese seed was doubtless in 

 consequence of the proposal to import such seed having been made 

 in the Madras Government Proceedings. The above letter caused a 

 searching and highly beneficial inquiry to be instituted in both Madras 

 and Bombay. Opinions were called for from the District Officers of 

 Madras Presidency, but the replies may be said to have manifested a re- 

 markable agreement in favour of the theory of a deterioration of the Indian 

 stock having actually taken place. Mollison, on the other hand, wrote : 

 " I do not think that any positive deterioration in the seed of the Bombay 

 crop can be proved. There is, however, perhaps good reason to join issue 

 with the Madras Agricultural Department and test on Government Farms 

 whether imported seed of the better varieties give better results than the 

 indigenous seed. I should, however, do this in the first instance on a 

 small scale." It has been shown by the areas of production, that quite 

 as serious a decline, however, took place in Bombay as in Madras. It is 

 probable, therefore, that the shrinkage in both Presidencies may hav? 

 been due to the same causes, whatever these may have been. 



Acting on the opinion of its local officers, the Madras Government 

 imported various reputed races of seed, and private individuals seem to 

 have done the same. The result was that the indigenous varieties were 

 rapidly displaced, and it is believed at the present moment they hardly 

 anywhere exist in the Madras area of field cultivation. Barber in his 

 report (published 1890) says : " Two or three years ago something like a 

 revolution had occurred in the introduction of a new variety called the 

 Mauritius ground-nut. The suddenness and completeness of this change 

 is worth considering." Barber accordingly gives particulars of the 

 crops found by him on certain fields. He only came across four little 

 pieces of land containing the indigenous plant, and these he did not think 



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