FOOD. 37 



about Its. 10 a month, but a man can be got to 

 come two or three times a week and look after it 

 for half this. I found, however, that if I gave it 

 to one of the syces, that the women and children 

 of his family would attend to it, as, when once 

 started, it only requires weeding, and that the work 

 was better done than by a professional gardener, 

 unless one was regularly employed. The best seed 

 is the acclimatized English, or the Cabul brought 

 down from Afghanistan. The English seed can be 

 obtained from any seedsman, or the Government 

 Horticultural Gardens at Lahore or Saharunpore, 

 at about a rupee a pound, and this is enough to 

 sow about an acre with, which should be done at 

 the end of the cold weather. If only a small quan- 

 tity is grown, it is best to sow it on ridges, as it 

 then, no doubt, can be kept free from weeds, and 

 the cost of weeding, on an acre or two, is but 

 trifling; but it is an error to suppose that lucerne 

 cannot be sown broadcast. At the cattle farm at 

 Hissar, in the Punjab, several hundred acres were 

 grown in this way, as the cost of making ridges 

 on such a large quantity of land would have been 

 prohibitive. Of course, this lucerne was not so 

 clean as if it had been grown on ridges, but the 

 cattle picked it out from the weeds when it was 



