On the Conditions of Wheat'Gh'oiving in India. 35 
result of the decomposition of the iron-hearing rocks. This soil is generally 
found all along the western border ; but it occasionally occurs in the plains 
country. The black soils are secondary soils — that is, they are rock ruins 
changed by the addition of organic matter, The black soil covers most of 
the plains country, and is best suited for the gro-wth of cotton, Indian millet, 
■wheat, and gram. 
Seasons and Crops. — With veiy slight local modifications the 
two seasons we have already discussed in such detail are also 
observed in Bombay, but, if anything, there is a more pronounced 
third crop. The Marifis often known as the mungdri, and the 
rahi as lingdri. Most writers on this subject dwell at some 
length on the division into dry crops, jirdijat, and wet crops, 
bagaydt, dividing the former into l-Jiarif and rahi. As em- 
" phasising what we have drawn attention to — namely, the wide 
range of crops the Indian farmer has to choose from — it may be 
here mentioned that in some parts of Bombay, as, for example, in 
Kolhapur, the year is divided into twenty-seven seasons, each of 
thirteen and a half days. These correspond with the lunar 
asterisms (or nalshatras), and regulate every field operation. 
Methods of Wlieat-Cultivation. — The system pursued with the 
finer wheats is briefly conveyed in the following : — 
Sakshi is the best kind of wheat raised in the Deccan and Southern 
Maratha country. It is either black-bearded or straw-colour bearded. The 
grain is large and hard and contains a large proportion of gluten. This 
wheat, not being hardy, is not largely cultivated. 
Si/ste)n of cultivation. — The land is ploughed twice, once length- and once 
cross-ways, with a six- or eight-bullock plough, according to the nature of the 
soil. The land is then harrowed six times, thrice with a four-bullock harrow 
and thrice with a two-bullock harrow, and then sown "with wheat. This 
is all that is considered necessary. It is not customary to raise wheat on 
the same lands annually. The rotation generally adopted on dry-crop land 
is as follows: 1st year yowart, 2nd year Mjr*; 3rd year wheat. On garden 
lands two crops are annually raised as follows :— 
1st year. 2u(l year. 3nl rear. 
1st crop ^<///y7. 1st crop 6rtjV/. 1st crop i('yV/. 
2nd crop wheat. 2nd crop gram. 2nd crop wheat. 
Instead of wheat or gram for a second crop, onions, potatoes, &c., are 
sometimes raised. 
From the above, also, we obtain a general conception of the 
system of rotation. As contrasting this system, which approxi- 
mates to the more careful cultivation of the Panjab, we have 
an example of the extreme opposite type. Of Khandesh it is 
reported : — 
" Before sowing with wheat, the ground is never ploughed, only three or 
four times laid open with the hoe to the sun, rain, and wind. K the gromid 
is so damp that the clay sticks in balls, sowing begins in October or November 
and in some of the Tapti Valley districts as early as September. The allow- 
ance of seed is from forty-five to seventy-five pounds an acre. A shower or 
two when the crop is shooting is useful, though by no means necessary. 
With cool seasonable weather and heavy dews, wheat flourishes without 
rain." 
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