PENICILLARIA SPICATA. 



31 



Weeding and harvesting. There should be at least one weeding, if possible, but the place of this is often 



taken by ploughing up the ground between the plants, exactly as is done to juar. The 

 crop should be watched if possible to keep off birds and squirrels for about 20 days before 

 it is cut. The grain ripens towards the beginning of November, when the heads are cut 

 off and carried to the threshing floor, the stalks being frequently left standing on the 

 ground for some weeks. Threshing and winnowing are conducted after the usual 

 fashion. 



Diseases and injuries. jq-g^t to an absolute failure of rain bajra suffers most from damp or rainy weather 



while it is in flower, by which the proper fertilization of the flowers is prevented. The 

 stamens hang outside the flower-envelopes, entirely unprotected from the weather, and 

 it is perhaps to this that bajra owes its peculiar liability to damage from rain. If there 

 is a fall of rain in the beginning of October, it is no uncommon thing to see a bajra field 

 with hardly a single grain formed on its spikes. It suffers still more than juar from the 

 microscopic fungus known to English farmers as " bunt," and is reported to be often 

 infected with a species of mildew called haguUa {Vuccinia sp.) which manifests itself 

 first in spots on the foliage, and then in total destruction of the grain. But it owes in 

 great measure its liability to these diseases to the poverty of the soil on which it is cul- 

 tivated, and the mildew alluded to above is said to be most destructive in cases where 

 bajra has been grown too frequently on the same land. 



Cost of cultivation. The cost of Cultivation is given below : — 







ES. 



AS. 



p. 



Ploughing (twice), 





... 1 



8 







Clod crushing (twice), ... 





... 



4 







Seed, ... ... ... 





... 



2 







Sowing, 





... 



13 







Weeding (by the plough), 





... 



12 







Watching, ... 





.. 



12 







Cutting, 





... 



10 







Threshing, ... 





... 1 



8 







Cleaning, 





... 



3 









Total, 



... G 



8 







Rent, 





... 3 













Grand Total, 



... 9 



8 







Outturn. Authorities agree in showing that the outturn is less in the damper than in the 



drier parts of the Provinces. For the Meerut and Rohilkhand Divisions 5|- maunds of 

 grain is the highest estimate possible, while in the Agra, Allahabad and Jhansi Divi- 

 sions 7 maunds of grain does not appear extravagant. The outturn of dry fodder will 

 be in both cases about 30 maunds. If arhar is associated with the bajra, the outturn 

 may be taken as 15 per cent. less. The smaller pulses yield about a maundanda maund 

 and a half per acre. 



Area. The average area under bajra and hdjra-arhar in the 30 temporarily settled Districts 



of the N.-W. Provinces is shown by Divisions below : — 



