CULTIVATION IN INDIA 



' Nf "t IT/ 



.-.,iN. 



ELEUSINE 



CORACANA 



Cultivation 



raised in a seed-bed and transplanted with the first good showers. The crop is 

 .(. in August-September. The ears alone are cut off and the stems left in the 

 Around to be browsed by the cattle. It will not grow on land that is inundated, 

 n.. r -von whero the water lies for any time. It is essentially a crop of undulating 

 ui'll-.lrainod soils. 



United I'rovlnct*. This millet is unimportant in these provinces. The U. Prov. 

 nnnniil urea under it does not much exceed 200,000 acres. It is, in fact, 

 within tin' hill tracts only that it assumes importance. Of Allahabad it 

 is said mania or makra is sown on good soils near the villages sometimes 

 with jmir. more often alone and on manured land. The seed is broad- 

 casted and ploughed in, but it may be transplanted from a nursery. Duthie 

 line! Fuller (I.e. 10), on the other hand, say of Jaunsar Bawar that it forms the 

 chief article of food of the hillmen and is grown on the very poorest soil, often Food of EJ11 

 \ioliiing a crop from mere stones and shingle. It is very rarely raised on the 

 'hilly country to the south of these provinces, where its place is taken by kodon. 

 It grows, however, to a greater or lesser extent all over the provinces, and in the 

 more fertile districts its cultivation is often attended with considerable care which 

 results in a very large weight of produce. It suffers much from heavy rain, 



much so that a good year for rice is generally a bad one for mandua. In 

 Garhwal mandua is sown in April and reaped in October. It is often thinned 

 out from one field and planted in another. In Kumaon it is cultivated both in 

 ordinary agricultural lands and freshly cleared jungle. By October-November Seasons, 

 the crop is ripe and the ears are cut off, tied in bundles, and stacked for 

 some twenty to twenty-five days, when they begin to ferment, and when warm 

 are spread out and dried, then threshed. In Nepal there are two forms 

 cultivated : one sown broadcast in May and June, the other raised in seed- 

 beds and transplanted in June and July. Both forms grow and ripen in the 

 rains. The broadcasted form is reaped in October, then transplanted in November. 

 It is never, as a rule, sown on land suited for wheat, rice or sugar-cane. 



Panjab. In this province EieuwOie holds a very subordinate position among the Panjab. 

 foods of the people, since the normal area under it does not exceed 40,000 acres. 

 Baden-Powell (Pb. Prod., 1868, 245) says this is principally a hill product, but is 

 also cultivated in Sialkot and a few other districts. In the Memoirs written 

 by the Emperor Baber occurs a reference to buzeh, a kind of beer consumed by Buteh Beer, 

 him on December 28, 1525, in or near the district of Sialkot. Mr. W. Cold- 

 stream, in a communication to the writer, says the grain of this pulse lasts in Grain keeps well, 

 store much better than other grain. It is extensively grown in the Simla Hill 

 States and comes into season in October. In the Kangra district it is an important 

 food crop. In the Panjab plains it is most frequently met with in the Karnal 

 district, but chiefly in the Khddar. It is not uncommon in Jhang, especially 

 in Chiniot. It is valued as a fodder crop, and may be cut two or three times 

 in the rains. 



Bombay and Slnd. Western India having extensive hill tracts, this millet 

 becomes of considerable value. The normal area under it is about half a million 

 acres. Dr. A. Gibson wrote a series of notes on the Agriculture of Western India 

 (Journ. Agri.-Hort. Soc. 2nd. (Corresp. and Select.), 1845, iv., 54-5), and the re- 

 marks he makes under this plant are well worthy of careful consideration. The 

 form K. ntrift(t, he says, is met with in gardens below the Ghats, where alluvial 

 soil and stream water are available, while K. forarana is the hill form, a smaller 

 plant and much less productive. Mollison says that ndgli occupies the fifth 

 place among the Bombay cereals. In Kaira, Ahmedabad and Baroda districts 

 of Gujarat, heavy crops are produced on highly assessed alluvial soil. Else- 

 where the cultivation is chiefly confined to the poorer uplands of the Ghats. 

 It is grown in districts of heavy rainfall, on land too light for rice. 

 In Gujarat it is sometimes drill-sown, but is usually a mixed crop and 

 most frequently transplanted. In the uplands of the Konkan and the Deccan 

 it is often raised on steep land and is then broadcasted. For this purpose the 

 soil is often burned with the brushwood (rob), and the seeds are sown along with 

 the ashes. The outturn varies so greatly that no general figure can be 

 quoted. It may range from 700 to 1,600 Ib. of grain and 2,000 to 2,400 Ib. 

 of straw. 



Madras, Mysore, and Coorg. South India is the chief region of rdgi production. 

 The normal area under it in the British districts comes to close on two million Ara. 

 acres, but in Mysore State alone the area is usually well over two million acres, 

 so that the total for South India might be put at 4$ million. The British 



Fodder Crop. 



Bombay. 



Area. 



Pifth 1 



a 



BMSOOS. 



Yield. 



Madras. 



