MUSTARD AND RAPE 



Bengal. 



BRASSICA 



SUBSTITUTE 



Eruca sativa 



and mustard is well under 200,000 acres, or less than the acreage of these 

 crops in the Ferozepore district alone. So far, therefore, as can be learned, 

 the sub-mountain tracts of the United Provinces and the greater portion 

 of the Panjab may be taken as the Indian region of rape production. 



Bengal province is mainly concerned in the sarson and rai trade. But 

 it may be pointed out that in official statistics the acreage of pure mustard 

 crops in the United Provinces is that which is alone accepted. Hence, 

 as already indicated, the sarson and rai, which are always mixed crops, 

 are excluded from consideration, whereas in Bengal and the Panjab 

 they are included. In consequence of this arbitrary treatment the 

 " Rape and Mustard " cultivation of the United Provinces is shown as 

 very much smaller than that of the Panjab, while as a matter of fact 

 it is quite as large and possibly larger. If, therefore, a correction be 

 made of, say, 1,500,000 acres, added to the total area of India under Rape, 

 Colza and Indian Mustard, the result would be 5 to 5| million acres 

 instead of a little over 4 million acres as presently accepted. If this 

 conclusion be upheld by future inquiry, Bengal would still head the list 

 of Indian provinces with about 2 million acres, and would be followed 

 by the United Provinces with very probably 1^ to 2-| million acres, and 

 by the Panjab with l million acres, while all the other provinces and 

 Native States put together would conclude the enumeration with less 

 than half a million acres between them. 



Total Indian 

 Area devoted 

 to these Crops. 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 266-7. 

 Eruca 

 sativa. 



Cold-season 

 Crop. 



Associated 

 Crops. 



Yield. 



Trade. 



D.E.P., 

 i., 528-30. 

 Indian 

 Mustard, 

 or Rai. 



Brassica Substitute Eruea sativa, Lain. ; Fl. Br. Ind., 

 i., 158 ; Brassica Eruca, Linn. ; B. erucoides, Roxb., Fl. Ind., iii., 

 117 ; Duthie and Fuller, Field and Garden Crops, ii., 26, pi. 36; Dioscorides, 

 Codex Anicice Juli, 512 A.D., pt. i., pi. 118; Paulus Mgineta (Adams, transl.), 

 iii., 118, gives the key to classic and Arabic literature. This is known in 

 Europe as the Rocket and in India as the tara-mira, tara-moni, duan, dua, 

 jambho, Jamba, usan, shwan, char a, etc. According to Prain, the name 

 sheti sarisha given by Roxburgh to this plant is nowadays restricted to 

 sarson. 



The tara-mira is a native of S. Europe and N. Africa, and is extensively 

 cultivated as a cold-season crop in Upper India, ascending the Himalaya to 

 altitudes of 10,000 feet. It is fully dealt with by Duthie and Fuller, but is only 

 incidentally mentioned by Prain, a circumstance that may be accepted as 

 denoting its comparative absence from Bengal. However, all the standard 

 authors on Upper and Western India (such as Stocks, Stewart, Baden-Powell, 

 Atkinson, etc.) describe the plant and the methods pursued in its cultivation. 

 It is most commonly grown mixed with grain or barley, taking with these crops 

 the place which rape fills in wheat-fields. It is also met with very largely in 

 association with cotton. It is sometimes grown alone, but only on exceptionally 

 dry fields. It may be sown at any time between the beginning of September 

 and the end of November, and it ripens about the same time as the rabi crops. 

 The yield is said to be from 4 to 12 maunds an acre. Usan is very largely used 

 as green fodder, especially when grown with gram or peas, and the oilcake 

 is much appreciated for feeding cattle. The plant is grown as a substitute for 

 sarson or rape, and the oil is used mainly for burning, but to some extent for food. 



The trade in this seed seems mainly within India and as a substitute for 

 sarson, while for foreign countries apparently as a grade of rape. It appears under 

 the name of jamba very frequently in the export manifests from Karachi, the 

 supply being apparently drawn from Sind, Bajputana and the Panjab. 



//. INDIAN MUSTARD. 



B. juncea, H., /., &T.; Sinapis juncea, Linn.; S. ramosa, S. patens, 

 Roxb., Fl. Ind., iii., 119, 124; Duthie and Fuller, Field and Garden 

 Crops, ii., 33 ; Prain, I.e. 16-22, 47, 76 ; Indian Mustard, rai, asl-rai, etc. 



180 



