ZEA MAYS 



United Provinces 



THE MAIZE PLANT 



Varieties. 



Imported. 

 Country. 



Methods of 

 Improvement. 



Cost. 



C. Prov. 

 and Berar. 



Pan jab and 

 North- 

 West 

 Frontier. 



Yield. 

 Districts. 



Seasons. 



35 maunds of grain have been repeatedly obtained on a number of plots, 

 and occasionally as much as 40 maunds and more." Regarding varieties, 

 he remarks that " about eighteen American and the two common North 

 Indian varieties have been tried at the station with a view to test their 

 merits as regards hardihood, productiveness and suitability to the climate 

 of North India. The results of these trials showed that American varieties 

 could be grown without any difficulty the same year the seed was imported ; 

 that one or two Americans might excel the Indians in productiveness ; 

 but that, taking everything into consideration, the two country varieties 

 are the best for our present local conditions ; that much better practical 

 results could be immediately achieved by improving these two varieties 

 by a careful selection of seed, etc. ; and that with the light-yellow country 

 variety as improved at Cawnpore the best results that the North Indian 

 climate and soil would admit of might be attained within a few years." 

 Subbiah further states that to secure yields approaching those obtained at 

 Cawnpore, the agents at the cultivator's disposal are (a) regular spacing 

 of each individual plant ; (6) selection of seed or using Cawnpore maize 

 seed ; (c) two diggings between the crop in addition to the usual weeding 

 and earthing ; (d) one or two waterings during breaks in the rains that 

 occur in most years ; (e) liberal manuring ; (/) either deep ploughing or 

 digging with phaora before sowing." 



By the ordinary method of cultivation he estimates the cost per acre 

 to be Us. 13-13 and the normal produce 13 maunds, worth Rs. 22-12, 

 giving a profit of Rs. 8-15 ; by the Cawnpore method, the cost is Rs. 31-12, 

 outturn 35 maunds worth Rs. 61-4, giving a profit of Rs. 29-8. 



[Cf. Wright, Mem. on Agri. Cawnpore, 1877 ; Duthie and Fuller, Field and 

 Garden Crops, I.e. 21-4, t. v. ; Leather, Exper. on Wheat and Maize at Cawn~ 

 pore, Depl. Land Rec. and Agri. U. Prov. Bull., 1900, No. 9 ; Nevill, Dist. Gaz. 

 U. Prov., 1903-6 (many passages) ; Repts. Bot. Gard. Saharanpur ; Cawnpore 

 Exper. Farm Repts. ] 



Central Provinces and Berar. The area in 1905-6 was 134,329 acres 

 in the Central Provinces, and 2,445 acres in Berar. The chief districts in 

 the former are Chhindwara, Mandla, Betul, Bilaspur and Jabbalpur ; in the 

 latter, Wun and Buldana. Practically no information is available regard- 

 ing the cultivation of the crop. The Nagpur Experimental Farm Reports 

 deal only with the efforts to acclimatise American races and races from 

 other parts of India. 



Panjab and North-West Frontier. The area in 1905-6 was 896,241 

 acres in the Panjab and 341,862 acres in the North- West Frontier. In the 

 Panjab the area would appear to be declining. For the five years ending 

 1901-2 the average outturn for the Panjab is stated to have been 1,133 Ib. 

 per acre irrigated and 841 Ib. unirrigated ; in the North- West, 1,665 Ib. 

 irrigated and 583 Ib. unirrigated. From returns submitted from various 

 districts it was calculated in the Dictionary that an average yield for the 

 province would be about 886 Ib., or lOf maunds per acre. In the Panjab 

 the districts with largest acreage were Kangra, 140,585 ; Hoshiarpur, 

 118,853; Jalandhar, 83,204; Gurdaspur, 59,808; Sialkot, 54,482; 

 Ludhiana, 54,228 ; Ferozpur, 52,627 ; Ambala, 52,405 ; Lahore, 42,070 ; 

 Amritsar, 42,013, etc.; in the North-West Hazara, 162,699, and 

 Peshawar, 130,002. 



In a volume entitled Selections from the Records of the Financial Commis- 

 sioner's Office (1887, No. 36, 780-836), the subject of maize cultivation in 

 the Panjab was fully discussed. The periods of sowing and reaping vary 



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