LINtJM USITATISSIMUM. 



41 



Varieties. 



Distribution. 

 Soils, 



Area. 



Method of cultivation. 



Irrigation. 



Harvestini;. 



Avcrnge outturn. 



The colour of the flowers varies from a beautiful sky blue to pure white. The 

 colour of the seeds is generally a rich brown, but a white-seeded variety is known in the 

 south of Bundelkhand and in some parts of Central India. The oil of this variety is 

 in many respects more valuable than that of ordinary linseed, especially for colour- 

 mixing, and the so-called " white " linseed has attracted considerable attention. Its 

 cultivation is, however, insignificant. 



The distribution of linseed cultivation offers an interesting contrast to that of til. 

 In both cases Bundelkhand is an important field of production, but for very diSerent 

 reasons. Til is grown on the light raviny lands which lie along courses of rivers and 

 drainage lines, while linseed is grown on the heavy black mar or cotton soil of which 

 the level plains are formed. Til in fact prefers a light, and linseed a heavy, clay soil, and 

 hence linseed is very largely grown in the eastern rice-growing districts, where til cul- 

 tivation reaches its minimum. Linseed is also grown to a considerable extent in the 

 sub-Himalayan districts. Like til it is hardly ever cultivated as a sole crop in the 

 districts of the Ganges- Jumna Doab, but unlike til its cultivation in this tract is confined 

 to an occasional bordering to wheat or gram fields, and its production as a subordinate 

 crop in a mixture is quite insignificant. 



Linseed cultivation thus is of insignificant importance in the Meerut Division and 

 still more so in the Agra Division. In the Kohilkhand Division it is returned as occu- 

 pying between 12,000 and 13,000 acres. In the Jhansi Division, which forms the western 

 and least fertile portion of Bundelkhand, it occupies about 5,000 acres, while in eastern 

 Bundelkhand, comprising the Hamirpur, Banda and part of the Allahabad District, its 

 area reaches 49,000 acres, or 4 per cent, of the total area under rabi crops. But its cul- 

 tivation reaches its maximum in the Benares Division. The three districts of Azamgarh, 

 Basti, and Gorakhpur return no less than 1,22,000 acres under linseed, which amounts 

 to 6 per cent, on their total area cropped in the rabi season. 



Its method of cultivation varies very greatly in difierent localities. In the districts 

 of the Ganges-Jumna Doab it is as a rule merely sown in a line round the border of a 

 wheat or barley field, or is grown in parallel lines across a field of gram. In Bundel- 

 khand it is grown either alone or mixed in large quantities with gram, and in both cases 

 the ground receives three or four ploughings during the rains preceding. The seed is 

 sown broadcast at the rate of 8 to 12 seers to the acre. In the Benares Division it is 

 largely grown on land which is under water during the rains, and in this case its cultiva- 

 tion is of the roughest possible description, no preparatory ploughings being given, but 

 the seed simply scattered over the ground and ploughed in. It is very commonly grown 

 in this fashion in rice fields, the rice stubble being left standing. 



Linseed is very rarely irrigated when grown by itself, except in the Basti and Go- 

 rakhpur Districts, where a quarter of the total linseed area is returned as receiving one 

 or two waterings. 



The plants are cut down when ripe, and the seeds extracted from the capsules by 

 beating. 



The average produce of linseed in Bundelkhand is from 6 to 8 maunds per acre. 

 In Basti and Gorakhpur it may be put as considerably more than this, 1 maunds being 

 probably not an excessive estimate. 



