Edible Products. 90 [Feb. 1907. 



Land Records and Agric, Madras, 1893, p. 280) says, the seeds from soil new to the 

 crop are richer than those from village sites, and from red sandy loams richer than 

 those from clays. Seed produced on un-irrigated land is richer in oil than that 

 produced under irrigation. 



We have to notice next that the pods take upon them the colour of the earth 

 in which they are buried ; read earths produce red pods and the first ripe pods of a 

 crop are deeper in colour at harvest from having remained longest under ground. 

 There is a set among cultivators and merchants alike against dark-coloured pods 

 which makes such unwelcome. Moreover, in India seed grown on certain dark soils 

 (" pottai-manu " soils) is rejected for sowing (Subba Rao, in Bulletin, Dept. Land 

 Records and Agric. Madras, p. 263). Want of lime causes empty pods. Rich 

 nitrogenous manures promote growth of the vegetative parts, but, so it is said, do 

 not stimulate seed formation. Soft earth is desired for the burying of the seed, and 

 the practice of earthing-up, done we are told as often as 4-7 times in Spain, is an aid 

 to this end. On hard soils the pods die whenever they fail to penetrate the surface. 

 The vigour, yield and colour of the seed are thus affected by the soil, and it is further 

 said that an erect habit is at times produced by the soil (Watt, Agric. Ledger, 1893, 

 No. 15, p. 9). The oil-contents of the seed appear to be increased or diminished 

 according to the amount of heat available to the plant, but the statements 

 by various writers are too contradictory to allow an unqualified statement. — 

 Keiv Bulletin. 



