May 1908.] 



437 



Edible Products. 



ridges, thereby thickening the ridges. 

 A second hoeing could not be done on 

 account of heavy rains „as the soil, if 

 hand-hoed in the rains, instead of being 

 loosened would be compressed and 

 hardened. 



6. Progress of the Crop.— Thirty- 

 five days after sowing, flowers began to 

 appear here and there. By the end of 

 October the kernels began to shake 

 within the pods. The crop branched 

 freely and had a fairly vigorous growth. 

 By two months the crop covered the 

 ground. The central erect top-shoots of 

 vines were nipped to stimulate lateral 

 branching. Pods began to form freely 

 under the ground after three months. 



7. Disease.— No disease of any kind 

 appeared on the crop during its growth. 



8. Harvest. -The crop was harvested 

 on 29th October 1907 five months after 

 the date of sowing. The ridges were 

 loosened with the digging forks and the 

 coolies that followed pulled up the 

 plants, while a third batch of coolies 

 picked up all the pods that were found 

 lying loose in the ground. After the 

 crop had been harvested in this manner, 

 the land was ploughed once and the 

 coolies once more picked up the pods 

 that were found on the surface. The 

 haulms with pods were carried to the 

 farm premises and there the pods were 

 separated by hand-picking from the 

 vines. 



Had the haulms been collected sepa- 

 rately before the crop was harvested, as 

 is generally done in South Arcot, the 

 pods would have been detached and loose 

 and the work of picking these loose pods 

 from the ground would have been more 

 tedious and expensive than pulling out 

 the entire plants with pods. 



9. Outturn. — The crop on the farm 

 this season was grown on 57 cents 

 and it yielded 576 Madras measures of 

 pods weighing 828 lb. and the haulms 

 yielded fodder equal to 15 days' supply 

 of paddy straw for the farm cattle 

 or about 1,500 sheaves of paddy straw. 

 The farm cattle ate the haulms most 

 greedily. 



10. Milling.— Seventy-two Madras 

 measures of pods were dried well in 

 the sun and shelled by treading under 

 foot and yielded 24 Madras measures 

 of kernel weighing 60 lb. This was 

 thoroughly dried in the sun and 20 

 Madras measures of the kernel weigh- 

 ing 501b. was put into the local rotary 

 pestle-and-mortar pattern of wooden 

 gingelly oil mill. As the exact quanti- 

 ty of water to be added was not 

 known some difficulty was experienced 



while milling and it retarded the process 

 to a certain extent. Cold water was 

 added at different times amounting in 

 all to 1| Madras measures. The total 

 outturn of oil obtained was 6 Madras 

 measures weighing 221b. and 13 Madras 

 measures of cake weighing 291b. This 

 cake is found to be readily eaten by the 

 farm cattle. There are no wholesale 

 dealers in groundnut oil in this place, 

 while there are numerous retail dealers 

 who sell this oil under the name of 

 "Erode or Eastern oil" at 12 annas-15 

 annas oer Madras measure. 



11. The following table shows the 

 quantity of seed required and the out- 

 turn of pods, kernels, oil, cake, etc., by 

 bulk as well as by weight per acre cal- 

 culated with reference to the actual 

 outturn obtained on the farm and des- 

 cribed above : — 



Seed Outturn per acre, 



required 



per acre. Pods. Kernels. Oil. Cake. Haulms 



(fodder 



By bulk in 

 Madras 



measures. 13 1,01 1 337 101 219 2,631 



(sheaves 



By weight 



in lb. ... 1,453 843 371 489 



12. Prices — At Palghaut the pods 

 are sold at 8 years local parah which is 

 equal to about 8| Madras measures, the 

 oil at Rs. 3 for 6 edagalies or 4 Madras 

 measures and the cake at 8 annas for 25 

 lb. or local one tulam, 



13. The cost of production for 57 cents 

 on the farm and that per acre calculated 

 with reference to it are given below : — 



For 57 cents Rs. A. P. 



Six ploughings 



2 



5 



6 



Picking weed, etc., before 









sowing, 4 coolies 







6 







Ridging 







2 



6 



Thirty Madras measures 









of seed pods 



2 



4 







Dibbling, 12 coolies 



1 



2 







Weeding and hand-hoeing 









once, 11 coolies, 



1 



C 



6 



Harvesting, 72 coolies 



6 



12 







Total ... 



14 







6 



Per acre 



Rs. 



A. 



P. 



Six ploughings 



4 



1 



9 



Picking weeds, etc., before 









sowing, 7 coolies 







10 



6 



Ridging 



Fifty-three Madras measures 







4 



5 









of seed pods. 



3 



15 



2 



Dibbling, 21 coolies 



1 



15 



7 



Weeding and hand-hoeing 









once, 19 coolies 



1 



12 



11 



Harvesting, 126 coolies 



11 



13 



6 



Total ... 



24 



9 



10 



