THE TROPIC A.L AGRICULTURIST. 
[March 1, lOOl. 
THE POTATO INDUSTRY IN KUMAON. 
The last monsoon of this century must be set down 
as a rascally bud one fo this important crop of the 
province of Kumaon. I do not remember a more 
highly promising spring than the last during the 
past "dozen years ; the weather was ideal and could 
not have been better made even in Germany np to 
the month of May. But after that date and all 
through the month of Jnne what rainfall there was 
— and it was very little save in places— came in non- 
" effective driblets, and so progressed the monsoon 
period until the 11th of July when it did rain in 
real earnest, but the destructive drought had done 
its work: and in fifteen days after the real r&ina 
had set in it was quickly seen the pot ito plant had 
had enough and would do no more in the way of 
plant-production. Meantime the weather continued 
exceptionally warm and vapoury, and the great de- 
velopment of the rainfall was not as usual in July 
but near the tail end of the monsoon. In consequence 
of the pltogether premature closing of plant growth 
three things ensued. First, there is this year a great 
dearihot large potatoes compai ed with normal years. 
Secondly, there is an excess of small potatoes ; but 
thirdly, and worst of all, potatoes have supertuberated 
badly— indeed I have never seen this evil so pronounced. 
Few people probably out of the province are fully 
aware of the amount of excitement, speculation, anid 
finesse the naiive growers impart to the trade 
of growing and dealing in potatoes. For example 
one would think the best possible thing for a potato 
after digging it up was to dry and clean it, to 
separate bad from good, large from small, and so 
forth, and so it is in reality. But the native growers 
do nothing of the kind, but this is what they do. 
They remove about a foot deep of earth in circular 
form, the size b-^ing ruled by the amount of pota- 
toes to go into this base for a conical pile of pota- 
toes, which may, and does, vary from 5 to ICO 
mannds. Soon after digging up the potatoes so into 
these conical heaps, all the sorting being for the 
veriest mites thit grow ; these are saved for 
seed. Now at digging up time it is usually bril- 
liantly fine by day, the sun is hot, and the pota- 
toes damp as "they go into the heaps ; the moment 
these are completed a layer of grass is put round 
them and ou goes a pile of earth an inch or two 
thick. There are here all the elements tor keep- 
ing the tubers very thoroughly moist, drawing 
moisture up from the earih in fact, besides 
that with the potatoes already. The dealers 
buy from these heaps. The potatoes are lifted and 
weighed with extraordinary rapidity and a des- 
perate kind of earnestness, dirt, small stones, 
bad and good, and all finding their way into the 
dealer's sacks with despatch. The dealer says but 
little besides seeing he gets weight, but he is, how- 
ever, far from the apparent fool a casual olbserver 
might take him to be. When the weighment is over, 
he draws out a coil of rupees from somewhere and 
deals out so many : but the settlement day is at Hald- 
waTii, as many a grower knows full well. 
The native grower is devoid of any consuming kind 
of honesty in growing potatoes. I have mentioned 
that this year potatoes have snpertnberated badly: 
which is to say the crop in large measure, particularly 
the late-dug-up potatoes, grew again or commenced to 
grow. Now the effect of this is practically to .'spoil the 
tubers for table use, end also to produce seed which 
when planted shows much irregularity, some coming 
strong, others weak, and yet a lot more very much 
behind the rest in growth. The growers however lump 
them all in and say not a word to the buyers of such a 
fact. This year, however, there is heart-burning among 
the wily growerp, for the Bengali dealers have come 
along with a terrible tell tale weapon none other than 
a homely knife. With this they slice up eamples of 
potatocH longitudinally ; in a vei y few minutes, your 
Buperluberated tubers tell their own destrution, being 
either of a congealed watery consistency, or with 
black markings, in either case they are inedible. 
The buyer wants potatoes, the seller wants money; 
but the advantage is with tlie buyer, because he 
has grown more astute than \n former years when 
he purchased direct from the field, whereas now he 
buys at Hnldwani, knowng full well once the pota- 
toes are there none but a madman, and scarcely he 
even, will take them back again ; and so he seizes 
the bad samples, forthwith quoting terms, which are 
this year anything but magnificent. I greatly fear 
Kumaon potatoes will come in for a bad name thia 
year; it is certain many hundreds of maunds are 
bid -very bad. But I hasten to say it is an entire 
mistake for any one to assume, and I happen to 
know some have assumed, that it is the disease. The 
evil is supertnberation, induced first by the extreme 
lateness of the monsuon, and its long continuation 
beyond the usual period. This is quite suffi ;ient to 
turn many potatoes either black inside, or hard and 
stony I believe a normal season will establish th« 
fact that the province is practically if not entirely, 
free from the dreaded disease kuown in other paits 
of India and all over Europe. 
1 endeavoured to persuade many growers to hurry 
on with diguing up, and mind nothing else for the tim« 
being, and pointed out that the lat--dug potatoes 
would he very inferior, but the native will have 
none of these ideas ; he is waiting, watching the 
Haldwani market, keeping a man there indeed 
J,o scent the fluctuation. This year he is being 
pretty well punished and it serves him right. 
Two years in succession previous to this the H-ildwani 
maiket floundered about betweeir R3 and R6 per 
mauud, due in a large measure to astute spe ulatiou, 
and practically false information, for which the dealers 
were made to pay through the nose ; the growers 
reaped a fine advantage ; but the middleman as u^ual 
the best of all. 
There is no doutt whatever at the present time 
the Kumaon patatoes for seed purposes are of very 
material advantage to practically the whole of India. 
The native with his extraordinariiy cheap way of 
working the crop makes incomparably the best profits 
out of potatoes, and for this very reason there is a 
growing evil which it is earnestly to be hoped Govern- 
ment will once tor all put down, particularly at thia 
opportniie moment of settlement operations. I 
refer to the monied speculators — they have become 
monied solely through this crop. They are in 
every place where potatoes are grown, andgenerally 
absolute strangers. These men are the wire-pullers, 
always prompting a dummy to pet in applications 
for land : and promptly stepping in afterward';. Now 
my contention is no man has a natural right to 
land in this way, entirely out of his own puttie, and 
removed from his own village and home. There is 
a rule in the province now that no man can acquire 
lands without pioperty qnalificalions : and lam sure 
there is no rule that has been during the past 
seven to ten years more technically observed, but 
virtually and in reality more absolutely broken. 
What is required i^ to kill the speculative part of 
this trade, and for Government to fully recognise 
that.it requires steady progress and uniformity of 
grants for potatoes, every man to be limited to his 
own capacity for production of this crop, and to his 
own puttie, and no bunniahs to receive grants at 
all. I should suppose 2,000 or 3,00J acres during 
the past 10 years have been exploited by people 
who had precious little right to the land since 
they have done nothing to cultivate it, but 
brought in the outsiders from distant putties. 
Potatoes are the sum and substance of matter 
to him. Lest it should be supposed I have soma 
animus aaainst bunniahs I may be a lowed to 
quote a tme example seven or eight years ago. A 
bnuniah came from somewhere, not in the imme- 
diate district, and obtained a small piece of land for 
which he paid Government the magnificent sum of 
R5 per annum. It was to my certain knowledge and 
direct personal observation, as jungle, one of the 
finest pieces in the puttie. The way that insigni- 
