18 



of arhar in the United Provinces are described on pages 200-202 of Morland's 

 " Agriculture of the United Provinces." The following may be quoted : , 



"When arhar is sown with cotton it is usually placed in lines about fifteen feet apart ; 

 it grows thick and high... and j it is of particular value as a shelter; the outturn from a cotton 

 field, is not, however, as great as from a millet field, as the arhar plants are far fewer in number 

 ...Arhar seems to survive any deficiency of rain short of an absolute drought, and is almost 

 independent of cold weather rain ; while nothing short of regular floods seems to injure it 

 seriously, but it has dangers of its own. The greatest is frost to which the plant is more liable 

 than any other of our field crops : a single ground frost may destroy the entire crop. The 

 caterpillar, known usually as chheda, does a good deal of harm in some seasons, boring into 



the pods and eating the young seeds The dry leaves and pods make most nourishing food for 



cattle and the stalks are put to a great variety of uses, the chief of which is lining temporary 

 wells." 



Though sown with cotton, the grain, if it has survived the cold, does not 

 ripen till the beginning of the hot weather. Its great susceptibility to frost makes 

 it unsuited to the climate of most parts of the Punjab, and it is an unimport- 

 ant crop except in the east of the Gurgaon district, where it is sown in lines 

 with cotton. The leaves are used for fodder, and the stalks for fuel, while " the 

 pulse is little esteemed, so that its perishing in the winter is of the less 

 consequence " (Gurgaon Gazetteer, page 93). The variety which ripens in the 

 autumn and is occasionally sown in Gurgaon seems to be the plant known as 

 thur in the United Provinces (Cajanus Indicus, var. flavus). 



38. Phaseolus mungo ; var. radiatus : natural order, JJeguminosa. For 

 , ., . .. botanical description see Field and 



Mash, synoynms urd, mah, malm (inferior variety). r\ i r\ j. T on i i j 



Garden Crops, part I, page 39, and plate 

 X ; also Church's " Food Grains of India," page 148. 



Chemical composition of unhusked grains : 



Per cent. 

 Water ... ... ... ... lO'O 



Albuminoids ... ... ... ... 22'7 



Starch ... ... ... ... 55 8 



Oil ... ... ... ... 2-2 



Fibre ... ... ... 4'S 



Ash ... ... ... ... 4'4 including I'l of 



phosphoric acid. 



This crop and its two relations, mung (Phaseolus mungo) and moth (Phaseolus 

 aconitifolius) form a group of kharif pulses of great importance as furnishing 

 food for men and cattle. According to Purser there are two varieties of mash, 

 one with black seeds^known as burang, and one with green called kachua. " The 

 former grows as a creeper along the ground ; the latter upright. The pods of 

 burang are blackish purple, long and thin ; those of kachua greenish yellow, short 



and thick the dal of Ttachua is larger, has a better taste, and requires less 



time in cooking than that of burang, hence it sells at 3 or 4 seers the rupee 

 dearer " (Settlement Report of Montgomery, page 117). 



Mash is sown either alone or mixed with jowdr, cotton, or with other 

 pulses such as vniing, Tculath, or rawdn. It is unsuited to a light sandy soil 

 in upland tracts, and is therefore not grown with bdjra. In Jullundur it is 

 mostly found in the best class of dry land and often precedes sugarcane. It is 

 the one of the pulses which is grown most in riverain tracts and in the low 

 hills. In Kangra it is sown on the ridges between rice fields or mixed with 

 Jculath. It does best in a season of moderate rainfall, and is often destroyed 

 by heavy rain or by floods in the autumn. " The fodder obtained from moth, 

 mung and mash is divided into three kinds, which ranked according to their 

 value, are the empty pods (phali), leaves (patti), and the stalks (gona}. The 



