On ilie Gonclitions of Wheat-Growing in India. 41 
plongliings may be taken as the average. It is deemed essential that the 
land should be ploughed at the commencement of the rains, so as to lie in 
open furrows and drink in the whole of the rain which falls. If the ground 
is very damp the seed is sometimes sown broadcast and ploughed in, when 
it is not buried more than one inch below the surface, and is less likely to 
rot than if buried deeply. But the two commonest methods of sowing are — 
(1) By simply following the plough and dropping the seed into the 
furrow made by it, the seed being covered by the earth thrown 
up by the next furrow, and 
(2) By dropping the seed down a bamboo fastened to the plough 
stilt. 
The amount of seed to tlie acre greatly varies, but may be 
said to be abnormally high. This fact is, indeed, sometimes 
urged against wheat-cultivation. The poorer cultivators have 
to buy from the merchant (or rather get the grain on loan at 
high interest collected at harvest), and are at the same time 
compelled to accept v^hatever seed the trader of the district 
chances to have in stock. A very extensive correspondence has 
passed between the various Governments of India on the 
subject of the amount of seed required per acre. Several 
experiments have also been made at the Government farms, 
which have all tended to confirm the native practice. In the 
North-West Provinces the quantity of seed varies from 100 to 
140 lbs. an acre ; but in Bombay it is often much lower than 
this. 
Harvesting and Winnoiving is similar to that described ; the 
grain being cut with a sickle, and not pulled out by the root — 
a habit which prevails to a large extent in Bombay. 
Messrs. Duthie and Fuller have gone into the subject of the 
cost of production of an acre of wheat. This may be stated 
briefly : — 
Expenditure for labour and seed , , , Us. 10 0 0 
Irrigation and labour .570 
Manure 300 
Eent of land 7 0 0 
Grand total , . Rs. 31 7 0 
After very careful investigation they arrived at the conclu- 
sion that the lowest average yield for irrigated land was 15 
maunds an acre of wheat grown alone, as also for wheat-barley, 
and 13 maunds for wheat-gram. For unirrigated lands they 
estimated 8-9 maunds a fair average. After a long series of 
experiments extending over many years, the Settlement Officer 
of Bareilly district gave the average for irrigated and unirri- 
gated lands collectively as 12 maunds (975 lbs. = 81;^ lbs. per 
maund). In Cawnpore irrigated fields were found to give 17 
maunds, or 1,402 lbs. = 821 1^,^. per maund; and unirrigated, 
