Edible Products. 



436 



[MAY 1908. 



are the rejected ones. Those that 

 remain are transferred to a circular 

 sieve, of which the bottom is formed of 

 fine strips of bamboo crossing each other. 

 The grains which pass through the 

 square holes thus formed are the pearl 

 sago of commerce in the unroasted state, 

 those which are too large are treated 

 again. The roasting takes place in a 

 row of iron pans, each about 2£ feet in 

 diameter, which are built into a plat- 

 form of masonary about 15 feet long and 

 4 feet in breadth covered with flat tiles. 

 The pans rest in an inclined position, 

 partly against the back of the platform 

 which rises about a foot above the level, 

 and partly on a small prop of brick 

 work on the right side, an off-shoot from 

 the wall. Into the top of this prop a 

 plate is sunk in which a cloth saturated 

 with water is kept. Behind each pan 

 is an open furnace mouth, and a man 

 constantly attends the fires to maintain 

 a moderate heat. The pan being 

 gently rubbed with the cloth, a man 

 who sits in front of it on a low stool on 

 on the platform pours into it a quantity 

 of granular sago. This he slowly stirs 

 for a short time with a wooden imple- 

 ment having a sharp curved edge. More 

 sago is poured in and as it hardens, he 

 uses the implement more freely. After 

 about three minutes roasting it is 

 removed to a table and passed through 

 a round sieve. The grains that adhere 

 to each other are thrown aside and 

 those that pass through form a smoking 

 heap, which is allowed to lie undis- 

 turbed for about 12 hours. The grains 

 are about the same size as they were 

 before roasting and retain wholly or 

 partially their white and mealy appear- 

 ance, but the greater part have become 

 translucent and glutinous, and all have 

 acquired a certain degree of toughness, 

 although still soft. The final process is 

 another roasting, which renders them 

 hard and tough and greatly reduces 

 their size. 



This forms the Pearl Sago of commerce. 

 Considering how easily this palm is 

 grown, its immense yield and the simpli- 

 city of preparing the crop for market, 

 it is hoped that some of our farmers will 

 substitute such a remunerative tree for 

 manicole in the uudrained portions of 

 their grants.— Journal of the Board of 

 Agriculture of British Guiana, Vol. I 

 No. 8. 



[The Sago palm grows freely at Pera- 

 deniya, and of course is a great staple of 

 cultivation in Malaya. We have rarely, 

 however, been able to persuade anyone 

 even to try it in Ceylon.— Ed.] 



CULTIVATION OF GROUNDNUT- 

 IN THE KAVALAPARA HOME FARM. 



The followingcultural details of ground- 

 nut obtained from the Superintendent, 

 Kavalapara Home Farm, Malabar, by 

 the Director of Agriculture, are printed 

 for general information :— 



Soil.— The land selected was in field 

 No. 15 which is an ordinary ram-fed dry 

 land, loamy in nature mixed with gravel, 

 which is generally cultivated by the 

 ryots with modan or hill paddy. This 

 land was cultivated last year with chama 

 for the first crop and black gram for the 

 second crop. 



2. Method of Cultivation.— Soon 

 after the mango showers in last April, 

 land measuring 57 cents* in extent was 

 ploughed twice. A fortnight after- 

 wards it was again ploughed twice and 

 on 28th May it was ploughed twice for 

 the third time, thus giving six plough- 

 iugs in all, and the soil has thus been 

 reduced to a fine tilth. AH weeds and 

 dried vegetation were picked up. On 

 the 29th of May 1907 the land thus pre- 

 pared was ridged up with the double- 

 mould board wooden ridge-plough 18" 

 apart between the rows, and good 

 groundnut seeds shelled three days 

 previously were dibbled along the top 

 of the ridges 8 ' to 10" apart in the rows. 

 The ridge-plough was found to be a very 

 useful implement, since one pair of 

 buffaloes and a cooly were able to ridge 

 up 57 cents in half a day with it. 



3. Seed.— The seed used was the local 

 Mauritius variety of groundnut grown 

 on the farm, from seed obtained from 

 Palur Experimental station last year. 

 Thirty Madras measures of pods were 

 shelled, yielding 1\ measures of good 

 seeds and this was dibbled in the 57 

 cents of land referred to above. Thus 

 the seed was sown at the rate of 13 & 

 measures per acre. The quantity of 

 seed required per acre as per Madras 

 Agricultural Bulletin No. 28 of 1893 is 

 27 Madras measures and this is for sow- 

 ing in plough furrows. 



4. Manure.— No manure was used on 

 the farm this year for the crop. 



5. Interculturing and Weeding.— 

 The crop was weeded and hand-hoed 

 once a month after sowing. While 

 hoeing, the soil on the sides of the ridges 

 was loosened and earth from the bed of 

 the furrows put on to the sides of the 



* An acre in India is divided into cents, instead 

 of the complex rood, etc— Ed. 



