6 



TRITICUM SATIVUM. 



Cost of cultivatlou. 



The disease known as lahhua (Polycystis) consists of spores which fill the plant 

 tissues and break out when ripe in longitudinal fissures exactly like rust, from which, 

 however, it differs in each spore, being a spherical agglomeration of numerous cells 

 (somewhat resembling a blackberry in shape) instead of being unicellular. Lahliua is 

 said altogether to prevent a plant from bearing ears. 



But by far the most extraordinary disease to which wheat is liable is that known 

 as sehwan, in which the young wheat grains are found to be filled with minute worms 

 in various stages of development, comparatively large sized, (apparently) males and fe- 

 males being associated with a mass of oval shaped eggs, from which smaller and less 

 highly organized worms emerge. As the grain ripens at harvest time these worms will 

 be found to have completely filled the grain, having entirely ousted (and possibly eaten) 

 the males, females and egg cases to which they owe their origin. The grain is much 

 shrivelled and of a dark colour, and can be easily recognized as infected. The most ex- 

 traordinary fact connected with this disease is, however, that the worms can retain their 

 vitality for a very long time, although unprovided with any source of nutriment, and if 

 an infected grain is examined a year after harvest, they will be found matted together in 

 an entangled mass, apparently torpid, but showing no signs of death or decay. This 

 would seem to indicate that their life in the wheat grain is only one chapter of their 

 history .| 



Appraising the whole of the labour applied to the field, the following may be accept- 

 ed as a near estimate of the cost of growing and harvesting an acre of wheat : — 



Ploughing (eight times), 



Clod crushing (four times), 



Seed (100 lbs.), 



Sowing, 



Weeding, 



Reaping, 



Threshing, 1 on a crop of 20 maunds (= 27 bushels), / 

 Cleaning, J ^ I 



Total excluding irrigation, manure and rent, 

 Irrigation (three times) — 



Making water beds, ... ... ... 3 



Canal dues, ... ... ... ... 1 8 



Labour, ... ... ... ... ... 3 12 



Manure (100 maunds), 

 Rent (for second class land), 



Grand Total, 



ES, A. p. 



6 



8 



3 



14 



12 



18 



*3 



6 



16 



5 7 



3 



7 



31 7 



Average outturn. The diversity of the conditions under which wheat is grown renders the framing 



of an average outturn a task of great difficulty. In a report on the wheat cultivation 

 of the Provinces drawn up for the Secretary of State in 1878, the general average out- 

 turn was assumed to be 700 lbs., but there seems good ground for believing that this is 



* Two pairs of bullocks (at 3 annas a pair) and 2 coolies (at 2 annas each) tread out nearly 340 lbs. grain in a day. 



■f Since the above was written the worms have been identified as belonging to the order Nematoidea, and are apparently of 

 the genus Tylenchus. They issue from the infected grain when sown, and attack the growing corn, gaining admission into 

 the flowers, when as yet undeveloped, preventing the development of the grain and producing in its place a green gall (mis- 

 taken for the grain above) in which they reside. 



