DOLICHOS 



BIFLORUS 



Kulthi 



THE HORSE-GRAM PLANT 



Sowing. 



Catch Crop. 

 Seasons. 



Area. 

 SoU. 



Varying 

 Practices. 



Area. 



Mysore. 



Mixed Crop. 



Germinated 

 Seed. 



Food. 



(Man. Coimbatore) tells us that it grows on the poorest soils, and with 

 the minimum of rainfall. Horse-gram land is seldom manured, otherwise 

 than by casual droppings of cattle : it is usually ploughed, sown, 

 and the seed covered by a second ploughing; or the seed is simply 

 scattered broadcast over the natural surface and then ploughed in. As 

 it requires only one good rain after appearing above ground, it frequently 

 gives a fair crop when nothing else can live. When the south-west monsoon 

 rains are too late for kdmbu (bdjra) it is frequently sown as a substitute 

 in September, but it is also sown largely in November after the first burst 

 of the north-east monsoons. It is pulled up by the roots, thrown into 

 heaps, and then trodden out by cattle. The yield is up to 1,200 Ib. 

 Nicholson (I.e., 1898, ii., 176) gives 194,777 acres as the average under 

 D. biflorus for the years 1888-93. Mr. H. Goodrich, Collector of 

 Bellary, says a mixed soil is best suited for the crop. The fields should 

 be ploughed and harrowed once or twice, but not irrigated nor (generally) 

 manured. Several other Madras writers, however, give very different 

 accounts of the requirements of this plant, so that the practice seems 

 to vary considerably within the Presidency. In the Survey Settlement 

 Report of South Arcot, for example, it is said : " The land is ploughed four 

 or five different times after the month of May, and the gram sown be- 

 tween the latter part of August and the end of September. It is 

 gathered in the middle of March." So again, Moore (Man. Trichinopoly, 

 72) speaks of it as a precarious crop. In the North Arcot District, 

 Cox (Man. North Arcot, 1894, ii., 184) gives 48,897 acres as the average 

 under Z>. bi floras for the years 1887-93. Unfortunately, while several 

 writers mention figures of area for the districts with which they are 

 familiar, no definite statement of the Presidency as a whole can be 

 furnished, for the reason that horse-gram does not appear to be sepa- 

 rately returned. The official figures under " gram " for Madras come to 

 an average (for the five years 1900-5) of almost 150,000 acres. But 

 under " other food grains including pulses " 7,092,389 acres are shown 

 as the area in 1902-3, though it has since contracted to 5,753,913 in 1904-5 

 It is thus fairly certain that " horse-gram " must be included under 

 the latter, and that the former denotes Bengal gram (the true gram) 

 grown in the Madras Presidency. As indicative of the possible regions 

 of greatest cultivation of this pulse, it may be here added that Bellary 

 had in 1902-3 (when the largest area for the period 1900-5 was re- 

 turned), 822,685 ; Anantapur, 771,267 ; Karnul, 708,877 ; Kistna, 554,757 ; 

 and Salem, 590,619 acres devoted to the combined food crops mentioned 

 above. 



Mysore. Rice (Mysore Gaz., 1897, i. } 119-20) says the horse-gram 

 is of two kinds, black and white, sown intermixed. In the east the worst 

 qualities of soil are generally used, and on the same fields same (Panicnni 

 Crus-galli, var. frumeniaceum), hdraJca (? Curcuma lont/a), and 

 huchchellu (Guizotia abyssynica) are cultivated, without one crop 

 injuring the other, or a rotation being even considered beneficial. For 

 horse-gram plough twice, in the course of a few days, any time in October- 

 November. Then, after a shower, sow broadcast ; or, if rain does not 

 fall, steep the seed for three hours in water and plough into the soil. It 

 requires no manure, and in three months is ripe for harvest. 



FOOD AND FODDER. The interest in this pulse is mainly as an 

 article of cattle food, the green stems and leaves being a valued fodder, 



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