34 



CrCER AKIETINUM. 



Mixtures. 



Soils and manuring. 



Tillage. 



Sowing. 



Irrigation. 



Weeding. 



Harvesting. 

 Diseases and injui'ies. 



Cost of cultivation. 



Eouglily speaking for one acre of gram sown alone there are over two acres under 

 gram and barley, and nearly two acres under gram and wheat. In Eohilkhand, Oudh 

 and Bundelkhand, linseed is very extensively grown in gram fields, while in the Doab 

 very few gram or gram-barley fields will be found without an admixture of dudn {Eruca 

 saliva) or rape. Crops which also very commonly enter into the mixture in gram-barley 

 fields are peas and the coarse pulse known as Icassar or Icesdri (^Laihyrus sativus). 



Gram is grown on all soils from the heaviest clay to the lightest loam, but it 

 is on the former class of soils that it yields its highest produce, and it is therefore on 

 them most frequently grown alone ; on light soils it is generally mixed with barley. 

 It forms, with a small admixture of wheat, the main rabi crop of the heavy black soil 

 of Bundelkhand, and is often found sown in the beds of dry tanks, growing amidst 

 clods of clay too tenacious for the plough to pulverize. Whether on stiff or light soils 

 it appears to be never manured in any way. 



Unlike wheat and barley it does not require a fine tilth, and the ploughings which 

 gram fields receive (ranging from 12 in Eohilkhand to 4 in Bundelkhand) are rather to 

 prepare a deep than a well pulverized seed bed. In no case are the clods broken by the 

 use of the log clod crusher. 



It is sown at the rate of 80 to 100 lbs. to the acre, broad-cast in Eohilkhand and 

 parts of Oudh, but drilled behind the plough in most of the drier Districts. It is re- 

 ported to be not altogether uncommon in the Bareilly District to sow it without any 

 previous cultivation whatever, scattering the seed on the untilled ground and then 

 ploughing it in. 



It is hardly ever irrigated when grown alone, nor is the mixture of gram and wheat 

 which forms the staple crop of Bundelkhand. From ^rd to f ths of the area under gram- 

 barley is watered, but not as a rule more than once, or, at most, twice. 



A weeding is very seldom given, but a common practice is to cut back the plants 

 before they flower, by picking off the tops of the shoots, which are much relished as a 

 vegetable {sd^), the flavour being possibly enhanced by the oxalic acid which it is the 

 curious property of the leaves to exude. This topping renders the plants strong and 

 bushy, and increases the outturn of grain. 



Harvesting and threshing are in no way different from those in the case of wheat 

 or barley. 



It suffers greatly from frost, if caught by it in flower, and whole fields of healthy 

 plants are sometimes ruined by a cold night in January or February. Great injury also 

 often results from the ravages of a caterpillar well known to natives as the bahddura. 



The cost of cultivation may be stated as below : — ■ 



Plongliing (four times), ... 

 Seed (80 lbs.), 

 Sowing, 



Reaping, ... ... ... ... 



Threshing, ... 



Cleaning, ... ... ... ... ... 



Eent, 



Total, 



Grand Total, 



ES. A. 



p. 



3 











2 















14 







1 



9 







2 















6 







9 



13 







3 











12 



13 







