ELEUSINE 



CORACANA 



Ragi 



THE RAGI MILLET 



might be more correctly spoken of as met with chiefly on the hilly tracts. 

 With the hill tribes of Southern, Western and Northern India it is an 

 important article of daily food. It is mentioned in The Bower Manuscript, 

 of the 8th century, and is the rdjika and rdgi of Sanskrit, and known in 

 almost every vernacular language by names either derived from these or 

 from what are possibly even more ancient aboriginal names : marud, 



Names. mandud, makra, mandal, mandwa, meruya, ndngli, ndchui, nachiri, ndgli, 



kode, kodou, koda, kodra, kayur, kevar, kelvaragu, kutra, kurakan, rotka, 

 rdgi, rdgulu, tamidelu, taindulu, bdvto. etc. 



Origin. Varieties and Races. There is perhaps little or no doubt that as a 



cultivated crop this originated in India. There are at all events three 

 or four allied wild species regularly resorted to as articles of food in times 

 of scarcity and famine. And moreover, of the cultivated plant there are 

 in India several fairly distinct forms which almost of necessity denote 



Forms. antiquity of cultivation. E. stricta, Roxb., has the spikes quite straight 



and more numerous ; is in consequence a very productive plant. Rox- 

 burgh, speaking of Rajamundry (Fl. Ind., i., 344), describes this as the 

 pedda (or great) solu and says it is a later crop than the ordinary ponassa 

 (or early) solu. He then adds that there is still a third and even more 

 productive form than either, namely the maddi ruba solu. It requires a 

 rich soil but gives an increase of 500-fold. 



Early and Late. Other writers refer similarly to early and late forms of this millet. 

 Mollison (Textbook Ind. Agri., iii., 56-60), for example, observes that in the 

 Konkan and the Ghats districts the early crop is halvi and the late garvi ; 

 the former ripens about the end of September or early October, the latter at 

 end of October or early November. It is therefore a rainy-season crop, and 

 is usually sown on land that is too shallow or too poor for rice or too steep 

 for terracing. But if the rainfall be well distributed it succeeds even on 



Adaptations. clay loams. The variability of the plant may in fact be regarded as a 

 direct consequence of the class of soils on which grown. On stony and 

 sandy soils the form that approximates most nearly to the wild state 

 (E. indica) can alone be produced, and it is an inferior early crop. From 

 that to the large and vigorous late forms of richer agricultural regions, 

 an endless series of adaptations may be chronicled. 



Bengal. CULTIVATION. Bengal. Until it is recollected that Bengal has large tracts 



of mountainous country it cannot be realised why this province holds the second 

 position of importance in the cultivation of the present millet. The Bengal 

 districts of production may be given here in sequence of value : Darbhanga, 



Acreage. Bhagalpur, Hazaribagh, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Gaya, Shahabad, Sarun and 



Monghyr have each from 250,000 down to 40,000 acres under the crop. The 

 normal total acreage under it is about one million acres, and the outturn has 



Tield. been put at 10 maunds an acre. Buchanan-Hamilton (Stat. Ace. Dinaj., 1833, 



173, 182) describes the method of cultivation as a mixed crop with summer rice 

 and Cajaim*. In connection with Bihar he says it is grown as a summer 

 crop broadcasted or transplanted, but of Bhagalpur there are two crops, one 

 gathered in November-December, and the other three months earlier. Basu 

 (Agri. Lolmrdaga, 1890, 63-5 ; also Palamau, 28-9) calls mdrua an upland 



Varieties. cereal. There are two main varieties, an early red Idlkd 'and a late white 



charkd; the former is a bhddoi crop which is harvested from August 15 to 

 November 15, according to the season of sowing, the race of plant grown, 



Transplanted. nature of soil, and degree of rainfall. It is usually transplanted and has this 

 advantage, that harvest can be deferred to suit the convenience of the culti- 

 vator. Col. J. J. Wood speaks of the marua as widely and extensively grown 

 in Chota Nagpur. Banerjei (Agri. Cuttack, 1893, 74-5) remarks that the 

 mandia is an upland cereal and attains a height of 4 to 5 feet and bears grains 

 of a reddish colour. The fields are prepared in" May to July and the plants 



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