208 



[September, 1912. 



GUINEA GRASS. 



The following is a summary of an account of the cultivation of Guinea 

 Grass (Panicum maximum) in the Agricultural Journal of India: — 



(1.) It is a quick-growing grass as it yields in 45 days a cutting 

 6' to 8' high, weighing 14 tons on the average per acre. 



(2.) It yields the largest quantity of grass known in a given time 

 from a given area. 



(3.) It is highly nutritious and is useful for feeding all kinds of stock. 



(4.) It is a real perennial and occupies the ground for at least a 

 generation without requiring change. 



(5.) It is the least expensive to grow, with no costly seed bill to start 

 with, no weeding and very little interculture. 



(6.) It is the best fodder plant for intensive cultivation as it yields a 

 quantity of fodder which we cannot hope to get from eight times the 

 area of juari at double the cost. It is a most hardy and drought-resist- 

 ing fodder plant, useful in times of scarcity. 



(7.) It is free from pests and fungus diseases to which lucerne and 

 other fodders are liable. 



(8.) It always yields a good return to a cultivator, whose object is 

 sale of fodder, 



Returns. 



From a commercial standpoint, the cultivation of guinea grass 

 is a profitable undei taking. As stated above, each acre yields, during 

 the year, 100 tons of green grass which, sold at the rate of 300 

 lbs. a rupee, fetches about Rs. 800, Where tank or river water is avail- 

 able for irrigation, the growing of guinea grass is exceedingly easy, 

 the only expensive item being manure. Guinea grass requires fre- 

 quent manuring with sewage, night-soil, sheep-dung and bonedust in 

 large quantities. Well-rotted conservancy rubbish and cow-dung can 

 also be freely used in the absence of the above. It never costs me more 

 than a hundred rupees per acre to get the maximum yield. There is 

 considerable profit in growing guinea grass, near all muucipal towns 

 where demand for green grass always exists. For private use of ryots 

 in villages it is enough to have one acre under guinea grass for every 25 

 bead of cattle, and for dairy farmers whose cows would have to depend 

 almost solely on guinea grass, one acre is necessary for every ten milch 

 cows. 



CAPE GOOSEBERRY. 



Physalis Peruviana. (Solanaceai), Cape Gooseberry ; Peruvian Cherry. 

 — A small herbaceous perennial, native of Peru, naturalised at the Cape and 

 to some extent in the Hill districts of Ceylon. The fruit is of the size and 

 form of a small cherry, and is concealed in the dry, leafy, persistent calyx. 

 When quite ripe it is of an agreeable and refreshing flavour, and may te 

 used for dessert or for making jam or preserves. In South Africa it is 

 largely made into jam, which f'otms an article of export there. The phtnt 

 is easily raised from seed, and will thiive in any ordinarily good soil, but 

 is most productive on rich sandy soil. Sew in sheltered beds, and plant out 

 seedlings about 18 inches from each other in rows 3 feet apart. Suited to 

 intermediate rather than high elevations.— Macmillan. (flee Illustration.) 



