and Sonthal coolies are able to digest maize even outside 

 their own native climate. Maize contains more fat and is 

 more fattening than other grains if it can be digested. The 

 cobbs divested of grains are rich in carbonate of potash, 

 containing as much as 1-762 per cent., i.e., twice as much 

 as is contained in wood, and they should, therefore, be stored 

 in the manure pit. The straw is not of much value as fodder 

 (except for elephants) if the cobbs are allowed to ripen ; but 

 if the cobbs are disposed of in the green state, maize-stalks 

 are as valuable for fodder as juar stalks. 



331. Maize is an exhausting crop and it requires heavy 

 manuring or very good soil to produce good yield. Carrots 

 are frequently sown in the N.-W. Provinces between the lines 

 of rabi maize, while the crop is still standing, especially 

 when drought is threatened. The leaves of the carrots 

 are given to cattle and the roots are eaten by people. In 

 years of heavy rainfall, gram, poppy, mustard or safflower 

 follows maize. But wheat or barley is often grown after 

 maize, though it is against the principle of rotation of crops 

 to do so. In some parts of the Punjab three crops are 

 taken in succession in the same year from the same land. 

 Melon is grown after wheat or barley is off the ground in 

 March, and the land is prepared early in July for the maize 

 crop as by then the melon crop is over. Melons as a catch-- 

 crop are also largely taken in Bengal in seasons of drought^ 

 immediately after a bad rabi harvest. 



332. Soil.' Maize prefers high open and even rough 

 gritty soil, with plenty of humus in it. The hilly regions 

 of the Darjeeling district are especially suited for growing 

 high class maizes. In Lohardaga, Singbhum, Manbhum and 

 in Behar districts also, large crops of maize are obtained. 

 The damp alluvial low-lands of Bengal are not so suited for 

 this crop especially if it is intended for grain. But home- 

 steads, throughout Bengal, where no waterlogging takes 

 place, are well adapted for growing maize for green cobbs, 



