CULTIVATION TWO CROPS 



DELPHINIUM 



ZALIL 



though l>\ nipping off the heads growth may be prolonged. The young 

 plants arc alsu taken up when half grown and sent to market. The pro- 

 duce is from 5,000 to 10,000 Ib. an acre. The carrot is also ^rown in vieid. 

 (iujarat from August to May, and the crop gathered four months later. 

 li it is much raised as a field crop. In Poona and Khandesh the 

 carrot is cultivated very largely on black soil, with the help of manure. 

 of Ahmednagar a curious process is reported of obtaining carrot seed: 

 When the crop is ready the husbandman cuts off a thick slice from the Method of 

 crown end of the carrot. This he puts two fingers deep below the soil 

 in any place where there is a liberal supply of water. After a few weeks 

 the roots produce a vigorous flower stem, the seed of which is gathered 

 four or five months after having been thus transplanted. There are 

 accordingly two crops in the year one, the root produced from the 

 seed, the other the seed produced from the root (see Raphanus sativus, 

 rar. caudata, p. 912). In the Deccan, according to Woodrow (Gard. in 

 Ind., 1889, 340), the carrot may be grown as a culinary vegetable where 

 the rainfall is not over 25 inches annually, during the rainy season. 

 Large sowings for fodder should be made in October and November, and 

 if late rains are favourable good crops may be grown on a deep retentive 

 soil without irrigation. 



Mysore is stated to produce a very good quality of carrot, but in Madras Mysore, 

 and Burma the root seems to be raised only as a garden vegetable. 



Food and Fodder. The so-called root constitutes an important vege- Vegetable, 

 table in the markets frequented by the European community. Although 

 certain classes of Hindus in Bengal object to eat the carrot, on account of 

 some fanciful resemblance to beef, still the Natives of India, as a whole, 

 are year by year taking more kindly to it. At the same time it must 

 be added that, though by the Muhammadans and certain Hindus the 

 carrot has been cultivated for ages, it is only within recent years that 

 it has become a recognised article of diet. By certain classes the young 

 carrots are used only as pickles. By others " the root is first boiled Cooking, 

 iu water, then squeezed out and cooked in ghi" In Europe it has 

 become a recognised article of cattle food. Carrot-tops afford a useful 



I fodder, and the contention that the roots might be resorted to in times of 

 famine is strengthened by the fact that the tops would be of value to the 

 cattle. [Of. Agri. Ledg., 1898, No. 12.] 

 Seed. The seed yields by distillation a medicinal oil. \Cf. TdUef Shereef Medicinal. 

 (Playfair, transl.), 113.] In the Hemp Drugs Commission Report (iv., 415) mention 

 is made of the seeds constituting one of the spices used in flavouring bhang. 

 Lawrence (Valley of Kashmir, 67) says carrot seeds are employed to mix with 

 caraway. The chemical constituents of the root are crystallisable and un- 

 crystallisable sugar, a little starch, gluten, albumen, volatile oil, vegetable jelly, 

 malic acid, saline matters, lignin and a peculiar crystallisable, ruby-red neutral 

 principle, without odour or taste, called carotin. [Cf. Pharmacog. Ind., ii., 136.] 

 DELPHINIUM DENUDATUM, H'ntf. ; Fl Br. Ind., i., 25 ; D.E.P., 

 RANUNCULACE^E. The nirbisi or jadwar of certain writers (names that "* 65 ~ 9 - 

 more strictly speaking denote, species of ('urciiinti or of Aeon it tun, 

 which see) ; is also the munila of the North- West Himalaya. D. saniculae- 

 foliurn, Boiss., has been supposed by some, but incorrectly, to afford the 

 asbarg dye and medicinal flowers. 



D. Zalil, Aitch. & Hemsl., an abundant larkspur in Khorasan at 

 altitude of 3,000 feet, where its spikes of golden flowers give a wondrous 



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