Edible Products. 



122 



[August, 1909. 



planting is different, the bunches of 

 seedlings being simply thrown into 

 the mud while the worker moves back- 

 ward- The time spent in pushing the 

 seedlings into the mud is thus saved, 

 and the work is done much faster. 

 This method, however, is open to 

 objection. The seedlings not being fixed 

 in the mud, it sometimes happens 

 that they are washed away by a 

 heavy rain before they have time to 

 take root. A long break in the rains just 

 after transplanting may prove equally 

 injurious, many of the young plauts 

 being killed by the drought before they 

 have time to take firm root. The method 

 now being introduced into the Chhat- 

 tisgarh is open to neither of these ob- 

 jections and is practised by the very best 

 rice-growers in the best rice districts. 

 It requires more time, but reduces to a 

 minimum the risk of injury to the young 

 seedlings from too much or too little 

 water. As a protection from the rains 

 many of the workers wear a large topi 

 made of leaves. 



Of transplanting in Balaghat where 

 rice cultivation is more skillfully carried 

 out than anywhere else in the Central 

 Provinces, Mr. 0. E, Low, ICS., De- 

 puty Commissioner, writes :-" Trans- 

 planting is the system usually pursued ; 

 it is said to give a larger outturn and 

 grain of superior quality of flavour, and 

 to be indispensable for the best kinds of 

 rice. Broadcasting is usually practised 

 in black soil where transplanting is 

 more difficult than in light soil, and 

 where early ripening varieties are sown 

 to enable a second crop to be reaped. 

 It is also adopted when a season of short 

 rainfall is feaied, or when the skill or 

 resources of the tenants are not equal to 

 transplantation ; this is often the case 

 with aboriginal cultivators in jungly 

 tracts. For transplanting, the nursery 

 is sown by the usual method adopted for 

 all Kharif crops. Before sowing it is 

 cultivated twice with a nagar or narrow- 

 bladed plough. A scarifier or bakhar is 

 not used in light soil till a plough has 

 twice been over the ground, so that the 

 scarifier is not used for rice nurseries 

 unless the land has been already plough- 

 ed up by the plough in the cold or hot 

 weather. The manure consists of cow- 

 dung, and before the application of this, 

 straw, aud, near the jungle, twigs and 

 branches otten spread over the nursery 

 and burned, (Saj Terminalia tomentosa 

 is the favourite tree for this.) When 

 the rain falls, this is ploughed into the 

 ground, and the datari or harrow worked 

 over the land to break up the clods. 

 Seven or eight cartloads per half acre of 

 nursery is considered a full manuring. 

 Malgusars with a large home-farm have 



to start their manuring a month or so 

 before the rains break. Manure is not 

 always, or even usually, given to any 

 part of the field besides the nursery. 

 For transplanting the seed rate is about 

 85 lbs. per acre. A transplanted field can 

 be easily told even after reaping, as the 

 plants tiller far more than if sown broad- 

 cast, and the ground is more free from 

 weeds. The nursery, after ploughing, 

 manuring and clod-crushing is com- 

 pleted, is cleaned of weeds by women with 

 sickles. The seedlings in 20 or 25 days 

 grow to a loot in height, when they are 

 fit for transplanting. Meantime the re- 

 maining area is ploughed again and left 

 for a week. The {datari) harrow is used 

 to break up clods, for which purpose it is 

 turned upside down. The plough and 

 the harrow are used twice each, by which 

 time the surface consists of a smooth 

 and creamy mud. Heavy rain just be- 

 fore transplantation spoils the consis- 

 tency of the mud, and it has to be 

 ploughed up again. The seedlings are 

 uprooted from the nursery and stuck 

 into the mud in bunches of about three 

 or five ; they lie flat for a day or two 

 and then stand upright, except where 

 there is very high rainfall, when they 

 lie and rot : garakha gaye (the mud has 

 eaten it) says the unfortunate cultivator. 

 The crop later in the season looks miser- 

 ably stunted and is scarcely in ears ; 

 while surrounding fields contain a full 

 crop. The seedlings are carried in head- 

 loads in the case of small tenants, but on 

 a khirri or sledge drawn by buffaloes, 

 where cultivation is more extensive. If 

 things go well, the transplanting for the 

 districts should be over in a month. 

 The daily wages for transplantation are 

 said to have risen from one anna before 

 the 1896 famine to 1£ anna in 1905 The 

 above methods, which in the best villa- 

 ges are conjoined with very careful 

 seed selection, are not susceptible of 

 much improvement. It is, however, 

 likely that the seed rate could be con- 

 siderably lowered, if the area outside 

 the nursery were well manured and the 

 seedlings were transplanted singly, in- 

 stead of three to five at a time. The seed 

 rate on the Government farms where 

 this is done is less than half that des- 

 cribed above." 



Biasi is the method widely practised 

 in Chhattisgarh. The land is ploughed 

 once before sowing. The seed is broad- 

 casted at the rate of about 100 lbs. per 

 acre. When the plants are about one 

 foot high the land is ploughed, which 

 uproots many of the plants and covers 

 some with mud. 



This rough-and-ready process thins out 

 the plauts and strengthens the root- 



