January, 1909.] 



23 



Edible Products. 



nuts should be shelled by hand, and 

 only good, sound, well-filled kernels 

 should be used for sowing. All mouldy 

 kernels should be rejected. 



7. Solving as a Pure Crop. --The usual 

 method of sowing consists of dropping 

 the seed in the plough furrow behind 

 each plough. This is not only very 

 wasteful of seed, but the plants are much 

 too close together to develop properly, 

 and it is impossible to do any after- 

 cultivatiou except with the hand hoe, 

 which is always expensive, while if 

 exceptionally heavy rains are experienc- 

 ed, the crop is often liable to become 

 waterlogged. A better method of sowing 

 is to drop the seed at intervals of 6-9 

 inches according to the quality of the 

 soil in every third plough furrow. In 

 this way, only 10-12 Madras measures of 

 kernels instead of 33 Madras measures 

 are required to sow an acre. Each plant 

 has ample room to develop, and if care 

 is taken to continue the furrows up to 

 the edge of the field, after-cultivation 

 can for the first three months be done 

 with the bullock-hoe or Danthelu. The 

 inter-cultivation slightly raises the land 

 along the rows into the wide low ridges, 

 and this, besides keeping the soil mellow, 

 considerably improves the drainage. 



8. Solving as a Mixed Crop. — As 

 ground-nuts takefive months togrow, it is 

 the practice in the South Arcot District 

 to take a catch crop of some cereal, such 

 as cumbu or eholam, off the land at the 

 same time. For this purpose a 3-4 month 

 variety of such is usually chosen, so that 

 the cereal crop can be reaped while the 

 ground-nuts, which are dribbled in, after 

 the cereal has sufficiently grown to shade 

 the ground are still small. The method 

 usually adopted is to sow the cereal 

 broadcast, covering the seed with a light 

 plough, after which the ground is levell- 

 ed and the seed-bed is made nVm by 

 dragging a harrow made of thorn 

 branches across the ploughing ; when 

 the cereal crop is 6 inches or so high, 

 opportunity is taken after a rain to weed, 

 hoe and thin the crop. A second hoeing 

 and even sometimes a third is given if 

 rain occurs and cakes the surface. 

 When the cereal is about to flower, the 

 seed of the ground-nut is dibbled in by 

 hand at intervals of about 9 inches 

 apart. This careful method of cultiva- 

 tion greatly benefits the eereal crop, and 

 prepares the land for the subsequent 

 crop of ground-nuts. Tenai or Ragi is 

 often grown as a cereal on land com- 

 manded by a well, instead of the 

 ordinary dryland cholam or cumbu. 



9. In the case of Ragi, the crop is trans- 

 planted after the land has been laid out 

 into square beds and irrigated, and the 



ground-nut is dibbled in later as des- 

 cribed above at intervals of about 6 

 inches. The Tehai is sown broadcast as 

 in the case of cumbu and cholam, and 

 after sowing, the land is laid out in beds 

 for irrigation, if this is found to be neces- 

 sary. As the straw of this crop is 

 brittle, and as it matures early, the 

 ground-nut is naturally sown after the 

 Tenai has been harvested either by 

 hand or behind the plough. 



10. If ground-nut is to be grown in a 

 district where the drill and the other 

 implements for cultivation are used, the 

 same system of taking a catch crop 

 cereal could be adopted. The cereal 

 could be sown in 18 inch drills and the 

 ground hoed between the rows with the 

 Danthelu or bullock hoe. At the right 

 time the grouud-nut could be dropped 

 behind the plough in a furrow made 

 midway between two rows of the cereal. 

 After the cereal is reaped, inter-cultiva- 

 tion can still be continued between the 

 rows of ground-nut. This method of 

 cultivating a cereal ground-nut crop has 

 been tried with success at the Palur 

 Agricultural Station. 



11. Ajter-cultivation.— The usual 

 method of cultivation is to loosen the 

 soil between the plants with the hand 

 hoe. This means that coolie labour 

 must always be available, or that the 

 crop must suffer from want of cultiva- 

 tion. The scarcity of labour is one of 

 the serious drawbacks to the present 

 system of cultivating ground-nuts, and 

 will always be so, especially in dry red 

 soil tracts which cannot support a large 

 population. Hence the method of sow- 

 ing the crop in rows and doing the inter- 

 cultivation with the bullock hoe is 

 strongly urged. Frequent hoeings, 

 whether by hand or by the bullock hoe, 

 are often necessary. No definite number 

 of times for doing this can be given, as 

 so much depends on the season, but it is 

 safe to say that for the first three 

 months hoeing should always be done as 

 soon as the land is dry enough after a 

 good rain. This helps to keep the 

 moisture in the ground, it enables the 

 forming nuts to penetrate into the soil 

 and it keeps down weeds. 



12. Harvesting,— The crop should be 

 ready to harvest at the end of five 

 months. The exact time must, however, 

 be learnt by the cultivator himself. 

 When the stalks to the underground 

 pods have dried and the skin on the 

 kernels has turned pink, the crop can be 

 considered ready for lifting, but there 

 will always be a few pods near the ends 

 of the branches which are still quite 

 young, when the bulk of the crop is ripe. 

 The method of harvesting also varies 



