THE GINGELLY OR SESAME PLANT 



Seed. 



Outturn. 



C. Prov. 



Areas. 



Berar. 



Areas. 



SESAMUM 

 INDICUM 



United Provinces 



the seed being mixed with that of the principal crop before sowing, or it is 

 disposed in parallel lines running across the field or along its margins. 

 When mixed with other crops the amount of seed sown to the acre varies, 

 of course, with the inclination of each individual cultivator. When grown 

 alone, from 8 to 12 seers of seed are used." 



" Under the circumstances of its cultivation it is obivously impossible 

 to frame any reliable estimate of its outturn per acre, which varies very 

 greatly with the amount of seed sown. From 25 seers to 1^ maunds are 

 commonly gathered when it is sown with judr or cotton. When grown 

 alone from 4 to 6 maunds is the average return to the acre." [Cf. Duthie 

 and Fuller, Field and Garden Crops, ii., 35-7 and t. xlii.] 



Central Provinces and Berar. The estimated areas in 1904-5 in 

 the Central Provinces and Berar were 779,600 acres and 111,500 acres, 

 while the estimated yields^were 58,900 tons and 10,100 tons respectively. 

 The actual areas were 858,664 acres in the Central Provinces and 111,718 

 acres in Berar. In the Central Provinces the chief districts were : Sam- 

 balpur, 103,401 acres ; Nimar, 98,785 acres ; Rajpur, 98,680 acres ; 

 Hoshangabad, 78,487 acres ; Jabbalpur, 68,992 acres ; Chanda, 59,800 

 acres, etc. ; in Berar : Wun, 67,307 acres. The supplementary Final 

 Memorandum for 1906-7 estimates the area at 783,900 acres and the yield 

 at 69,600 tons. 



Fuller (Note on Outturn of Land under Crops in C. Prov., 1894, 22-4) 

 says " it can be grown on almost the poorest land in cultivation, but is 

 also a profitable crop on good soils, and is commonly sown on newly 

 broken lands during the first two years of the reclamation. It Tequires 

 a light monsoon rainfall and in this respect resembles cotton, the til and 

 cotton harvests generally agreeing in character. Though classed as a 

 monsoon crop, til is largely grown during the cold weather in the southern 

 and eastern districts, good land in this case being devoted to it and a larger 

 outturn gathered than is usually yielded by monsoon til." With regard 

 to outturn, he states that " the present standards are 150 Ib. per acre 

 for the three northern districts, 250 Ib. for Wardha and Nagpur, and 

 200 Ib. for all others. They rather overstate the produce, save in the 

 case of the Nerbudda and Nagpur districts, where they are decidedly 

 too low." [Cf. Rept. Land Rev. Settl. Nagpur, 1899, 63 ; Hoshangabad. 

 1905, 28.] 



Panjab and North- West frontier. The estimated area and yield 

 in the Panjab for 1904-5 are given as 158,000 acres and 16,000 tons. The 

 actual area subsequently returned for that year in the Panjab was 113,200 

 acres, and in the North-W'est Frontier Province 4,901 acres were returned 

 as under the crop. The largest areas in the Panjab (in 1904-5) ordinarily 

 occur in Gurdaspur, 30,479 acres ; Multan, 13,295 acres ; Kangra, 10,255 

 acres ; Amritsar, 5,709 acres ; Gurgaon, 5,242 acres ; Hoshiarpur, 5,231 

 acres, etc. The supplementary Final Memorandum for 1906-7 estimates 

 the area in the Panjab at 94,400 acres with a yield of 8,600 tons. 



In the Gazetteer for Multan (1901-2, 217) it is stated that " the outturn 

 is from 3 to 3| maunds per acre, and the produce- fetches the zamindar 

 some 10 seers to the rupee, or Rs. 4 per maund. The crop gives fair 

 returns and costs less to cultivate than most, as it can do with a light soil 

 and moderate moisture, can be sown late, and requires very little looking 

 after. The sowings take place in July, and the crop is cut in November." 

 Lawrence (Valley of Kashmir, 340) says it is a very common crop, sown 



984 



Soils. 



Eainfall. 



Outturn. 



Panjab. 



Areas. 



Outturn. 



