15 



31. Triticum sativum : natural order, Graminea.For botanical des- 



Kanak, synonym yettta (in eastern districts). Cription SCO Fuller and Dutllic, Food and 



Garden Crops, part I, page 1, and 

 plates I-A and I-B. 



The average chemical composition of the grain of Indian wheats is 



Water 



Albuminoids 



Starch 



Oil 



Fibre 



Asli 



The grain is too valuable to be used much as food for cattle. 



Per cent. 

 12-5 

 135 

 68-4 



1-2 



2-7 



1-7 



It is sometimes given 



-_ to milch kine. The uses as fodder of the dry 



broken straw or turi have already been indicated. The ways in which it is 

 stored may be gathered from the following extracts : 



Karnal Gazetteer, edition of 1890, paragraph 222." Bhus is stored in a 

 kup made of a wisp of straw wound spirally round and round upon a founda- 

 tion of cotton stems so as to form a high circular receptacle in which the bhns 

 is packed and preserved, and thatched when full. A long low stack fenced 

 in by cotton stems alone is called a chhan or bhiisari. Near the city the 

 people store their bhus in mud receptacles (Jchuta) and plaster it all round the 

 top. The bhus is taken out from a hole at the bottom as wanted." 



Chenab Colony Gazetteer, page SO.Bhusa " is stored in stacks, mtisal, 

 or in low heaps, dhar. The musal is built up in the form of a haystack and 

 better withstands the rain owing to its sloping thatch. But the dhar is often 

 preferred because it is less exposed to damage from fire. An enemy can burn 

 a musal down, whereas a dhar will only smoulder at one end." 



Multan Gazetteer, page 219." The wheat straw is collected in stacks, 

 palle, and surrounded with wattles or cotton stalks and daubed over with 

 mud." 



Near towns the green wheat when in ear (khawid] is cut down and 

 fetches a very good price. In some of the western districts much wheat on 

 the wells is cut down green to feed the bullocks, the amount which has to be 

 sacrificed depending of course on the nature of the season. 



Thus the late Mr. Steedman wrote in paragraph 131 of the Jhang Settle- 

 ment Report : 



" Practically the tenant can cut as much green wheat and jowdr to feed the well 

 bullocks as is necessary. There is really no limit. Similarly, the whole of the turnip crop 

 is his. It is only where the crop or roots are sold that the proprietor takes a share ; otherwise 

 all (of the fodder) that he takes is a marla or two of green wheat and a bundle or two of 

 turnips." 



In rabi 1910 the area under wheat was 8,884,697 acres, distributed among 

 the divisions as follows : 



These figures show the enormous importance of wheat straw as a source of 

 fodder in the three western divisions. 



