92 



Food-Grains of India. 



Dr. W. W. Hunter estimates the percentages of the Indian 

 food-grain areas under wheat in several provinces to be — 



12 

 7 



The Indian area of wheat cultivation is defined by Dr. Forbes 

 Watson, in his Report of 1879, as comprising the whole of 

 Northern India up to the Gangetic Delta, and the whole of 

 the table-land above the Ghats in Southern India. It extends 

 through every district of the North- West Provinces, Oudh, the 

 Punjab, Sind, the Central Provinces, and Berar ; also through 

 every part of the Bombay Presidency, with the exception of 

 some of the coast districts ; this crop is also grown in many 

 parts of the interior of the Madras Presidency. 



Mr. J. F. Duthie, of Saharunpur, reports that wheat 

 ("gehun" or "gohun") is the largest of all the crops grown in 

 the North- West Provinces and Oudh. It is cultivated on all 

 soils save the lightest sands, although a rather heavy loam suits 

 it best. Many ploughings and a fine tilth are essential ; about 

 four tons of dung or village manure per acre are usually applied. 

 The seed is sown broadcast and covered by the plough, or it is 

 dropped into the furrows by hand, or by means of a bamboo 

 attached to the plough-stilt. A watering is given before sowing 

 the grain, when the soil is too dry. Wheat is sometimes grown 

 with barley, sometimes with gram. Fifteen maunds is the average 

 yield of wheat grown by itself on irrigated land, 9 maunds on 

 unirrigated land ; wherever possible it is irrigated. The weight 

 of straw varies from i>4 to twice as much as the grain. The 

 wheat is of course a cold-weather crop, being grown in the 

 rabi season, between October and April. In the Deccan it is 

 sometimes sown in September and reaped in January. In the 

 Punjab the harvest is as late as May ; in Agra, June. 



Dr. Forbes Watson estimated the total wheat production of 

 India in 1877 to be 40 million quarters, of which no more than 

 f-3 million quarters were exported. The exports in 1881-82 



