TRITICUM 



VULGARE 



Panjab 



Weeding. 



THE WHEAT PLANT 



Harvest. 



Seed to Acre. 



Tield. 



Averages. 



U. Prov. 



Area. 



Tield. 



Districts. 



Ralii Crop. 

 Seasons. 



operations are simple. The field should be occasionally weeded in 

 November and December. After December, nothing need be done be- 

 sides the protection of the crop from stray animals till it is ripe in April. 

 About the middle of April is the proper time to begin reaping the wheat 

 harvest." 



" The quantity of seed used is half a maund per acre, but a good deal 

 depends on weather conditions at the time of sowing, and also on the 

 class of soil. The average outturn varies much from tract to tract. Ex- 

 tensive crop experiments were carried out for five years during the First 

 Eevised Settlement, and the results seem to show that in the best plains 

 Tahsils, the average produce is 8 to 9 maunds an acre ; in Dasuya 

 about 7 maunds ; and in the hills only 4 maunds." Of course the 

 difference is enormous between the outturn of the best land, highly 

 manured, 12 to 14 maunds, and that of the poorest sandy soils or badly 

 manured land, 6 to 9 maunds. " In the light soils of Kandi the yield 

 falls in bad years to 3 or 4 maunds per acre." 



According to the Agricultural Statistics, the average yield per acre 

 in the Panjab for a period of five years ending 1901-2 was 935 Ib. irrigated 

 and 642 Ib. unirrigated land, and in the North-West Frontier, 883 Ib. on 

 irrigated and 563 Ib. on unirrigated. In the Panjab the largest yields were 

 obtained in Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ferozpur, Delhi, Ludhiana, 

 Lahore, Ambala and Mianwali ; and in the North-West Frontier in Dera 

 Ismail Khan, in all of which average yields of over 1,000 Ib. (I2| 

 maunds) per acre have been recorded on irrigated lands. 



[Cf. Wace, Panjab Wheat (Panjab Govt. publicat.), 1884; Dist. Gaz. ; Repts. 

 Oper. Dept. Land Rec. and Agri. ; Settl. .Repts. ; Repts. Agri.-Hort. Gardens, 

 Lahore ; Howard, Weeds in Panjab Wheat Fields, Agri. Journ. Ind., 1906, i., 

 403-5.] 



United Provinces. The crop is very important in these provinces, 

 ordinarily occupying about one-fifth of the net cropped area, an amount 

 which on an average of the five years ending 1904-5, represented 27 '9 

 per cent, of the total wheat area in British India. According to the 

 Agricultural Statistics, the area in Agra in 1904-5 was 5,533,542 acres 

 and in Oudh 2,197,224 acres, giving a total of 7,730,766 acres. The 

 outturn for the same year was estimated at 1,897,000 tons. In the Final 

 Memorandum on the crop for 1906-7, the area is stated to have been 

 in 1905-6, 6,478,900 acres and the yield 2,428,700 tons ; and in 1906-7, 

 7,039,100 acres and 2,164,500 tons. In Agra the largest areas are usually 

 in the Meerut and Rohilkhand Divisions. In the former, Meerut district 

 had 383,916 acres in 1904-5, Saharanpur 355,272 acres, Muzaffarnapur 

 276,864 acres, Bulandshahr 258,377 acres, and Aligarh 229,100 acres ; 

 in the latter (Rohilkhand Division), Moradabad had 383,555 acres, Budaun 

 344,345 acres, Shahjahanpur 276,703 acres, and Bareli 222,895 acres. 

 In Oudh Lucknow Division Hardoi had 320,938 acres, Sitapur 269,836 

 acres, and Kheri 221,264 acres. In Fyzabad Division, Gonda had 277,487 

 acres, and Bahraich 247,823 acres. 



No general statement regarding cultivation has been published since 

 the Field and Garden Crops appeared, but the annual reports of the Cawn- 

 pore Experimental Farm and the bulletins issued by the Agricultural 

 Department contain much valuable information, especially regarding 

 the experimental manuring of wheat. The crop is entirely a rabi one, 

 being sown at the end of October or beginning of November, and cut 

 in March and April. According to Duthie and Fuller, it is grown on 



1094 



