CICER 



ARIETINUM 

 Chick-pea 



THE BENGAL GRAM 



Madras. 



Mysore. 



Uses of 

 Gram. 



Pood and 

 Fodder. 

 Parched Gram. 



Biscuits. 



Poisonous 

 Effects. 



Pot-herb. 



Fodder. 



Vinegar. 



Medicine. 



Wutrient 

 Value. 



Central Provinces and Bombay. It occupies about 24 per cent, of the 

 area devoted to cold-weather crops and is most abundant in Basim, 

 Buldana and Wun. 



Madras. Bengal gram is an unimportant crop in Madras Presidency, 

 its place being taken by the horse-gram (Dolichos Mflorus). The 

 manuals of North Arcot and Coimbatore districts contain, however, brief 

 paragraphs regarding it. 



Mysore. The Gazetteer of this State will be found to give some 

 useful particulars in connection with gram cultivation. It is grown on 

 black soil, and as a second crop following ragi. 



USES OF GRAM. It would be beyond the scope of this article to 

 afford details of every economic property of gram. The seed is exten- 

 sively eaten both by men and cattle in every part of India except Madras. 

 [<7/. Elliot, Farinaceous Grains, 1862, 294-5.] The pea is often parched 

 and used in that form as diet, especially when cooking may be difficult or 

 impossible. It is in this sense frequently of exceptional value to the 

 Indian Army. The seeds are also steeped in water to remove the husks, 

 then mashed up and boiled alone or with onions, etc. (and thus made into 

 a thick soup), or the split peas may be cooked along with rice. Ground into 

 flour gram is used in various ways, such as in the preparation of sweetmeats 

 or biscuits. Although it is by far the most extensively consumed of all 

 cattle foods in India, the results of the effort to introduce it into Europe as an 

 article of horse food have not been encouraging. It would seem that when 

 given in large quantity to animals not accustomed to it, poisonous effects 

 have been observed. It has not, however, been placed beyond dispute that 

 the grain used in Europe was pure gram. If adulterated with the pulse 

 Lathyrus sativus the effects attributed to gram could be easily under- 

 stood. [Consult the observations on this subject in the D.E.P., ii., 279.] 



The young tops are largely collected and eaten as a POT-HERB. More- 

 over when sun-dried they may be preserved and used as required. As 

 a FODDER, gram-straw has the reputation of being inferior to that of other 

 pulses owing to the amount of acid liquid (which contains oxalic, acetic 

 and malic acids) found on the dew-besprinkled leaves. Still the stems, 

 leaves and husks constitute important articles of Indian cattle food. 

 They are specially valued for milch-cows, and are cut up and mixed with 

 common straw. 



The property of the green plant in affording an acid liquid often called 

 a VINEGAR has been known from the remotest antiquity. It is syste- 

 matically collected by spreading clean cotton cloths over the growing 

 plants at night and collecting from these the vinegar with which they 

 have become charged. This is used both MEDICINALLY and in diet. 

 One of the earliest European travellers who described this vinegar-dew 

 was Dr. Hove, who explored the agriculture of Gujarat in 1787. [Cf. with 

 Bird wood, Baden-Powell, Moodeen Sheriff, etc. ; see also Vinegar, p. 1109.] 



Chemistry. Church (Food-Grains of Ind., 1886, 128 ; suppl., 1901, 12) 

 gives the results of his examination of the husked peas : The nutrient ratio 

 he found to be as 1 : 3*3 and the nutrient value 84. Similarly C. soon- 

 garicum gave a nutrient ratio of 1 : 2'8 and the coagulable albuminoids 

 amounted to 19'8 per cent., so that this form of the pulse is rather richer 

 in albuminoids and in oil than are the seeds of the common gram. Leather 

 has critically examined numerous samples of gram from all parts of India 

 and has published in The Agricultural Ledger (1901, No. 10, 358-9 ; 1903, 



300 



