DOLICHOS 



BIFLORUS 



Kulthi 



THE HORSE-GRAM PLANT 



Two Main 

 Forms. 



Sanskrit Name. 



Green Manure. 



Fixation of 

 Nitrogen. 



Fodder. 



Catch Crop. 



May follow 

 Rabi Crop. 



I, 391 ; Duthie, Fl. Upper Gang. Plain, i., 229 ; Cooke, Fl. Pres. Bomb., 

 i., 382. Horse-gram, kulthi, kurthi-kalai or kurthi or kurti, kalath, khulti, 

 kolatha, kulat, gahat, horec, bardt, roiong, gdgli, botang, wulawalli, ulava, 

 hurali, hulga, hulle, papadi, muthera, simbi, beji mdh, khdrek, pe-ngapi, etc. ; 

 gudr, sometimes given to this plant, more correctly denotes Cyamojtsis 

 psoralioides. 



Varieties and Races. According to Baker (Fl. Br. Ind., I.e.) there are two 

 forms of this plant, . imiflor-nti, a sub-erect annual, and it. itijint-HH, a more 

 or less twining plant. The habitats of these forms are not separately recorded. 

 He apparently treats of both when he says it occurs on the " Himalayas to 

 Ceylon, and Burma, ascending to 3,000 feet in Sikkim, sometimes cultivated. 

 Distributed everywhere in the tropics of the Old World." The writer, however, 

 is of opinion that a mistake may have been made in linking the Himalayan 

 with the plains plant. Roxburgh refers to two forms, one with grey, the 

 other with black seeds, both of which he implies are cultivated in Bengal and 

 Madras. The grey-seeded plant, n. btftoms. is erect, has twining branches, 

 and is about 2 to 3 feet high. Roxburgh then adds " I have never found 

 it but in a cultivated state." As already observed, there would appear to 

 be room for doubt as to whether the grey and the black-seeded forms of 

 Roxburgh are the two forms of modern writers, or whether both of Roxburgh's 

 plants constitute but cultivated races of one of these forms. In popular works 

 on economic products the horse-gram of Madras is viewed as . nniflort<*, and 

 under either of these names (. nniflornti or It. Mfloms) a pulse is described 

 as grown in almost every district of India, but chiefly in Madras and Bombay. 

 It is a little difficult to believe that the plant of the tropical plains is the same 

 as that of the temperate Himalaya, but of course this is by no means impossible. 

 Duthie, however, says that as grown on the Himalaya it is more robust, the 

 pods larger and broader, and the seeds grey. Mollison (Handbook Ind. Agri., 

 1901, iii., 82-4) speaks of two varieties : one, grown sparingly in the Ahmed- 

 nagar and Kaira districts, has creamy white seeds ; the other, commonly 

 cultivated, has grey variegated seeds. But that this cultivated pulse should 

 be regarded as a native of India is abundantly confirmed by the existence of 

 a Sanskrit name kulattha from which no doubt many of the above vernaculars 

 (kulthi, etc) have been derived. 



CULTIVATION. Of the plains it may be said that this pulse is grown 

 either as a green manure or as a cattle food and fodder. Mr. Robertson 

 (Saidapet Farm Repts.) deals with the advantages of using it as a green 

 manure. Since then, however, the subject of the influence of leguminous 

 crops on the soil has undergone a complete revolution. Their chief value, 

 it is now believed, lies in their power to fix the nitrogen in the soil through 

 the agency of the organisms contained in their root warts. Few Indian 

 crops are perhaps more valuable in this respect than the horse-gram, 

 especially when grown as a fodder plant, or still more so as a green manure. 

 The advantages of growing the crop as a source of fodder are extolled 

 by various writers. Robertson, for example, says that it produces 

 from 2,000 to 4,000 pounds of fodder in two months, at a cost of about 

 Rs. 3 per ton, and thrives with a minimum rainfall in very hot weather. 

 The ease with which it may be cultivated recommends it most highly as a 

 catch crop for forage purposes, either to be grazed on the land or fed in 

 the stalls. The plant may be made to grow at almost any season of the 

 year. It requires but one shower of rain to start its growth, but even if this 

 be not obtained, the seeds have the power of remaining alive for months 

 in the soil and of germinating when rain does fall. After the removal of 

 the rabi crop it is contended that a highly advantageous course is to 

 rapidly dress the soil, sow horse-gram, and in a month's time commence 

 to use the stems and leaves as fodder. By this means the soil is saved 

 from becoming baked with the advancing heat of summer, and the roots 

 left in the soil greatly improve it, even should the cultivator be unable 



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