398 



On the Culiication of Wheat 



[No. 36, 



pense attending it, its liability to be injured by blight or attacks 

 of insects, the difficulty of storing it, and preserving it from rot 

 or decay unless placed in chunam or fuller's earth, botli expen- 

 sive methods. Tlie total produce of the district for 1256 fusly 

 was 26^ garce, and the price averaged from 213 to 263 Eupees, 

 or Eupees 1-6-2 to 1-11-5 per bushel, the cost of conveyance to 

 Madras being Kupees 140. 



Salem produces wheat on the liills of tlie four Talooks, — Salem, 

 Nanicul, Ahtoor, and Tripatoor, in soil chiefly composed of red 

 earth. The cidtivators of it are Malialies, and the produce of 

 fusly 1256 amounted to 52 garce. The average price is Eu- 

 pees 310-15-0 per garce. There are two descriptions of wheat 

 called potty codoomby and javey codoomby : the latter only be- 

 ing cultivated. The cost of conveyance to Madras is Eupees 46 

 for 2J cundugums or 50 mercals or 88 Eupees per garce. A 

 certain portion of the quantity produced has always been exported 

 to Madras, Trichinopoly, and Coimbatore. It is doubtful whether 

 larger quantities of it could be profitably cultivated for export, 

 from the expense of carriage. The extent of land under this cul- 

 tivation is 3,960 acres. 



In North and South Arcot the cultivation is carried to an 

 extremely small extent, and there appears no probability of its 

 being extended. 



The only part of the Madura district where wheat is cultivated 

 is the Palany hills, and even there to an insignificant extent, the 

 supply required having to be furnished from the Salem district. 

 It is probable, that these hills w ould produce a considerable quan- 

 tity of wheat, but the thinness of the population and the diffi- 

 culty of the passes are great obstacles in the way of expor- 

 tation. 



Coimbatore produces a limited quantity of wheat of two kinds, 

 one the product of the Neilgherries the other of the low country, 

 both of inferior quality. According to the return furnished by the 

 Principal Collector of Coimbatore the quantity raised in fusly 

 1256 was 4 garce, and its price Eupees 1-12-10 per bushel, but in 

 Captain Ouchterlony's Memoir of the ISTeilgherries published in our 

 last it will be seen that that gentleman calculates the quantity 

 grown upon the Hills as 3,000 bushels of 68^ lbs. to the bushel, or 



