INTRohK TlM\ 



NK\V ST< H'K 



ARACHI8 



HYPOOJBA 



Cultivation 



with various 



MaJrari K<~>J!V. 



Bombay 

 Experience. 





M\elv roiiM equal an acre in extent. He then continues: "The 



this neighbourhood have, therefore, changed their seed, and I 



. e that tln-v have obtained a good variety and have thus greatly 



improve.! their p..-ition." In another passage Barber again returns to 



There has recently," he says, "been a change of seed 



f which is of undoubted importance in the checking of disease, if of 



MO further aii vantage." 



on (Bull. No. 41) gives the results of the Madras Govern - 

 t'.xperiments, as also of the French Government experiments at 

 Pon.licherry. These showed splendid results in Madras with the Haut 

 m variety from East Africa, and in Pondicherry with the Senegal. 

 Tin- returns of the Saidapet Farm were as follows : Country, 271 Ib. ; 

 itius, 425 Ib. ; Japan, 427 Ib. ; Ruffisqul, 598 Ib. ; Sine, 884 Ib. ; 

 ambie, 1,021 Ib. ; Haut Saloum, 1,379 Ib. ; American large, 303 Ib. ; 

 nd small, 436 Ib. per acre. The figures of the Pondicherry experiment 

 in equal plots were as follows : yield, 21 Ib. from Bombay seed ; 

 1 Ib. from local seed ; and 652 Ib. from Senegal seed. Benson then 

 includes by explaining that the so-called Mauritius, now largely being 

 wn in the Presidency, came in reality from Mozambique, though 

 rought to India by a passenger from Mauritius. " That variety," he 

 a>l.ls, " has given results on a par with the Senegal, but the seed contains 

 a resino-gammeuse substance which, as it remains in suspension in the 

 oil. delays the settling and gives a very pronounced taste of the ground- 

 nut to the oil." Mollison (Textbook, I.e. 104) says : " A good crop on 

 suitable land liberally managed will, on an average, yield from 3,200 to 

 to 3,500 Ib. of unhusked nuts per acre. These figures apply only to good 

 land. The proportion by weight of unhusked nuts to those with husk 

 removed is as 4 to 3." " They are usually sold unhusked, and are worth 

 from 30 to 45 Ib. per mpee according to locality and season." 



In response to the reputation of an inferior yield of oil from the Indian 

 nut, Leather made an extensive series of analyses, the result being the dis- 



< >very that the yield in the indigenous seed averages from 40 to 44 per cent, 

 and that of the so-called Mauritius from 44 to 49 per cent. It would thus 

 appear that India has not only secured a more prolific plant but one richer 

 in oil by the importation of the Mozambique seed. As already indicated, an 

 improvement in production has taken place, which must, to some extent, 

 be the direct expression of the renewed popular favour of the crop. Of 

 Indian agriculture, however, it would not be far from correct to affirm 

 that the selfish systems pursued very often result in an unconscious 

 retrograde selection, so that it'maybe believed degeneration of imported 

 stock is an exceedingly frequent result. But it goes without saying that 

 the continuous cultivation of the same plant with little manure and an 

 imperfect rotation must produce a poverty of soil and a corresponding 



lee line in the value of produce. Fresh supplies of seed or seed brought 

 from a distance to the country or locality of cultivation, is in all branches 

 of agriculture an admitted advantage. It remains to be seen how long 

 the new seed will retain its superiority on the Indian soil and under Indian 

 methods of cultivation. By way of concluding this paragraph, therefore, it 

 may be added that there is little or nothing to prove that a decline in the 

 oil-yielding property of the Indian stock had actually taken place. It 



was grown originally as an edible nut, and it is probable that no effort was Edible Nut. 

 made to improve the stock into an oil-yielding form, so that it was, doubt- 



77 



Improvement 

 in Production. 



Poverty of Soil. 



Exchange 

 of Seed. 



