RABI AND KHARIF CROPS 



RICINUS 



COMMUNIS 



Cultivation 



y ... 

 . 



Bombay. 



ATM*. 



lead to extended cultu.u,,,.,. The oil is largely used for lubricating eold ma- 

 chinery and as an illuminant in railway carriages, hence moat of the Railway 

 Companies in India manufacture tli.-ir own oil. It is supposed to give a clear 

 light, to be highly economical since it burns slowly, gives little smoke, and does 

 not generate hoat mifliciont to make it dangerous. .\ 



Comm., 1886 ; also Notes on Product*, etc., 18(K). 176) says th plant is cultivated 

 along the banks of irrigation channels and in .u and tobacco 



fields, the seeds being collected to afford an illunun . The seeds aru 



crashed among cotton-wool, and the wool, saturated with oil, is subsequently, as 

 re.|iiirod, made up in the form of tapers (maluk). 



Bombay and S/m/.-ln lK'.t 1 't acres were sown and : 



matured a crop in Bombay proper, none having been recorded for 

 In the following year, 65,646 acres were under the cn>j>, but n-. 

 was made of the proportion that was non-productive. In HM)|--_ the 

 .Topped area was 109,475 acres, and in 1902-3 it stood at 119,040 acres. 

 The following year it had declined to 94,257 acres ; in 1904-5 there was 

 a still further shrinkage, namely to 72,599 acres, but no mention of a 

 Sind production, and in 1905-6 to 64,878 acres with lf>1 acros in Sind, 

 practically all in Thar and Parkar. Mollison (Textbook Ind. Agri., hi., 105-8) 

 says both perennial and annual varieties of the plant are met with in 

 India. The annual forms are rabi crops in Bombay Presidency, and the 

 plants are very much smaller than the perennial, which are kharif crops. 

 The latter grow with great rapidity, and a year's growth produces a 

 15 to 20 feet high. The foliage, branches and stems, according to va? 

 may be bright pale green, or green tinged with red, bright shining red, 

 or bronze purple. Forms with the last-mentioned description of foliage 

 are often grown as decorative plants in gardens. Mollison also states that 

 the seeds vary in size and markings. " One Bombay variety has large 

 seed, black in colour, with tiny specks of white. The perennial van 

 are chiefly grown along irrigation water channels, on the borders of sugar- 

 cane and in highly cultivated market garden land, and a plant soon gains 

 the .dimensions of a tree." The seed is sown, as a rule, about July. The 

 shade which the perennial castor affords to ginger, turmeric, sugar-cane 

 and other such crops is often valued. Perennial castors are easily culti- 

 vated and readily escape from cultivation, and consequently are often 

 found wild in many localities. 



" The plant does best in deep free working soil. The very best crops 

 in the Presidency are produced on the bhdtha (alluvial) soils which fringe 

 the course of the Tapti in Surat." " In the sandy goradu soils of Northern 

 Gujarat, a sprinkling of castors is usually found in the subordinate mixture 

 (kathol) of cereal crops sown in kharif season." " The rabi crop (a com- Mixed drop* 

 paratively dwarf plant) requires soil of different character. A retentive 

 clay soil or the soil of moisture-holding rice beds is suitable. On black 

 soil the rabi crop is generally sown mixed with tuver, til or with gram, and 

 this mixed crop is generally the sole crop of the year. In this case the land 

 is well fallowed during the rains, and the mixed seed is sown in September. 

 In rice-beds, castors and vdl or castors and gram are second crops sown in 

 October or as soon as possible after the rice is removed." 



Castor has been grown alone on the Nadial Farm, and the best outturn 

 obtained, Mollison observes, was 1,390 Ib. of beans per acre ; and this was 

 in a specially favourable year. The kharif (perennial) crop is very hardy, 

 especially in fairly deep soils. It, however, does best on rich garden land 

 freely manured and watered. Mixed castor and ground-nut is a charac- 

 teristic kharif crop. An experimental crop of this nature at the Surat 



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