LATHYRUS 



SATIVUS 



THE CHICKLING-VETCH 



Cultiva- 

 tion. 



Dry Rabi Crop. 



Chief Areas. 



Tillage. 



Soils. 



Season. 



Seed. 



Cost. 



Fodder. 

 Pood. 



Paralysis 



and 



Lathyrism. 



teora, tiura, churdl, lakh (or lac), lakhori, Idng, etc. An annual herb which, 

 according to De Candolle, is indigenous to the region that extends from 

 the Caucasus to Northern India. 



Cultivation and Area, etc. This vetch is cultivated throughout 

 India as a cold-weather crop, and has the reputation of germinating on 

 land too dry for other robi crops. To this fact is largely due its value 

 agriculturally. It can take the place of other crops when the October 

 rain has failed, and as an article of food it is remarkably cheap. Statistics 

 of actual cultivation are not available for the whole of India, so that a 

 complete statement of the total area cannot be furnished. The following 

 particulars of a few provinces are, however, instructive. In 1904-5 the 

 CENTRAL PROVINCES had an area of 363,504 acres, chiefly in Nagpur 

 (163,632 acres) and Chhattisgarh (152,046 acres) districts. BERAR appears 

 to have had 14,408 acres. BOMBAY (excluding Sind) 18,656 acres, mainly 

 in Broach. SIND by itself had 232,070 acres, chiefly in Larkhana district 

 (142,014 acres). The UNITED PROVINCES do not appear to have published 

 the area recently, but some few years ago the acreage devoted to the crop 

 was said to have been 56,100 acres. No returns of any kind are available 

 for Bengal, Assam, Burma, the Panjab, Rajputana and Central India, 

 nor Madras. There is no evidence, however, that these provinces materi- 

 ally affect the total Indian production. The two chief areas are the 

 Central Provinces and Sind. 



Tillage and Yield. To give some conception of the methods of culti- 

 vation, yield, etc., of this pulse, the admirable account given by Mollison 

 (Textbook Ind. Agri., 1901, ii., 29 ; iii., 78-80) may be here drawn upon. 

 Ldng, he says, is almost invariably grown alone, though a slight admixture 

 may be found in gram (Cicer arietinum) fields. It thrives best on deep, 

 retentive, black soils. In the Deccan it is chiefly a second crop in rice- 

 fields, but in Gujarat it is the sole crop of the year. In Broach it is gener- 

 ally raised on low-lying fields liable to be flooded by heavy rain, all fields 

 which become waterlogged and too wet for cotton being commonly sown 

 with Idng. Tillage operations begin by ploughing after the first fall of 

 rain. If the rains are unfavourable for cotton, the field is kept for Idng 

 and repeatedly harrowed during July, August and September. No manure 

 is applied, but the ground is carefully prepared, since Idng grown on clean 

 ground is a good preparation for cotton in the succeeding year. Sowing 

 takes place in September or early in October, and the seed-rate varies 

 from 35 to 40 Ib. per acre. The seed is dropped in the plough furrows 

 in rows about a foot apart, and the surface levelled and pressed imme- 

 diately after. No weeding is required, and the crop ripens in February 

 about four and a half months after sowing. It is reaped before it is 

 fully ripe, formed into small heaps in the field, and allowed to dry for 

 a week. When dry it is threshed out under the feet of bullocks and 

 winnowed in the ordinary way. The cost of cultivation is stated to be 

 Us. 13-12 per acre. In a well-grown crop the weight of pulse almost equals 

 the weight of fodder. From full average crops in Broach, Mollison found 

 the outturn of pulse to vary from 925 Ib. to 1,068 Ib. per acre, and of fodder 

 from 1,220 Ib. to 1,405 Ib. Ldng is cultivated chiefly as a FODDER, but 

 as it is cheap and easily grown, it is considerably used as FOOD by the 

 poorer classes, principally in the form of bread, ddl, or porridge. 



Evil Reputation. Much interest has been, for a century or more, spasmodically 

 directed to this pulse, on account of its evil reputation of causing paralysis 



704 



