24 FODDER IN INDIA. 



Lucerne is not a kharif crop, and will be dealt with later, 



but it grows all the year round under suitable conditions ; 



with very heavy rainfall and on heavy low-lying positions 



it is liable to rot at the roots and die off unless the drainage 



is very good. 



Before leaving the monsoon crops it may be a help to 



know that if the early rains fail, monsoon 



Sowing Kharif qj. Sharif crops may be sown on suitable 

 Crops. ^ ■' . 



land up to about August rsth, i.e., 



on land which is not naturally over-dry. Of course a dimin- 

 ished out-turn must be expected, but the writer has sown 

 as late as the end of August (29th and 30th) and had a 

 four-anna crop. It is generally accepted that to be a success 

 a kharif crop must have at least one month's reasonable 

 rainfall. Another point, juar, amber cane, and the millets 

 if sown early in ' anticipation ' of the early rains will take 

 very little harm for several weeks without a shower if sown 

 on an absolutely dry seed bed; but if the soil is at 

 all moist so as to give the seed a start then it will all 

 perish about 10 days after being sown unless there is rain. 

 When seed is cheap and you have a large area to get sown 

 it is sometimes worth the gamble, and when the monsoon 

 fails after a shower or two you will have scored a big point. 



CHAPTER XI. 



The winter or rabi crops are many and various. We will 



confine ourselves to a suitable selection 



^**'^Cr'o^*°*^'" ^^^ Military Grass Farm purposes ; and 



once again remind the reader that the 



primary object to the almost entire exclusion of all others 



is, as regards Military Grass Farms, to grow good grass for 



hay and green issues, crops of other kinds being treated as 



quite a side issue. Our selections then are Oats, Barley, 



Wheat, Rye Grass, Mustard, Shaftal, Lucerne, Barseem, 



Gram, Kuria, Kasumba, Taramira, Carrots. 



